Day 1 of Women's Gymnastics Trials Gives Us More Surprises Than Certainties

The folks at NBC Sports did their best to sell it as high drama.

But in spite of Al Trautwig, Tim Daggett and Nastia Liukin's collective up-front breathlessness, we all pretty much knew how things would shake out when Day 1 of the U.S. Olympic Trials for women's gymnastics began in San Jose, California.

Or at least we thought we did.

Though no one drew up an exact replica of 2012's Fab Five, the smart money suggested that Simone Biles would be sublimely superhuman, returning Olympic veterans Aly Raisman and Gabby Douglas would be fundamentally fierce, and New Jersey-reared Laurie Hernandez would ascend to the perch of America's spunky sweetheart.

The remaining 10 women would essentially vie for one remaining team spot in Rio, and even that gaggle was realistically limited to two or three athletes with a legitimate reason to pack bags for Brazil.

But after two-plus hours, even experts were confounded.

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Instead of an automaton march toward the South American medals stand, the initial series of rotations at the SAP Center saw the Americans display an unexpected streak of vulnerability that gives Trautwig, Daggett and Liukin far more drama-stoking fodder come Sunday night while leaving Marta Karolyi and her fellow team-pickers with an industrial-sized case of agita.

And in spots where names remain locked, it's still worthy of some mild heartburn.

Perhaps no one is prompting more high-end headaches than the suddenly enigmatic Douglas, who ditched a coach after a taciturn run at the national championship meet in St. Louis but maintained an icy exterior upon arrival to the West Coast.

She was worthwhile but hardly transcendent on the vault, floor exercise and uneven bars Friday and then prompted the night's loudest gasp when she fell from the balance beam during a routine spin—and subsequently shrugged away consolation gestures from teammates and support staff.

The tumble earned a pedestrian 13.7 score from the judges, dropped Douglas all the way to seventh in all-around standings and left Daggett to suggest Karolyi might even have her former superstar's name on the cut list when decision time arrives at weekend's end.

"She's virtually a lock for the Olympic team," he said, "but mistakes like that one could make her unlocked."

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Another tumble at the beam upended what had been the most compelling duel of the session, when Ashton Locklear's fall left her with a 13.2 score and entirely off the all-around leaderboard as she attempted to make a case that she deserved an August Olympic trip instead of Madison Kocian.

She and Kocian had turned in identical 15.75s on the uneven bars moments earlier, and the untimely miscue has to leave Karolyi wondering about overall spotlight mettle—which could be a telling factor as the U.S. tries to prolong recent dominance that's yielded the 2012 London heroics as well as world team titles in 2011, 2014 and 2015.

Ominously, the dispensing of pre-meet script wasn't limited to the lower tier, and instead of a victory lap, the team-makers may be waiting to see which star implodes next.

Toward that end, Biles seemed almost human while repeating a St. Louis mistake on the uneven bars.

And in addition to the aforementioned beam foibles, Hernandez fell face-first from the bars before rebounding with a must-see 15.3 in the floor exercise.

Even the steely-eyed Raisman looked less than comfortable at times, which either means the U.S. team isn't nearly the imposing competitive presence going into Rio that it was in London or the NBC team's claim that the trials are more mentally daunting than the Olympics is being backed up.

Based on Friday, it had better be the latter. Or it may be a far uglier August.