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Olympics

Can U.S. figure skating carry this momentum to the Olympics?

April 2, 2025 by Tara S

D’Arcy Maine | ESPN

BOSTON — Alysa Liu couldn’t believe it.

As she sat on the white couch, flanked by her two coaches, and with the eyes of everyone in the TD Garden firmly on her, she said — or mouthed, it was impossible to hear much of anything with the enthusiastic noise of the crowd vibrating around the arena — “What?” in disbelief. Her free skate score had just been announced to the crowd — a 148.39 for a 222.97 total score — and the realization hit her in an instant.

She was the 2025 world champion.

The 19-year-old then audibly said, “What the hell?” with a wide, expressive smile, still in apparent shock over what she had done.

Liu’s triumph was perhaps the most unexpected result of a memorable weekend. In addition to knocking off reigning three-time world champion Kaori Sakamoto of Japan and becoming the first American woman to claim the title since 2006, Liu had done it less than a year after returning to the sport following a two-year retirement.

“I’m not going to lie, this is an insane story,” Liu said on the television broadcast moments later. “I don’t know how I came back to be world champion.”

And Liu’s victory was just the start of a dominant, statement-making weekend from the American contingent, who collectively proved they were yet again the world’s top skating power after relinquishing that claim in recent years. On Saturday afternoon, Madison Chock and Evan Bates captured their third straight ice dance world championship and hours later, Ilia Malinin closed the event — with yet another high-flying performance that he’s become known for — to clinch his second consecutive title as the men’s world champion.

It marked the first time in history the Americans won three of the possible four world titles at a single world championship.

“I feel very happy to be one of the three winning in [front of] a home crowd in America,” Malinin said on Saturday night. “I’m really proud of the team that we were able to put up.”

Before the end of Malinin’s skate, which included a crowd-deafening quad axel and a near fever pitch-inducing backflip, the home crowd was on its feet and roaring with an ovation usually only heard in the building in the postseason for the Celtics and Bruins. It was the culmination of four storybook days for the Americans, and the fans, and with less than a year until the sport’s pinnacle at the 2026 Olympic Games, it was as if everyone believed it was a sign of what was yet to come.

“To have three world champions in an Olympic season is so exciting,” Gracie Gold, a member of the 2014 bronze medal-winning American team and two-time national champion, told ESPN at TD Garden on Saturday. “I’m feeling super optimistic [about Olympic medal chances]. … It’s such an important year. I think everyone is feeling optimistic. Who wouldn’t be?”


The United States has had no shortage of superstars in figure skating over the decades. The most decorated skaters, such as Michelle Kwan, Kristi Yamaguchi, Dorothy Hamill and Brian Boitano, remain well-known names in the country’s sports landscape and collectively accumulated Olympic medals, world championships and various other titles from the sport’s biggest events.

But while Americans have continued to have strong podium success in ice dance, and Nathan Chen and the U.S. team earned gold medals in 2022 in Beijing, the Americans overall simply haven’t had the same consistent results across the board. No American woman has claimed an Olympic singles medal since Sasha Cohen won silver in 2006, and the gold medal drought dates even further to Sarah Hughes in 2002.

Liu, a prodigious talent with an impressive array of difficult skills from an early age, looked to be the best hope to reverse those fortunes, but she initially retired in 2022 as a burned-out 16-year-old following a third-place finish at the world championships.

Perhaps in large part because of the struggles of the women — once the most recognizable among all of the country’s Winter Olympians — interest in the sport, from viewership to participation, has waned in recent years.

But the weekend in Boston seemed to prove the country had turned a corner. The combination of talented American skaters, buoyed by the partisan and sold-out crowds, and the absence of the Russians (the country has been barred from competition since the invasion of Ukraine in 2022) paved the way for a staggering showing.

And it goes beyond those who earned world titles. All three American women finished in the top five on Friday — something that hadn’t happened since 2001. Isabeau Levito, who won silver at the 2024 worlds, finished in fourth place. Amber Glenn, who had been among the favorites entering the competition after a previously undefeated season, clawed her way back to fifth place after a challenging short program Wednesday.

