HARTFORD, Conn. – Gymnastics royalty will begin their journey to Paris 2024 on Saturday, when three unprecedented all-around Olympic champions – Suni Lee, Simone Biles and Gabby Douglas – will compete in the Core Hydration Classic.
The meet is the final opportunity to qualify for the U.S. Championships in Fort Worth, Texas, later this month. Biles and her fellow Olympic champions have already secured their tickets to Fort Worth, but Saturday’s meet is an important stepping stone toward forming this summer’s five-member Paris Olympic team.
It is one of the few competitions this season that the Selection Committee can use to determine the members of the Paris Olympic team, culminating in late June in Minneapolis at the Olympic Trials.
The Core Hydration Classic will be Biles’ first competition since the World Championships in Antwerp, Belgium, in October, when she won a historic sixth individual all-around world title, medaled in three of four events and led the U.S. women to their seventh straight victory in team competition.
The Olympic all-around title may be the most coveted in gymnastics, but eight additional Olympic and world medalists will also compete on Saturday.
Current Olympic gold medalist on floor exercise Jade Carey and Olympic team silver medalist Jordan Chiles are on the initial list. They will be joined by world championship medalists Shilese Jones, Kayla DiCello, Skye Blakely, Joscelyn Roberson, Leanne Wong and Lexi Zeiss, who was an alternate for the 2022 World Championship team.
2022 North American champion Konnor McClain (returning to elite gymnastics after two years away) will also be one to watch on Saturday. After losing his father in 2021 and facing coaching changes and injuries, McClain opted to start his college career at LSU a season earlier than planned last fall.
She helped lead the Tigers to their first NCAA championship last month, but the status of his elite training remains a major question this weekend.
Three weeks ago, Douglas returned to competition for the first time in nearly eight years at the American Classic in Katy, Texas. She placed 10th in the all-around, but her vault and beam scores qualified her to compete in both US Championship events.
Douglas made it clear to Katy that his comeback effort is legitimate. Her performance in Hartford on Saturday will be an even stronger indicator of her chances of making her third Olympic team – a feat no American woman has achieved since Dominique Dawes.
Biles, who was Douglas’ teammate at the 2016 Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, is also eyeing her third Olympic team.
Lee, the reigning Olympic all-around champion, wore her competition leotard at two elite meets this year: the Winter Cup and the American Classic. Her season got off to a shaky start at the Winter Cup in February, when she crashed three times in two events. However, she won the balance beam again at the American Classic with a simplified routine that she is able to improve upon this weekend.
Lee has also been teasing a major update to his signature event, uneven bars. She revealed a whole new ability in a video posted on Instagram account on January 23rd. She tried at the Winter Cup but was unable to complete it.
The ability is a Jaeger in an extended stance with a full turn. It will be named after her in the rulebook if she successfully completes it in an international competition like the Olympics. The intricate release move would not only cement Lee as a chronicler in the sport, but also increase her difficulty in the event and maximize her scoring potential.
Lee has been struggling with kidney issues since early last year, prematurely ending her collegiate career and her 2023 elite season. She competed in the 2023 U.S. Championships but withdrew from consideration for the World Championship team.
If she can achieve the difficulty and execution she displayed in Tokyo, Lee has the potential to make the Paris Olympic team on the strength of her bars and beam routines alone.
Gymnasts representing the U.S. in Paris will be selected at the Olympic Trials June 27-30. The athletes who will compete there will be determined at the US Championships.
The Core Hydration Classic airs live from 7pm to 9pm ET on Saturday on CNBC and Peacock. It is also streamed on NBCSports.com and the NBC Sports app. (Comcast, parent company of NBC News and NBCUniversal, runs Peacock and NBC Sports.)
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