US Women's Gymnastics 2016 Olympic Trials: Complete Preview of the Competition
Simone Biles has been the greatest female gymnast in the world for the past several years, and we'll soon find out who will join her on the U.S. women's gymnastics team for the 2016 Olympics in Rio.
The U.S. Team has medaled in six consecutive Olympics, including winning gold in 2012.
Expectations are just as high for 2016, but justifiably so.
Nastia Liukin (all-around gold medalist at the 2008 Olympics) casually mentioned during NBC's broadcast of the Men's Gymnastics Trials in late June that there's more than enough U.S. talent to send three women's teams to Rio.
If true, we're headed for two incredible nights of acrobatics to determine which five women make the team.
To help prepare you for the proceedings, here's a preview of the need-to-know details, an explanation of each event, some intriguing storylines and a few of the names you'll want to become familiar with.
What You Need to Know
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The event: The U.S. women's gymnastics 2016 Olympic Trials will be held at SAP Center in San Jose, California. 14* of the best and brightest gymnasts will each attempt to lock up one of the five spots on the Olympic team.
The schedule: The Trials will be held over the course of two nights: Friday, July 8 and Sunday, July 10. NBC will broadcast both nights of competition live. Coverage will begin at 9 p.m. ET on Friday and starts at 8:30 p.m. ET on Sunday.
At the conclusion of action on Sunday, a selection committee will be sequestered for up to 12 minutes before announcing which five gymnasts will represent the United States in Rio.
In addition to the actual flipping and tumbling, there's a "Gymnastics City USA Fan Fest" in San Jose where fans can stop by various booths to play games, meet gymnastics celebrities or learn more about the history of the sport.
*15 women qualified for the U.S. Olympic Team Trials based on their performances at the P&G Championships in St. Louis on June 24 and 26. However, Alyssa Baumann was forced to withdraw due to an elbow injury suffered during training on June 29.
The Events
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Balance beam
Remember when you were a kid and would try not to fall while walking along a curb? Well, raise that curb four feet in the air and start doing some flips and splits on it and you've got the balance beam. At slightly less than four inches wide, the acrobatics that gymnasts can perform on this 16-foot long slab of wood are unbelievable.
Floor exercises
This event involves a 39' x 39' performance area in which the gymnasts will complete the most incredible cartwheels and tumbles you've ever seen. As part of their choreographed dance with plenty of aerial elements, gymnasts start in a corner or one of the sides and get a running start before doing flips on top of flips about half a dozen times in their allotted 90 seconds. Just wait until you see how much height Simone Biles gets on some of her jumps.
Uneven bars
The lower bar sits 5.6 feet above the ground while the higher is set at 8.2 feet. The gymnasts will repeatedly flip over the bars, jumping from one to the other or simply launching straight up to land on the same bar after aerial acrobatics. They save the toughest trick for last, doing a combination of flips and rotations during the dismount before hopefully sticking the landing.
Vault
A combination of the floor exercise and the final element of the uneven bars, the gymnasts will sprint down an 82-foot runway, launch off a springboard and use their hands to push off the vault, which is 4.1 feet tall. Once in the air, they do a series of somersaults and twists before attempting to land on their feet without even the slightest hop to get their balance.
Top Storylines
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Will Ashton Locklear have a strong enough performance on the balance beam?
Locklear is the queen of uneven bars—where Team USA needs all the help it can get. She won gold for her signature event at the 2014 and 2016 P&G Championships, the 2014 Pan-American Championships and the 2016 Pacific Rim Championships.
But Locklear suffered a stress fracture in her back in 2013 that has limited her to just two of the four events: uneven bars and balance beam.
Her coach, Qi Han, told Seth Lakso of the Charlotte Observer in 2014, "She had a beautiful floor routine and was strong in that event, but she can't do that any more since the back injury."
Han added, "She's good at all the events, but she's special on the uneven bars."
Though Locklear is expected to post the highest score on the uneven bars at the U.S. Trials, she'll need to show more promise on the balance beam than she did in St. Louis last month. Because even with the assumption that Simone Biles and Aly Raisman will each compete in at least three of the four events, it's almost logistically impossible to put someone on the team for just one event.
Locklear placed eighth on the balance beam at the P&G Championships with a total score of 28.6—two full points behind Laurie Hernandez's third-place score of 30.6.
Will the Flying Squirrel even make the cut?
Gabby Douglas took the world by storm four years ago, winning Olympic gold for the all-around before becoming the 2012 Associated Press Female Athlete of the Year.
But after publishing her autobiography in November 2012—did you have an autobiography when you were 16?—she fell out of the public spotlight for a few years. She finally resurfaced for the 2015 World Championships, where she won silver for the all-around.
Douglas placed fourth at the P&G Championships in June but finished no better than fifth place in any of the individual events. In other words, she doesn't have any weaknesses, but even her best event wasn't remotely the best that the U.S. has to offer.
Keep a close eye on her uneven bars routines in San Jose. That was always her strongest event, and as we've already mentioned—and as you'll undoubtedly hear at least a dozen times during NBC's broadcasts of the U.S. Trials—it's where the team needs help, because it's the weakest event for both Biles and Raisman.
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Locks for Rio
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Aly Raisman
At 22 years old, Raisman is the oldest of the 14 gymnasts attempting to qualify for the U.S. team, but she's still one of the best in the world. She took silver in the all-around in St. Louis last month, finishing 0.15 points behind Simone Biles on balance beam and 0.85 points behind her on floor exercise.