“I mean, ‘Go Team USA,’ that’s kind of all I can say,” Liu told reporters later. “I’m so proud of both Isabeau and Amber for putting up such great performances, such a great fight, and they were really fun to be with this week.”

She later added they all cheer each other on and feed off one another’s success. (And even, in Liu’s case, borrow Glenn’s yoga mat ahead of competition.)

“All of that just drives us to be better also for each other,” she said.

Chock, 32, and Bates, 36, have perhaps been the glue of the American contingent since the Olympics three years ago. The pair were members of the 2022 Olympic team that originally won silver and was upgraded to gold after the Russian Olympic Committee team was stripped of the top prize following a doping scandal. Chock and Bates have also won six world medals, including the past three world titles. And they have followed in a line of strong American duos. The country has medaled in the event in every Games since 2006.

While neither of the country’s other ice dance teams made the podium, both finished in the top 10. Christina Carreira and Anthony Ponomarenko briefly held the top spot during the competition and finished fifth. Caroline Green and Michael Parsons ended in ninth place. Bates praised both duos after the event Saturday, and said there was an “incredibly strong” pipeline in the discipline in the U.S.

“Our goal is to be on top of the podium in Milan,” he said. “This [victory] doesn’t really change that.”

And following his rout at TD Garden, there is perhaps no one more assured of Olympic glory than Malinin.

The 20-year-old is unassuming off the ice and was spotted throughout the week walking around the concourse at TD Arena during other events and cheering on his American teammates. But he is a certified superstar on the ice — a “QuadGod” as his Instagram handle suggests, with degrees of difficulty so stratospheric that, like Simone Biles in gymnastics, he seems impossible to catch.

After his mind-blowing short program Thursday, in which he took a three-point lead over eventual bronze medalist Yuma Kagiyama and more than a 15-point edge over the rest of the field, Malinin had received a adoring reaction from the crowd before he was even finished, and dazzled with his dizzying array of quad jumps and his signature “raspberry twist” move.

Even Kagiyama couldn’t hide his admiration.

“I feel like his skating and his artistry, his expressions [are] getting better year by year,” he said through a translator. “I’m starting to think he’s invincible.”

On Saturday, Malinin further separated himself from Kagiyama and the rest with another mesmerizing and gravity-defying skate. With virtually every jump and skill lighting up the jumbotron in green, indicating it had been successful and earning bonus points for execution, the numbers piled up so fast it felt more like a video game than an artistic endeavor. His free skate score of 208.15 was over 15 points higher than anyone, and his final total score of 318.56 was 31.09 better than second-place finisher Mikhail Shaidorov of Kazakhstan.

With one year to go before the Milano Cortina Olympics, Malinin seems to be in a league of his own, with everyone else battling for second place, and he will almost undoubtedly be among the faces of the Games and perhaps the face of Team USA. He has spoken about his desire to further popularize the sport, at home and across the globe, and will likely do just that with every viral performance and high-profile endorsement he secures. He did a backflip — again — on the ice after being introduced to the crowd as the world champion during the victory ceremony.

Jason Brown, the 30-year-old sentimental fan favorite beloved for his artistry and passion but lacking some of the most difficult elements of his top-placing peers, had a nearly flawless free skate to finish eighth. Andrew Torgashev, the 2025 national runner-up, had a more challenging outing, falling twice during an error-prone free skate to land in 22nd place.

The pairs competition was the weakest spot for the Americans in Boston, but even that can be considered a win. Because Alisa Efimova and Misha Mitrofanov finished in sixth, and Ellie Kam and Danny O’Shea in seventh, their combined result of 13 gives the country a chance to qualify three teams for the Olympics — something that hasn’t been done since 1994.

“That would mean a lot,” Mitrofanov told NBC Sports on Thursday. “It’s bigger than us. That’s something, actually [that] we kind of set a little goal in our heads [coming into worlds].”

