MINNEAPOLIS – Simone Biles has officially punched her ticket to her third Olympic Games.
She will be joined in Paris this summer by Suni Lee, Jordan Chiles, Jade Carey and Hezly Rivera.
The team was selected at the US Olympic Gymnastics Trials in Minneapolis on Sunday after two days of competition. With four returning Tokyo Olympians, it is the oldest and most decorated U.S. women’s gymnastics Olympic team in history.
Biles, 27, will be the oldest American gymnast to compete at the Olympics in 72 years.
She secured an automatic spot on the Paris team by finishing first overall, flanked by Lee and Chiles. The balance beam was treacherous tonight, with falls from the top three, including reigning world champion Biles.
Biles credited “being in a good mental place” with qualifying for his third Olympics.
“I knew I wasn’t finished after the performances in Tokyo,” she said. “I knew I would come back.”
Joscelyn Roberson and Leanne Wong were named as alternates. Wong was also an alternate for the Tokyo Games.
Alicia Sacramone Quinn, strategic lead for USA Gymnastics, said the selection committee, which she heads, “had its eye on” Rivera and sees her as someone who could represent the U.S. at the 2028 Los Angeles Games.
“It was a difficult decision,” she said of choosing the team. “All the athletes did their job, did what they needed to do.”
Although there were some mistakes during Sunday’s testing, Quinn said: “Better here than in Paris.”
Lee, the Tokyo Olympic all-around champion, won the uneven bars with a newly updated routine. She perfectly connected bold throwing moves, including a Nabieva and a Bhardwaj.
Chiles’ dreams of returning to the Games were in jeopardy after she fell on the beam, but she sealed her fate by dancing to Beyoncé on the floor, landing like a pro.
Carey, the current Olympic gold medalist on floor exercise, anchored the events with a high-energy floor routine. She came second in the tests, surpassed only by Biles.
Rivera, 16, will be the only teenager on a team of veterans, but she proved she can withstand Olympic-level pressure with a clutch routine on the balance beam.
Despite seeing Lee have a strangely difficult exit on the beam right in front of her, Rivera nailed it and tied Biles for the event’s two-day average.
“My mindset was that I had nothing to lose, so I just went out there and did my best, did my best,” she said.
Rivera said she was shocked to hear her name called by the team.
“I was very surprised to hear my name, but I also worked for it my whole life,” she said.
Three favorites were injured before Friday’s competition, knocking world champions Skye Blakely, Shilese Jones and Kayla DiCello out of Olympic contention. Blakely and DiCello tore their Achilles tendons. The nature of Jones’ injury remains unknown.
On Friday, Biles led the overall standings by 2.5 points over Chiles and Lee completed the top three.
This story originally appeared on NBCNews.com read the full story
