We're officially 50 days away from the Paris 2024 Olympics, so it's time to get serious about who is most likely to make the U.S. Olympic Team.
Now that 2024 US Championships are over, all eyes on set on the 2024 U.S. Olympic Team Trials : a two-day competition where the U.S Olympic team will be announced.
Where : Minneapolis, Minnesota (home of Olympic Champion Sunisa Lee)
When : June 27th-June 30th, 2024
Who : 16 gymnasts will be competing on the women's side, you can see the full list here.
Team selection process
5 gymnasts will be part of the team that will represent the United States at the Paris 2024 Olympics.
The U.S. Olympic trials event is the main competition that will select the gymnasts making that team but not exclusively : Winter Cup, US Classics & US Championships results will also be taken into account by the selection committee.
The highest scoring all-around gymnast from the 2024 Olympic Trials will be automatically qualified for the 2024 Olympic Team. The 4 other gymnasts wil be selected on discretionary criterias. Two to four gymnasts serving as alternates will also be selected.
2 main criterias should be taken into account :
The Highest scoring team for the Olympic Team Final
The Highest chance of Olympic Apparatus Finals
Both are completely different as you could have a great team with great generalist gymnasts, but very low chances of olympic individual finals & medals.
Who should be on the team?
As you can see on this screenshot from NBC Sports, two spots in the team are pretty much already filled as Simone and Shilese are very likely to make the Olympic Team.
Simone Biles :
She's the reigning US & World All-around Champion and the most decorated gymnast of all time.
She has won 37 world & Olympic medals.
She will make the team without a doubt if she's healthy.
Shilese Jones :
Shilese Jones is a two-time world medalist in the all-around (2022-2023) and has placed second behind Simone Biles at every single previous domestic competition (2023 & 2024) with the exception of 2024 U.S. Championships where she didn't compete.
She is a very strong all-arounder, and also a two-time world medalist on uneven bars.
Shilese Jones has not competed at 2024 US Championships to rest her injured shoulder, but she will compete at Olympic trials. Should she remains healthy, she is guaranteed a spot in the Olympic Team.
With 3 spots left on the team, only a few gymnasts are in contention to make that team, who should be considered?
Skye Blakely :
Skye was part of the team that won gold at World Championships in 2022 & 2023.
Skye finished 2nd in the all-around at 2024 US Championshis behind Simone Biles & finished 2nd in the all-around at 2024 Winter cup.
Skye is a strong all-around gymnast who recorded impressive scores : 57,050 & 56.800 (a lot of inflated scores because of domestic scoring), but she's scoring high on all events.
Blakely just presented a huge upgrade on vault : a Cheng (5.6 difficulty). With that skill, she is also in contention for a vault final which helps her case a lot.
Sunisa Lee
Sunisa Lee is the reigning Olympic all-around champion, she is also the Olympic bronze medalist on uneven bars.
She hasn't competed much in the last two years as she is battling kidney diseases.
She is a very strong gymnast on balace beam putting +6.7 difficulty and scored 14,900 at Championships. She has a very strong potential to make an olympic beam final & medal there.
She is a also a strong all-around gymnast as she finished 4th at U.S Championships.
She is not at her full difficulty on uneven bars (only 5.8 difficulty), so she is expected to present her upgraded uneven bars routine at Trials.
Jade Carey
Jade Carey is the reigning Olympic floor champion, and also made the Tokyo Olympics vault final.
She finished 7th in the all-around at U.S Championships.
She is planning to upgrade her floor routine adding more difficulty on her last two tumbling passes on floor which could add a lot of bonus points to her case. Currently her floor is only at 5.8 difficulty.
Jade is also strong on vault, competing regularly two vaults, but her Cheng vault tend to be outscored by Skye lakely so it's not adding much for Team USA.
Kayla DiCello
Kayla DiCello is a great all-around gymnasts who recently finished first at Winter Cup and won the Bronze medal in the all-around at 2024 US Championships.
She doesn't particularly stand out on a specific apparatus but she's capable of scoring +13,5 scores on every apparatus which is very valuable.
Jordan Chiles
Jordan Chiles is a member of the Tokyo Olympic team who won silver in the team final.
She's known to be a great all-around gymnasts and bring great experience and energy to the team.
Jordan is particularly strong on bars and vault putting up +14 scores very regularly.
Joscelyn Roberson
Joscelyn is a member of the 2023 World team that won gold in Antwerp.
Joscelyn stands out especially on floor and vault where's she's capable of putting high scores.
Her profile is very similar to Jade Carey as they're both competing two strong vaults (Cheng & DTY) and capable of putting +14 scores on floor and vault.
A simulator to build your Olympic Team?
If you've ever dreamed about it, it's now possible!
The Washington post has created a simulator to play around and build your Olympic Team.
You can build your team using either most recent scores or best scores. Scores will be also updated during Olympic Trials.
Below you can find the best scoring team, in other words, the highest team score among 4368 possible combinations.
I personally wouldn't select that team as Kaliya Lincoln is not adding a lot of depth on uneven bars & beam (she is mostly scoring +12 scores) and these are two key apparatuses for Team USA.
Who would be on my Olympic Team?
It's surprisingly very easy for me to answer this question as I find that four gymnasts are almost guaranteed at making that team : Simone, Shilese, Skye & Suni. It is however a little bit tricky to select that 5th and final gymnast.
Right now I believe that three gymasts could be fighting for that final spot :
Kayla Dicello, Jordan Chiles & Jade Carey.
Currently, I believe that this would be my current Olympic team based on the previous competitions scores. I believe that Jordan's consistency adds a lot to the team and she's a reliable gymnasts that could compete at any time. She's also strong on vault which could rest Shilese in the team final.
But I strongly believe that Jade Carey's upgrades on floor will add a lot to her case as she would have great potential to make an Olympic Floor Final.
Have you tried the simulator?
Who would be on your Olympic Team?
Livie
Comments