So now, the biggest question for the Americans in the sport is a simple one: Can they keep it up and dominate on the world’s biggest stage in February in Italy?

It certainly seems as if the country’s top skaters, across disciplines, are capable of doing just that. But of course, the participation status of the Russians remains unclear, and there are still 313 long, unpredictable days until the Olympic team event gets underway.

“A lot can happen in skating,” Gold said to ESPN on Saturday. “Ice is slippery.”

Filed Under: Olympics, Skating

X Games Aspen 2025: Chloe Kim wins Superpipe gold as Red Gerard defends slopestyle title

January 29, 2025 by Tara S

By Evelyn Watta | Olympics

Italy’s Miro Tabanelli made history with the world’s first 2340 to claim the men’s big air title, while Canada’s Frank Jobin won the X Games Street Style gold, and Nick Goepper dominated the men’s ski superpipe.

hloe Kim of the United States reacts after a run in the Women's Snowboard Superpipe during Day Three of the X Games Aspen 2025 at Buttermilk Ski Resort on January 25, 2025 in Aspen, Colorado. Kim won the event.

(Getty Images)

Chloe Kim continues to be a dominant force.

The two-time Olympic gold medallist earned her eighth X Games title in style with another stellar run in Aspen, Colorado, tying fellow American Shaun White for the most superpipe gold medals in X Games history.

The 24-year-old snowboarder returned to the Aspen slopes to defend her title alongside teammates Maddie Mastro and Maddy Schaffrick.

Kim and Mastro went 1-2 in qualifying for the finals.

Mastro thrilled the crowds with a huge score of 89.66, but that was before Kim’s first run, which secured her a historic title with 93.33 points. Japanese snowboarder Sara Shimizu finished third with 85.66.

“This one means a lot if I’m being completely honest. I wish I would’ve put down my final run but I’m so happy nonetheless,” said Kim, who has won 10 medals at the X Games since her debut at age 14.

  • X Games Aspen 2025 preview: Full schedule and how to watch live
  • X Games Aspen 2025: All results – complete list

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Miro Tabanelli lands the world’s first 2340, Americans rule men’s ski superpipe

The day had begun with another American Olympic champion on top of the podium in the men’s snowboard slopestyle.

Red Gerard delighted his hometown fans with an incredible final run that included a switch boardslide on the up-flat-down rail, switch backside triple 1620 and a backside 18 to retain his title for the second year in a row.

“Coming back as the X Games gold medallist is obviously awesome, but a full 365 days goes by, I feel like I have short term memory loss, I forget how it goes, and I always feel like a newbie when I come here,” he said after his 92.66 points that edged out his idol Canadian three-time Olympic bronze medallist Mark McMorris who took second place with his best of 90.33. Japan’s Taiga Hasegawa 81.00 was the third best.

“It’s 10 of the best riders in the world, so it’s really hard to get back to the top of the podium, so I’m just happy with how the week went.”

Canadian Frank Jobin ended the X Games snowboard street style course on top, ahead of the American pair of Nate Haust and Benny Milam who took silver and bronze medals respectively.

American’s swept the boards in the men’s ski superpipe. Nick Goepper, a six-time slopestyle medallist in slopestyle, earned his first men’s ski superpipe title at the X Games with his best of 92.66. Defending superpipe gold medallist, Alex Ferreira, finished in second with 92.00 with Hunter Hess third with 85.66.

Italy’s rising star Miro Tabanelli brought the curtains down after 72 hours of exhilarating action with a memorable ride in the men’s ski big air. Miro landed the world’s first known 2340 in ski contest history, a fantastic ending to the weekend for the Tabanelli family after his younger sister Flora won women’s ski big air on Friday [24 January].

Tabanelli scored 98.00 with with New Zealand’s Luca Harrington settling for silver with a score of 97.00. Matej Svancer’s 96.33 earned the Austrian bronze.

