US women’s gymnastics team makes history

Simone Biles is already in the history books, but everything Team USA The women’s gymnastics team at the Paris Summer Olympics also has a number of new additions.

The team of Biles, Jade Carey, Jordan Chiles, Sunisa Lee and Hezly Rivera are hoping to regain Olympic team gold and are making history in doing so. For the first time, the team includes two overall Olympic champions, Biles and Lee, and four of the five members are returning Olympians – Biles, Lee, Carey, and Chileans. The group is also the most diverse the U.S. has seen in women’s gymnastics, a sport that until recently did not feature many black women.

Biles is already setting new standards. At 27, she is the oldest American gymnast to compete in the Olympics since the 1950s. “Now I definitely have to apologize to Aly [Raisman] for calling her grandmother],” Biles said of her provocative teammate Raisman for competing in her second Olympics in Tokyo at age 22. Biles mocked Raisman for her early bedtime and regular naps during the Games.

Now competing in her third Olympics, that longevity has helped make Biles the most decorated gymnast in history, with 37 world and Olympic medals. If she stands on the podium in Paris, she will become the most decorated U.S. Olympic gymnast, surpassing Shannon Miller, who has won seven. And, of course, there is her safe – the Yurchenko double pike, now known as Biles II. Biles is the only gymnast to compete in this skill.

But his teammates are equally trailblazing. Team USA women have been individual Olympic champions at every Games since 2004, so it’s not surprising that the team includes two. Part of this has to do with the fact that gymnastics is no longer a sport primarily for teenagers. Since 2021, Name, Likeness and Image (NIL) laws passed by states and new NCAA policies have made it possible for athletes in many sports to continue competing at the collegiate level while taking advantage of sponsorship and revenue opportunities to fund their careers. athletic, without turning professional. Before NIL, stricter lines between amateur and professional sports forced athletes to choose between competing in college as an amateur athlete or turning professional to begin capitalizing on their earning potential in sports like gymnastics. “If I could have the best of both worlds, I would have loved to have had that,” says Nastia Liukin, 2008 individual All-around Olympic champion who never competed on a college team because she turned professional as a pre-teen. “I see Suni, Jordan, Jade and all the girls competing again, whether they’re still in college gymnastics or not, and they’re still fulfilling their goals and dreams – it’s great to see, in my opinion.”

The rules are allowing more gymnasts to expand their gymnastics careers – Lee took time off from Auburn University; Carey decided to continue competing for Oregon State University while training at the elite level; and Chiles opted to sit out this year at UCLA to train for Paris.

Additionally, although gymnastics skills have become more difficult, knowledge and technology around recovery and rest have also advanced, making it easier for gymnasts – even older gymnasts – to continue to push their bodies and minimizing the wear on joints, muscles and the body. mind. “It’s about training smarter, not harder,” says Gina Pongetti, owner of MedGym and consultant for USA Gymnastics and other women’s gymnastics teams. “At 14 or 15, you can get away with not doing any recovery work. But we can’t produce and perform without being prepared and apologizing to your body for what you’re doing – and the older you get, the more you do in the gym, you have to do the same outside of the gym to make it. back to metabolic, physiological and psychological neutrality.”

All of these factors will be important in determining whether the U.S. women will continue to break barriers after competing in the team event on July 30 at the Bercy Arena.