MINNEAPOLIS -- It all comes down to this. On Sunday night (8:30 ET, NBC/Peacock), approximately 30 minutes after the competition ends, the U.S. women's gymnastics Olympic team will be announced. It has been a heartbreaking week at Olympic trials, with injuries to Skye Blakely, Kayla DiCello and Shilese Jones . All three were front-runners for the team, and each has been forced to withdraw from the competition.
Simone Biles leads after Night 1 , with an enormous 2.50 margin over her teammate Jordan Chiles, and Biles is expected to easily earn the one automatic berth onto the Olympic team. The other four spots will be determined by a selection committee. Who will make the team? We'll have you covered with live updates throughout the night.
An up-and-down rotation
Jordan Chiles continued to cruise on bars, while Leanne Wong improved her beam score from the first night by .400 -- no small thing when beam seems to be an event the U.S. team is weaker on. Jade Carey fought through a pirouette on bars and scored lower than the first night, but it shouldn't hurt her case for the team -- it's not an event they would use her on anyways.
In the second half of the rotation, Simone Biles was a little off but kept it together on bars for a score just slightly lower than Night One. The wheels came off for Suni Lee on beam, though, after winning the event on the first night. She fell on her round-off layout stepout mount, then had a major break on her handspring layout-layout series and wobbled on a leap. She looked very frustrated as she left the podium, but she has done so many great routines here in Minneapolis that it shouldn't hurt her Olympic chances.
Hezley Rivera, the youngest competitor here at 16, had a confident beam routine immediately after Lee that earned a 14.275, the highest score of the night so far on that event. Is she making her Olympic case on beam?
The top five in the all-around at the halfway mark are Biles, Chiles, Lee, Carey and Rivera, respectively.
The good vibes continue in Rotation One
Jade Carey looked like a potential Olympic medalist on her first vault, a Cheng, then had to save her Amanar second vault from sitting down, but managed to do so. After a hard fall in touch warm-ups immediately prior, hometown girl Suni Lee got the first standing ovation -- and ear-splitting crowd approval -- from the crowd for her bar routine, which earned a massive 14.875, the highest score on the event so far.
Simone Biles then did her namesake Yurchenko double pike vault, over rotating it and taking several steps, but staying on her feet. Suni Lee and Jordan Chiles are now tied for second place overall, with Simone Biles in first.
It all begins
Tiana Sumanasekera started the competition off in resounding fashion with a nearly stuck Yurchenko double full vault. Hezley Rivera followed with a beautiful bar routine, and Joscelyn Roberson vaulted perhaps the best Cheng she's done in competition this year. All three improved their score over Night One.
Leanne Wong on bars and Jordan Chiles on vault each hit well too -- it looks like the top contenders are on their game tonight. The crowd is loud and the energy is high. The meet is off to a much different start than the first night, when injuries set a heart-wrenching tone for the entire competition.
Warm-ups report
No nerves were on display -- and thankfully no injuries were sustained before the competition. Simone Biles, Suni Lee and Jordan Chiles all looked strong on beam, an event where they each had errors in night one. On floor, Biles nearly stuck a triple-double tumbling pass to huge cheers from the crowd, and she did one Yurchenko double pike attempt on vault. She fell back on it, but looked unfazed.
Jade Carey landed her Amanar vault easily. The only struggles came from Leanne Wong on vault. She attempted her new Cheng vault many times without completing any, before switching to a Yurchenko double full vault at the end of warm-ups.
Team predictions
Simone Biles, Suni Lee, Jordan Chiles, Jade Carey and ??.
Biles is a lock, even if something wild happens and she doesn't finish in first. Defending Olympic champion Lee has looked impressive this entire year, and even more so at trials. Her scores on bars and beam are must-have for Team USA.
If Chiles has another night as rock solid as the first, she likely has earned her spot as well, and Jade Carey perfectly complements Lee's strengths. Carey is the reigning Olympic floor champion and showed up to trials with a difficult Amanar vault. That would be four of the five spots -- and perhaps no one predicted that that would exactly match four of the Olympic team members from the Tokyo Games.
Who will get the fifth spot? Shilese Jones made it through a bar routine with an injured knee on Night 1, hitting well and earning the top score of the event. It was one of the gutsiest routines we've seen; she has one of the best bar sets in the world, and is the No. 2 all-arounder in the country if healthy. But Jones competed in only that event and she announced Saturday that she was withdrawing from Night 2. We don't know the severity of her injury, but if she could be healthy enough to do even bars in Paris it would be a huge asset to the team.
Other possibilities include Leanne Wong, who has four world medals to her name, or one of the younger gymnasts such as Hezly Rivera, Joscelyn Roberson or Tiana Sumanasekera. All three performed especially well on beam Friday, when some of the veterans struggled. It all depends on how strongly the selection committee values previous experience, and clearly Wong has the most of that group.
Night 1 results
Biles had the top scores in the all-around, vault and floor. Lee had the highest score on beam, and Jones on bars.
At the Olympics, the team will compete using three of the five members on each event, so placing in the top three in any individual event at trials can help a gymnast's cause substantially.
All-around results:
1. Simone Biles 58.900; 2. Jordan Chiles 56.400; 3. Sunisa Lee 56.025; 4. Jade Carey 55.825; 5. Joscelyn Roberson 55.475; 6. Kaliya Lincoln 54.875; 7. Hezly Rivera 54.825; 8. Leanne Wong 54.750; 9. Tiana Sumanasekera 54.700; 10. (tie) Simone Rose and Evey Lowe 51.675; 12. Zoey Molomo 50.950; 13. Dulcy Caylor 50.550; 14. Shilese Jones 14.675 (one event).
Vault results:
First vault only -- some gymnasts performed two
1. Simone Biles 15.975; 2. Jade Carey 14.600; 3. Leanne Wong 14.450; 4. (tie) Joscelyn Roberson and Jordan Chiles 14.325.
Bars results:
1. Shilese Jones 14.675; 2. Simone Biles 14.425; 3. Suni Lee 14.400; 4. Jordan Chiles 14.350; 5. Hezly Rivera 14.025.
Beam results:
1. Suni Lee 14.400; 2. Tiana Sumanasekera 13.950; 3. Joscelyn Roberson 13.925; 4. Hezly Rivera 13.700; 5. Simone Biles 13.650.
Floor results:
1. Simone Biles 14.850; 2. Kaliya Lincoln 14.150; 3. Jordan Chiles 14.100; 4. Jade Carey 14.075; 5. Joscelyn Roberson 13.925.
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