X Games Aspen 2025 results – Saturday, 25 January

Men’s Snowboard Slopestyle

  1. Red Gerard (USA) 92.66
  2. Mark McMorris (USA) 90.33
  3. Taiga Hasegawa (JPN) 81.00
  4. Marcus Kleveland (NOR) 46.33
  5. Liam Brearley (CAN) 31.66

Women’s Ski Slopestyle

  1. Tess Ledeux (FRA) 95.00
  2. Olivia Asselin (CAN) 92.66
  3. Anni Karava(FIN) 90.66
  4. Megan Oldham (CAN) 88.66

Women’s Snowboard Street Style

  1. Iris Pham (USA)
  2. Telma Sarkipaju (FIN)
  3. Jaylen Hanson (USA)
  4. Grace Warner (USA)

Men’s Snowboard Street Style

  1. Frank Jobin (CAN)
  2. Nate Haust (USA)
  3. Benny Milam (USA)
  4. Liam Brearley (CAN)

Women’s Snowboard SuperPipe

  1. Chloe Kim (USA) 93.33
  2. Maddie Mastro (USA) 89.66
  3. Sara Shimizu (JPN) 87.33

Men’s Ski SuperPipe

  1. Nick Goepper (USA) 92.66
  2. Alex Ferreira (USA) 92.00
  3. Hunter Hess (USA) 85.66
  4. Finley Melville-Ives (NZL) 80.00

Men’s Ski Big Air

  1. Miro Tabanelli(ITA) 98.00
  2. Luca Harrington (NZL) 97.00
  3. Matej Svancer (AUT) 96.33

Filed Under: Olympics, Skating, Skiing, X Games

Mondo Duplantis soars to Paris 2024 pole vault gold and breaks own world record 

August 6, 2024 by Tara S

By Sean McAlister

Armand ‘Mondo’ Duplantis has done it again.

The Swedish pole vaulter flew over the bar at a new world record height of 6.25m, having already secured Paris 2024 gold earlier in the evening on Monday, 5 August with a vault of 6.00m.

This is the ninth time Duplantis has broken the world record, beating the mark of 6.24m he set in the Xiamen Diamond League in April this year.

“I haven’t processed how fantastic that moment was,” he said after his historic jump. “It’s one of those things that don’t really feel real, such an out-of-body experience. It’s still hard to kind of land right now.

“What can I say? I just broke a world record at the Olympics, the biggest possible stage for a pole vaulter. [My] biggest dream since a kid was to break the world record at the Olympics, and I’ve been able to do that in front of the most ridiculous crowd I’ve ever competed in front of.”

The crowd he spoke of in the Stade de France has become used to breathtaking moments at these Olympics, but few can compare to this mammoth effort from Duplantis.

As chants of “Mondo, Mondo, Mondo” rang around the stadium, Duplantis did what he does best, first breaking the Olympic record with a jump of 6.10m and then raising the bar higher to 6.25m.

As he flew over the bar, he was met with roars from across the masses of people inside the Stade de France who had witnessed the greatest jump — and jumper — in history.

“I tried to clear my thoughts as much as I could,” he said of the momentous reception he received from the stands. “The crowd was going crazy. It was so loud in there, it sounded like an American football game. I have a little bit of experience being in a 100,000-capacity stadium, but I was never the centre of attention. [I was] just trying to channel the energy everybody was giving me, and they were giving me a lot of it. It worked out.”

With the screams of joy from the crowd only matched by Duplantis’ own, the 24-year-old jumped from the mat and straight into the arms of his loved ones.

On a night filled with unforgettable moments, this is one that will be talked about for years to come.

His gold medal in Paris continues his incredible streak at major international outdoor championships, which has seen him win gold at the past three worlds and — after Monday — the last two Olympic Games.

Sam Kendricks of the USA won silver with a jump of 5.95m and Greece’s Emmanouil Karalis took bronze (5.90m).

