Simone Biles won a record ninth U.S. overall championship in Fort Worth, Texas, earning her an automatic spot in the U.S. Olympic Trials ahead of the Paris Games.
Biles, 37-time world and Olympic medalist, also won national titles on all four U.S. Championship apparatus.
The top two finishers – Biles and Skye Blakely – automatically qualified for the Olympic trials, which will be held from June 27th to 30th in Minneapolis. The five gymnasts representing the US at this summer’s Paris Olympics will then be named.
Kayla DiCello, Suni Lee and Jordan Chiles rounded out the top five. At least 10 additional women, determined by a selection committee, will participate in the automatic qualifiers.
Biles started the night on beam, where she scored 14.800 with a near-perfect routine. On the floor exercise, Biles went out of bounds on her double backflip with triple twist of the same name, but still scored 15.100.
She landed on the jump performing another skill named after her in the point code, a double Yurchenko spear or “Biles II.” The difficulty of the jump is so high that Biles scored 15,000 despite the fall.
Biles secured her ninth all-around national title on the uneven bars in the final rotation, scoring 14.400.
Blakely, who was a member of the 2022 and 2023 world championship teams, boosted his Paris hopes by debuting an updated vault. She punched her ticket to the Olympic trials as second overall behind Biles and established herself as a medal threat in the event.
Lee, the reigning Olympic all-around champion, competed in all four events for the first time since the Tokyo Olympics. After battling kidney problems for much of last season, Lee performed strongly in Friday’s competition but withdrew on Sunday.
She placed fourth in the all-around, but her world-class routines on beam (14.900) and uneven bars (14.500) make her a top contender for the Paris team.
On the first of two days of competition in Fort Worth, Biles distanced herself from the rest of the field, holding a 3.4-point lead over her closest competitor with a 60.450 overall. Biles’ score on Friday was her highest since the 2021 Olympic Trials.
Six-time world medalist Shilese Jones withdrew from the championship hours before Friday’s competition due to a shoulder injury. She petitioned USA Gymnastics to compete in the Olympic Trials, which was approved Sunday.
Jones solidified herself as Team USA’s strongest asset behind Biles at the Core Hydration Classic in May, finishing second in the all-around competition and winning the uneven bars.
Gabby Douglas, the 2012 Olympic gold medalist, also withdrew last week after suffering a season-ending ankle injury, ending her Paris hopes. Douglas had her sights set on her third Olympic team after an eight-year hiatus from the sport.
The U.S. men’s gymnastics team that will compete in Paris will also be selected in Minneapolis. Brody Malone won his third national title overall on Saturday after suffering a serious knee injury last season. Frederick Richard, the current world bronze medalist, took silver behind Malone and won the floor exercise.
Biles kicked off her 2024 season with a dominant win at the Core Hydration Classic.
The Classic was her first competitive appearance 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 North American women to their seventh consecutive victory in the competition for teams.
If Biles, 27, is named to the U.S. Olympic team in Paris, she would be the first American woman since Dominique Dawes to make three Olympic teams.
This story originally appeared on NBCNews.com read the full story
