MINNEAPOLIS — There may have been a few bobbles during the U.S. Olympic trials in women's gymnastics, but it wasn't going to stop individual Olympics all-around gold medalists Sunisa Lee and Simone Biles from heading to Paris.
The two women's gymnastics superstars will lead a five-member women's team at the 2024 games, named Sunday night following the conclusion of the Olympic trials at Target Center in Minneapolis.
St. Paul native Lee, who has been battling a series of health issues since the last Olympics, finished second in the all-around at the Olympics trials in her home state. She's now looking to defend her Tokyo Olympics all-around gold medal title in Paris.
"A year ago, I didn't even think this was possible," Lee told the Target Center crowd through tears after being named to the team.
Lee will face tough competition from her Team USA teammate, Biles, who won the all-around competition at the trials, eight years after winning Olympic gold in the event in 2016. Biles is looking to complete the comeback story in Paris, after she withdrew from the all-around competition during the Tokyo games.
Biles and Lee will be joined in Paris by 2020 Olympic floor exercise champion Jade Carey, 2020 Olympic silver medalist Jordan Chiles and first-time Olympian Hezly Rivera. Joscelyn Roberson and Leanne Wong were named as alternates.
Biles heads back to the games looking perhaps as good as ever.
“Trusting the process and (my coaches), I knew I'd be back,” Biles said.
A trip to France has never really been in doubt since she returned from a two-year break last summer. All she's done over the last 12 months is win a sixth world all-around title and her eighth and ninth national championship — both records — while further cementing her status as the best-ever in her sport.
She'll head to Paris as a prohibitive favorite to bookend the Olympic gold she won in 2016, but with things to work on, too.
Biles backpedaled after landing her Yurchenko double pike vault, a testament to both the vault's difficulty and the immense power she generates during a skill few male gymnasts try and even fewer land as cleanly.
She hopped off the beam after failing to land her side aerial, though she wasn't quite as frustrated as she was during a sloppy performance on Friday that left her uttering an expletive for all the world to see.
Biles finished with a flourish on floor exercise, her signature event. Though there was a small step out of bounds, there was also the unmatched world-class tumbling that recently drew a shoutout from pop star Taylor Swift, whose song “Ready For It” opens Biles' routine.
She stepped off the podium to a standing ovation, then sat down atop the steps to take in the moment in what could be her last competitive round on American soil for quite a while.
Next stop, Paris.
Biles and the other four women who join her in France will be considered heavy favorites, particularly with defending Olympic champion Russia unable to compete as part of the fallout from the war in Ukraine.
The Americans will take their oldest women's team ever to the games, as Biles' unrivaled longevity — she hasn't lost a meet she's started and finished since 2013 — and the easing of rules around name, image and likeness rules at the NCAA level allowed Carey (24), Chiles (23) and Lee (21) to continue to compete while cashing in on their newfound fame at the same time. 16-year-old Hezly Rivera is the youngest member of the U.S. team.
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