Filed Under: Olympics, Track and Field

U.S. Wins Gold Medal, Sets World Record in 4×100 Mixed Relay

August 6, 2024 by Tara S

henry bushnell

PARIS — The U.S. won swimming’s mixed medley relay here at the 2024 Olympics, recovering from a flop at Tokyo 2021 to beat China and Australia in world-record time.

The U.S. team of Ryan Murphy (backstroke), Nic Fink (breaststroke), Gretchen Walsh (butterfly) and Torri Huske (freestyle) finished in 3:37.43, narrowly ahead of China by 0.12 seconds.

Murphy swam the U.S. into a slight lead over the first 100 meters. China’s Qin Haiyang took back the lead at the 200 with a strong breaststroke leg. But Walsh and Huske, one of the stars of the week for Team USA swimming, closed with fury and held off China.

It was, in many ways, the expected result. And it was the only acceptable result for a country that has long been the giant of this sport; the country that likes to call its Olympics trials — and not the Olympics — the fastest swim meet, top-to-bottom, in the world.

Three years ago, however, the U.S. missed the podium entirely. A team also featuring Murphy and Huske — but questionably constructed by U.S. coaches — finished three full seconds behind Great Britain, way back in fifth place.

This time around, coaches got the lineup right. They selected four silver medalists in their respective 100-meter individual races. And together, as a collective, the silver medalists swam to a relay gold and a world record.

Filed Under: Olympics, Swimming

Aleksandra Miroslaw twice breaks sport climbing world record at the Olympics

August 6, 2024 by Tara S

By: Daily Mail

Polish climber Aleksandra Miroslaw made history during the women’s speed climbing qualification round on Monday.

The 30-year-old entered the competition already holding the world record in the event, having set a time of 6.24 seconds during qualification for Paris.

Clearly not content to rest on her laurels as she looked to earn her place in the next round of the competition, Miroslaw embarked on a incredible run during the seeding round.

In her first attempt she bettered her world record by three one hundredths of a second, clocking a time that left her well ahead of her nearest challenger.

Miroslaw wasn’t done yet though, and just minutes later returned for a second attempt.

Having already improved on the record, Miroslaw comprehensively smashed it in her second attempt, recording a time of 6.06.

The two-time world champion now holds all the top ten records by a woman in the event.

American Emma Hunt ultimately qualified in second place, finishing with a time of 6.36.

Miroslaw previously competed at the 2020 Games in which climbing made its Olympic debut.

While she set a world record in the finals in Tokyo, the sport was controversially included only as a combination of three separate climbing disciplines  — speed, lead climbing, and bouldering — and ultimately finished fourth in the overall standings.

Speed climbing has been separately included as an event in Paris, and Miroslaw will enter Wednesday’s final as the favourite to secure gold.

Poland have yet to claim gold in Paris, but u57kg boxer Julia Szeremeta has already guaranteed bronze by reaching the semi-finals where she will face the Philippines’ Nesthy Petecio on Wednesday. 

Filed Under: Olympics

Faith Kipyegon breaks her own world record in 1,500 meters

July 10, 2024 by Tara S

PARIS (AP) — Faith Kipyegon of Kenya broke her own world record in the women’s 1,500 meters at the Diamond League track and field meeting in Paris on Sunday.

Kipyegon finished in 3:49.04, surpassing her record of 3:49.11, which was set in Italy last year.

“I knew the world record was possible because I recently ran very fast in Kenya,” said Kipyegon, who clocked 3:53.98 at Kenya’s Olympic Trials. “I was coming here to just run my race and to see what shape I’m in to defend my title at the Olympics.”

Nine other runners in the race achieved personal bests. Jessica Hull of Australia finished second in 3:50.83, smashing her own Oceania record by five seconds. Laura Muir was third in a British record of 3:53.79.

The 30-year-old Kipyegon is a two-time Olympic gold medalist in the 1,500, having won in Rio de Janeiro in 2016 and Tokyo in 2021. Before Sunday, she had only run twice in 2024, in the 1,500 and 5,000, to secure her spot for the Paris Olympics at the Kenyan trials in June.

