MINNEAPOLIS — Simone Biles is four routines away from making her third Olympic team.
She led her Olympic and club teammate Jordan Chiles by 2.5 points after the first day of competition in the Olympic qualifiers. Defending Olympic all-around champion Suni Lee rounded out the top three.
The women’s gymnastics team that will compete in Paris will be named on Sunday, but the selection committee will have to go back to the drawing board after three favorites were injured ahead of Friday’s competition.
Kayla DiCello and Shilese Jones suffered apparent injuries in the safe and were carried away by medical personnel. After the meet, USA Gymnastics confirmed that DiCello ruptured his Achilles tendon and will miss the remainder of the events.
Jones, the current world bronze medalist, managed to compete on the uneven bars, but limped off the podium and scratched the rest of the competition.
His 14.675 in the event was the highest score of the night.
The status of Jones and DiCello’s Olympic dreams remains unknown. Skye Blakely, a 19-year-old Texas native, suffered a season-ending Achilles tear during podium practice on Wednesday.
Selection procedures prohibit athletes from submitting petitions to be named to the Olympic team in the event of an injury.
Biles started the night with a clean set on the bars, but had some wobbles on the balance beam. At the halfway point, it was an unusual sight on the leaderboard – Biles wasn’t winning.
She was three-tenths behind Leanne Wong, who debuted a new vault upgrade, the Cheng. She originally received a 2-point deduction for a one-handed takeoff, but Wong appealed her score and ended up receiving 14.450.
A dominant performance on floor moved Biles back to her familiar first-place position. The crowd in the arena immediately rose to its feet in the fourth rotation as soon as she landed her eponymous jump, a double Yurchenko spear.
She scored 15.975, the highest score of the night by more than a point.
The skill is the most impressive and difficult piece of women’s gymnastics being practiced in the world today. She performed a second jump, the Cheng, to show the selection committee her prowess for the Olympic diving final, where two jumps are required.
Suni Lee, the reigning Olympic all-around champion, looked ready for Paris as she hit an updated bars routine with enormous difficulty. She performed a Nabieva to a Bhardwaj, earning 14,400. The selection committee will not want to leave this routine at home.
The top finisher after two days of competition at the trials will have an automatic spot on the five-member women’s Olympic team. The other four women who will compete in Paris will be determined by a selection committee, which will use the results of previous tests and competitions to complete the team.
Four Olympic alternates will also be named in Minneapolis, two of whom will travel to Paris to train with the team.
The U.S. Olympic Gymnastics Trials for the 2024 Paris Olympics will be broadcast live on NBC and Peacock through Sunday.
This story originally appeared on NBCNews.com read the full story
