As she competes to secure her spot at the Paris Olympics, Simone Biles appears increasingly steadfast in a fierce competition to join the US gymnastics team.
Simone Biles looks unstoppable as she vies to punch her ticket to Paris at the US Olympic gymnastics trials this week, where competition to fill out the five-woman roster promises to be intense.
Biles captured her ninth US all-around title earlier this month, winning on all four apparatus at the national championships in Fort Worth, Texas.
Coach Cecile Landi mentioned that Biles’s ability to manage her mental health, combined with her extraordinary talent and impressive work ethic, indicates that the 27-year-old gymnast could be at her best as she approaches her third trip to the Olympic Games.
“I think we always knew she could be better,” Landi said on Wednesday as the women began training at the Target Center in Minneapolis, where the trials start on Thursday with men’s competition.
“She’s the most talented athlete I’ve ever worked with, and we knew that if she could balance her mental and physical game, she would be nearly unstoppable,” said Landi about Biles, who was born in Columbus, Ohio, on 14 March 1997.
Biles, who started practising at the age of six, dazzled by winning four gold medals in Rio 2016, but her expected star turn at the Tokyo 2020 Games, delayed by the pandemic, was cut short when she withdrew due to the “twisties” – a temporary mental block that causes gymnasts to lose their sense of spatial awareness.
Since her return to competition in August, she has gone from strength to strength, accumulating more medals, including all-around gold at last year’s world championships.
Regarding her current health status, the coach said, “All the work she’s been doing outside the gym, and just being 27, married, having other things going on, I think it helps her maintain a good balance,” Landi said. “It’s not only about gymnastics, and I think that keeps her sane.”
These days will be crucial for Biles and other athletes looking to secure their place at Paris 2024. Two days of competition for men and women, with the all-around winners securing their Olympic berths, lie ahead in the United States.
A selection committee will then choose the remaining team members, taking into account performances at trials and other events, including national championships, as well as the combination of athletes that could give the United States its best chance of scoring points at the Olympics.
The 16-woman squad includes Suni Lee, who won all-around gold and uneven bars bronze in Tokyo and is in top form after battling kidney disease that threatened her career.
Defending Olympic floor champion Jade Carey, a seven-time world medallist, is aiming for another trip to the Games, as is Jordan Chiles, who helped the US to team silver at Tokyo 2020.
Another contender is 21-year-old Shilese Jones, who won all-around bronze at the 2023 Worlds but missed the US Championships when an old shoulder injury flared up. Her coach, Sarah Korngold, said on Wednesday that she had arrived in Minneapolis pain-free and ready to compete for her first Olympic berth.
Skye Blakely, a two-time world team gold medallist who was expected to make her first Olympic team, was injured in training on Wednesday and her participation is uncertain.
Another candidate is Kayla DiCello, a Tokyo alternate who won the Winter Cup in February and took all-around bronze at the US Championships.
The women’s competition begins on Friday and concludes on Sunday, when the team for Paris will be announced.
Meanwhile, twenty men will begin competing for five Olympic spots on Thursday, with Brody Malone looking to continue his comeback from career-threatening knee injuries sustained when he fell off the horizontal bar at a competition in Germany in 2023.
Despite his lengthy lay-off, Malone won his third US all-around title this month.
The competition will also feature 2020 Olympian Yul Moldauer, who helped the United States to team bronze at last year’s World Championships, the men’s first world medal since 2014.
The team’s young stars, Paul Juda, Fred Richardson, Asher Hong and Khoi Young, will be hoping to build on that success in Paris.