Kipyegon’s performance came less than an hour after Ukraine’s Yaroslava Mahuchikh broke the world high jump record with a leap of 2.10 meters.

Filed Under: Olympics, Track and Field

U.S. women’s soccer looking for Olympic redemption in Paris

July 3, 2024 by Tara S

by: Orri Benatar, Matt Barnes | WKRG

One of the teams to watch at this summer’s Paris Olympics will be the USA women’s soccer team. While they have been wildly successful in the past decade, they have not won an Olympic gold since 2012.

No team heading to Paris may be more hungry than the USWNT. “Winning with the US women’s national team has been a part of our history,” said defender Crystal Dunn. “But by no means is this something that we expect just by stepping out of the field.”

Recently, the world has caught up to the previously dominant US women’s national team. Despite the Americans winning the World Cup in 2015 and 2019, Olympic gold has eluded them with no medal in Rio 2016 and a bronze in Tokyo 2020.

Last year, the US suffered its worst performance at a World Cup after being knocked out by Sweden in the round of 16. “The women’s game is growing so as much as people want us to beat every everyone 7-0, those days may be behind us, and I think that’s amazing,” said Dunn. “Yes, in one way I can say I want the US to win every dominant and when I truly believe that we can, but I also support the growth of the women’s game.

Despite the successful rise of teams like Spain, France, and Australia, don’t count out the US in Paris. They will be under new manager Emma Hayes and despite losing big names like Megan Rapinoe, they have lots of new, young talent in the pipeline like Trinity Rodman, Jaedyn Shaw, and Jenna Nighswonger.

“They are very talented. And understanding that it’s a smaller office and having that talent and how can we all fit that together, it’s something that we’ve been doing for the past couple of months,” said midfielder Emily Sonnett. “Now having a new coach in to evaluate and understand how to use all the skills for the Olympics to have a better chance of winning gold.”

Team USA is hoping a great showing in Paris will only add to the excitement of women’s soccer, which continues to grow exponentially across the globe. “I think it’s been great to be a part of and play a role in it and hopefully we can keep building all the momentum,” said midfielder Rose Lavelle. “I think everyone keeps saying this is the moment. It’s not a moment it’s here to stay that’s going to keep growing and getting better.”

The quest for Team USA begins on July 25 when they face Zambia in its opening group match.

Filed Under: Olympics, Soccer, Women's Soccer

U.S. Olympic women’s gymnastics team sets out for its ‘redemption tour’

July 3, 2024 by Tara S

  • By Nick Zaccardi | NBC Sports

In past Olympics, the U.S. women’s gymnastics roster included athletes who seemed destined to make the team throughout the four-year cycle.

That was not the case this time.

Simone Biles went two years without competing after the Tokyo Olympics.

Last year, Suni Lee was told by a doctor that she probably wouldn’t be able to do gymnastics again due to two kidney diseases.

Fellow Tokyo Olympians Jordan Chiles and Jade Carey competed throughout this Olympic cycle, but both were beaten out for spots on the 2023 World Championships team by younger gymnasts.

Hezly Rivera was in the junior division last year. She began the run-up to the Olympic Trials by placing 24th at the Core Hydration Classic last month.

Yet Biles, Lee, Chiles, Carey and Rivera make up the team for the Paris Games. That lineup wouldn’t have been predicted before injuries took out three contenders over a three-day stretch last week.

Skye Blakely, the 2024 U.S. all-around silver medalist, ruptured her right Achilles in training Wednesday.

Shilese Jones, a 2022 and 2023 World all-around medalist, injured her left leg on a vault Friday before competition began.

Kayla DiCello, the 2021 World all-around bronze medalist, ruptured an Achilles on her opening vault Friday.

That left 13 gymnasts to perform over two days of all-around competition on Friday and Sunday in Minneapolis.

Biles continued her excellent comeback by winning the trials by 5.55 points, which was greater than the margin separating runner-up Lee from ninth place.

She extended her all-around win streak to 30 consecutive meets dating to 2013. Biles has the world’s top handful of all-around scores in this Olympic cycle, according to the Gymternet.

