Admin May 16, 2024
Selecting an Olympic gymnastics team is a complicated puzzle — especially for the U.S. women, who are the favorites to win gold in Paris and have a deep pool of experienced contenders. Among the gymnasts vying for spots are three past Olympic all-around champions, two other Olympic medalists and several more gymnasts who have competed at world championships.
Team
When the U.S. selection committee names the Olympic team on June 30 — taking into consideration each gymnast’s recent scores and her potential — it will be a difficult decision with life-changing implications.
For you, though? The stakes are low. And while the choices are hard, we’ll make it easier by helping you experiment with building your own roster. When you’re done, we’ll tell you how well your team would score.
The top finisher at the Olympic trials in late June will automatically earn a spot on the team. The selection committee chooses the other four members based on discretionary criteria laid out in its procedures, which include results from “tryout events” — which are international meets since last fall and the major competitions this year — plus a gymnast’s consistency and the overall strength of the team.
It’s reasonable to assume that scores earned closer to the Olympics, especially at the trials, will carry more weight than others. In general, scores above a 14.000 are ones that would boost the U.S. team on any apparatus.
But unless you’re secretly a committee member, you can build your team however you want. (Again: Stakes = low.)
First, how do you want to analyze scores?
Do you want to see each gymnast’s best marks from the tryout events? Or would you rather see a score that represents each gymnast’s overall performance since the beginning of 2023? We determined that score by identifying the 75th percentile mark across all competitions, as long as the gymnast had competed at least five times on an apparatus. That score should reflect a strong performance for a gymnast while ensuring a single high mark isn’t skewing the result.
Choose your approach:
You can keep coming back to build new teams as the gymnasts progress through their seasons. There are still three major competitions to go: the U.S. Classic (May 18), the national championships (May 31 and June 2) and the Olympic trials (June 28 and 30). After each competition, we will update these scores.
Which gymnasts would you pick for the Olympic team?
The star
Simone Biles, widely considered the best gymnast in history, is seeking a spot on her third Olympic team. She won the all-around title at the world championships last year, capping an impressive comeback season after she withdrew from multiple events at the Tokyo Games in 2021. Biles has won 🏅37 world and Olympic medals, and she often dominates competitions.
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Olympic champions
Joining Biles in the field of contenders are three other Olympic champions: Sunisa Lee, who won the all-around title in Tokyo; Gabby Douglas, the 2012 all-around champion who’s making a comeback this season; and Jade Carey, the gold medalist on floor in Tokyo. Last year, Lee dealt with two kidney diseases, and she hasn’t competed internationally since the Tokyo Games.
Strong all-arounders
Shilese Jones has lately solidified herself as the country’s second-best all-around gymnast behind Biles. Jones won all-around medals at world championships in 2022 and 2023, and she is one of the country’s best gymnasts on bars. Other gymnasts who are strong on all four apparatuses include Tokyo Olympian Jordan Chiles, three-time worlds team member Leanne Wong and 2023 worlds alternate Kayla DiCello, who had an impressive start to the 2024 season by winning the Winter Cup.
Younger contenders
Skye Blakely and Joscelyn Roberson have also won gold medals with the U.S. team at world championships. Blakely has the potential to earn high scores on bars and beam, while Roberson is one of the best gymnasts in the country on vault and floor.
Gymnasts with specialized strengths can earn spots on the Olympic team. Kaliya Lincoln finished second on floor at nationals last year, trailing only Biles. Hezly Rivera, who turns 16 in June, is excellent on beam.
There is a crowded field of contenders, ranging from up-and-coming teenagers to returning veterans, and they are all trying to prove that they should be chosen for the U.S. Olympic team.
Pick five gymnasts to be on your Olympic team.
Swap out your picks or change the approach and see how it affects your score.
Simone Biles
Skye Blakely
Jade Carey
Jordan Chiles
Kayla DiCello
Gabby Douglas
Kieryn Finnell
Jayla Hang
Shilese Jones
Sunisa Lee
Myli Lew
Kaliya Lincoln
Nola Matthews
Hezly Rivera
J. Roberson
T. Sumanasekera
Trinity Thomas
Leanne Wong
About this story
Methodology
The Post analyzed results from all meets included in the U.S. elite program calendars for 2023 and 2024. Those include international competitions, major domestic meets, selection events and national elite qualifiers. Other competitions were added if top American gymnasts participated. Scores from national team camps were included only if they were released by USA Gymnastics.
Most scores were verified with results published by USA Gymnastics. When the governing body did not publish results, The Post relied on data from gymnastics scoring websites Meet Scores Online and My Meet Scores, as well as the Gymternet, a website that maintains records of elite scores.
Gymnasts must be age eligible for the Olympics to be considered for inclusion. Some gymnasts were excluded because they were not slated to compete at U.S. elite competitions in 2024. Gymnasts who have competed at past Olympics or world championships were automatically included in the list of gymnasts available to select. (Alternates for those events were not.) Others were added if they had a high score at tryout events or 75th percentile score in the top seven in the field on any apparatus.
Some gymnasts perform two different vaults, which is required to earn individual medals on the apparatus, but in team competitions, the score from the first vault counts. The Post included only scores from a gymnast’s first vault. Jade Carey’s vault scores from the Swiss Cup were not included because the competition reported only the two-vault average.
The towns listed with each athlete indicate where she trains. Because world championships alternates receive a medal in the team competition, those medals were counted in each gymnast’s total. At the Olympics, alternates do not receive medals.
Credits
Editing by Samuel Granados, Joe Tone and Meghan Hoyer. Photos by USA Gymnastics. Myli Lew photo by Nick Lawler/USA Gymnastics. Sunisa Lee photo by Andrew Kelly/Reuters. Pictograms by Álvaro Valiño for The Washington Post.