Raisman was part of the five-woman team that won gold in London four years ago. In the process, she won an individual gold for floor exercise and a bronze for balance beam. Take it to the bank that she'll be competing in both of those events in Rio.
Simone Biles
Never mind her status as a lock for the U.S. team, Biles is the clear favorite for Olympic gold in the individual all-around.
She has won gold at four consecutive U.S. National Championships, including winning gold in balance beam, floor exercise and vault in St. Louis this past June. Biles also won all-around gold at the World Championships in Antwerp in 2013, Nanning in 2014 and Glasgow in 2015.
With apologies to women around the world that have dedicated their lives to gymnastics, as long as Biles is healthy, everyone else is just fighting for silver.
Dark Horses to Watch
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Madison Kocian
Despite a poor showing on the vault on both days, Kocian placed fifth in the all-around in St. Louis in June. It wouldn't exactly be the biggest Cinderella story in the history of sport if she made the team, but she's far from a lock, even with her track record in the uneven bars.
She won gold in that event at the 2015 World Championships in Glasgow and has earned either gold or silver in the uneven bars at three consecutive U.S. National Championships.
As is the case with Ashton Locklear, though, the unknown is where else she could contribute. Among the 14 gymnasts that will compete at the U.S. Trials, Kocian placed sixth in both balance beam and floor exercise and 12th in vault.
It's pretty unlikely that both Kocian and Locklear make the team, but there's a reasonable chance that one of the two will go to Rio.
Who fares better on the bars in San Jose?
MyKayla Skinner
There's no chance the U.S. team would use Skinner on the uneven bars or balance beam, but is there a possible five-woman combination that allows her to compete at vault and floor exercise?
Skinner has earned a medal for her vault at five consecutive U.S. National Championships and has medaled in floor exercise each of the past four years. That includes a silver in vault and a bronze in floor exercise this past month.
Ideally, Skinner will finish ahead of Hernandez in both vault and floor exercises in San Jose (they were neck-and-neck in both of those events in St. Louis). If that happens, here's her dream team:
- Simone Biles for all four events
- Aly Raisman on balance beam, floor exercise and vault
- Hernandez on balance beam and uneven bars
- Either Kocian or Locklear as an uneven bars specialist
- Skinner fills remaining openings in vault and floor exercise
Even though she finished 10th in the all-around in June, Skinner was good enough in her two best events that she has a shot.
Future American Stars at the Trials
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Laurie Hernandez
Not only is Hernandez a future star in the making, she's likely going to make the Olympic team this year and could even give Simone Biles a run for her money in the all-around.
Hernandez just turned 16 in June. Since making her debut as a senior earlier this year, she has already won nine medals. At the P&G Championships, she received four bronze medals—one for all-around and one each in uneven bars, balance beam and floor exercise. Add in the silver she won for her vault at the City of Jesolo Trophy in March and she checks all of the boxes.
Provided she has another strong showing in San Jose, Hernandez should make the team for balance beam and uneven bars, with a decent shot at also representing the U.S. in vault or floor exercise.
Ragan Smith
A 15-year-old for one more month, Smith already has a good chance of being named an alternate for the U.S. team.
A critical error on her floor exercise on day one of the P&G Championships led to her eighth-place finish in the all-around, but she would have tied Madison Kocian for fifth place had she done both floor exercises as well as her performance on the second night.
Smith finished the P&Gs in fifth place on the balance beam (fourth, actually, if we remove Alyssa Baumann's score, following her injury). And she won gold for her balance beam routine at the Pacific Rim Championships in April.
She probably won't make the cut for Rio, but Smith is a special talent to watch for years to come.
Christina Desiderio
Two weeks younger than Smith, Desiderio is the youngest of the 14 gymnasts invited to the U.S. Trials, not even old enough to get her learner's permit until the day after the Olympics end.
She won't make the team this year—her best finish in St. Louis was a tie for sixth in floor exercise—but remember the name. Desiderio could be one of the top candidates for the 2020 Olympics in Tokyo.
How USA Stacks Up Against the Competition in Rio
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If the 2015 World Championships in Glasgow were any indication of what to expect in Rio, the U.S. women's gymnastics team is headed for a quite a few medals.
The team (Simone Biles, Aly Raisman, Gabby Douglas, Madison Kocian, MyKayla Skinner, Brenna Dowell and Maggie Nichols) won gold. And that was before Laurie Hernandez was old enough to be a part of the team, so they've gotten even stronger since then.
Biles won gold for the individual all-around while Douglas took silver. Biles also won gold for balance beam and floor exercise and bronze for vault. Kocian tied for gold on uneven bars, and Nichols won bronze in floor exercise. In total, the U.S. won eight out of the possible 18 medals. Russia (four medals) was the only other country with more than two.
However, Russia didn't even earn an all-around medal in Glasgow after taking the silver behind Team USA's gold at the 2012 Olympics.
Romania is usually the country to watch out for, medaling in the women's gymnastics team event in every Summer Olympics dating back to 1976. But it had a poor showing in Glasgow, merely accounting for one bronze medal.
As long as Biles, Raisman and Hernandez are healthy, it would be a surprise if the U.S. women's gymnastics team didn't bring home the gold.
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