At 27, she will be the oldest U.S. Olympic female gymnast since 1952.

“I never pictured going to another Olympic Games after Tokyo just because of the circumstances,” said Biles, who dealt with the twisties at the last Olympics. “I never thought I would go back in the gym again, be twisting, feel free.”

0 seconds of 6 minutes, 58 secondsVolume 0%

Lee, the Tokyo Olympic all-around champ, was sidelined for a few months in early 2023 and ultimately diagnosed with two kidney diseases.

She has been in remission since late last year and returned to all-around competition at the Xfinity U.S. Championships four weeks ago.

“I’m so, so glad that I never gave up,” she said. “There were so many times where I thought about just quitting and just kind of walking away from the sport because I didn’t think that I would ever get to this point.”

Chiles was a revelation in 2021. She made the Tokyo Olympic team with neither senior world championships experience nor a top-three finish in a U.S. junior all-around.

She backed it up in 2022 with three medals at the world championships. That impressively came after a full freshman season at UCLA. Rarely has a woman so successfully flipped back and forth between college and elite gymnastics.

In 2023, Chiles took a break after her sophomore season at UCLA and had an abbreviated, month-long run-up to summer elite meets. She was fifth at the 2023 U.S. Championships and ninth at a world championships team selection camp. She did not make the world team.

“This moment, it felt so far away, but it felt so close,” Chiles said Sunday night. “I felt like in times and weeks, I could just grasp it and be like, oh my gosh, I’m almost there. And then other times, I’m just like, I feel like this is 150 years away.”

Similarly, Carey matriculated at Oregon State after winning the Tokyo Olympic floor exercise title.

She also won three medals at the 2022 Worlds. She also didn’t make the 2023 World team (after placing 15th at nationals).

Yet at Olympic Trials, Carey had her two best days of all-around in two years to finish fourth.

“This is the most stressful meet I’ve ever been a part of in my life,” she said. “Just those past experiences really helped me, reminded me of why I’m doing this sport and where I want to go.”

Though Rivera is an outlier on this team — at 16, the only woman not in her 20s — she continues a tradition in U.S. women’s gymnastics.

From 1980 through 2016, every Olympic team included at least one woman who turned 16 (or younger) in the Olympic year. That streak was snapped in Tokyo.

Rivera, the 2023 U.S. junior all-around champion, joined the mix for this team by placing sixth at her senior nationals debut four weeks ago.

As things stand, she would be the youngest U.S. Olympian in Paris across all sports.

“2028 was the goal,” Rivera said.

Both Biles and Lee referred to Paris as “a redemption tour” after the U.S. took team silver in 2021 following golds in 2012 and 2016.

“I feel like we all have more to give, and our Tokyo performances weren’t the best,” Biles said. “We weren’t under the best circumstances, either. But I feel like we have a lot of weight on our shoulders to go out there and prove that we’re better athletes. We’re more mature. We’re smarter. We’re more consistent.”

Filed Under: Gymnastics, Olympics, Women in Sports, Women's Sports

Core Hydration Classic: Simone Biles, Suni Lee, Gabby Douglas lead Olympic gymnastics push

May 15, 2024 by Tara S

  • By Nick Zaccardi | NBC Sports

The Core Hydration Classic on Saturday will display the depth of the U.S. women’s gymnastics program with 11 athletes in the field who own an Olympic or world championships medal.

No more than five of them can make the Paris Olympic team, which will be named after next month’s Olympic Trials.

At Classic, three U.S. Olympic all-around gold medalists will compete in the same meet for the first time in gymnastics history: Gabby Douglas (London 2012), Simone Biles (Rio 2016) and Suni Lee (Tokyo 2020).

They’re joined by Tokyo Olympic floor exercise gold medalist Jade Carey and Tokyo Olympic team silver medalist Jordan Chiles.

Plus six more women who have won at least one world championship medal — Shilese Jones, Skye Blakely, Kayla DiCello, Joscelyn Roberson, Leanne Wong and Lexi Zeiss, an alternate on the 2022 World team.

How to watch the 2024 Core Hydration Classic

The Classic airs live on CNBC and Peacock on Saturday from 7-9 p.m. ET. It also streams on NBCSports.com and the NBC Sports app for CNBC subscribers. Live results will be here.

It’s followed by the Xfinity U.S. Championships from May 30 to June 2 in Fort Worth, Texas, and the Olympic Trials from June 27-30 in Minneapolis.

Separate selection committees pick the women’s and men’s Olympic teams after trials.

The women’s all-around winner at trials automatically makes the team.

The men’s all-around winner at trials makes the team if he is also among the top three on three of the six apparatuses. The men’s program is not participating at this year’s Classic as it focuses on prep for trials and the Olympics.

For the women, a three-person committee will choose the other four Olympic team members, taking into account athlete results dating back to last fall’s world championships.

Alicia Quinn, who is on the committee as the USA Gymnastics high-performance team leader, said that Classic is “another stepping stone” in the process.

“An athlete can have the ability to prove themselves, show their (routine) upgrades, if they’ve done anything different in the time since we’ve seen them at camp or a competition or coming back from an injury,” she said. “So it’s just an opportunity for them to continue to show their growth as an athlete and just how consistent and confident they are in their abilities.”

The Olympic team selection committee is the same trio that chose the 2023 World Championships team — Quinn, Tatiana Perskaia, an international judge and longtime coach (but with no current students in the running for an Olympic spot) and Jessie DeZiel, a former elite gymnast who is the athlete representative.

Quinn, a 2008 Olympic team silver medalist, said that she, Perskaia and DeZiel have been in regular communication after competitions and training camps. They have not had in-depth talks yet on the potential makeup of the Paris team.

Athletes are at different points in their training going into Classic.

Douglas competed three weeks ago in her first meet since the 2016 Rio Olympics. Biles competed last summer for the first time since the Tokyo Games, won her sixth world all-around title in October and will compete for the first time in 2024 at Classic. Lee has already competed twice this year as she works her way back after being diagnosed with two different types of kidney diseases in early 2023.

Quinn has typically been the committee member who tells the gymnasts when they’ve been invited for international competitions. So she expects to be the one who will read off the Olympic team after trials.

“When I have to stand up there and announce who it is, I’ll be fighting back tears knowing half the people in that room, or more than half, are going to be gutted a little bit and feeling let down,” she said.

Who is competing at the 2024 Core Hydration Classic?

The most up-to-date 2024 Core Hydration Classic field is here. At the time of publication, this was the athlete entry list:

Session 1 (2 p.m. ET, USA Gymnastics YouTube Channel)
Ly Bui
Chloe Cho
Norah Christian
Nicole Desmond
Reese Esponda
Kieryn Finnell
Jayla Hang
Cambry Haynes
Madray Johnson
Evey Lowe
Nola Matthews
Taylor McMahon
Annalisa Milton
Malea Milton
Zoey Molomo
Marissa Neal
Jazlene Pickens
Brooke Pierson
Hezly Rivera
Simone Rose
Lacie Saltzmann
Audrey Snyder
Izzy Stassi
Brynn Torry
Sabrina Visconti
CaMarah Williams

Session 2 (7 p.m. ET, CNBC, NBCSports.com, NBC Sports app, Peacock)
Simone Biles
Skye Blakely
Jade Carey
Dulcy Caylor
Jordan Chiles
Kayla DiCello
Amelia Disidore
Gabby Douglas
Tatum Drusch
Addison Fatta
Jazmyn Jimenez
Shilese Jones
Katelyn Jong
Suni Lee
Myli Lew
Kaliya Lincoln
Konnor McClain
Joscelyn Roberson
Ashlee Sullivan
Tiana Sumanasekera
Trinity Thomas
Leanne Wong
Kelise Woolford
Lexi Zeiss

Filed Under: Gymnastics, Olympics

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