U.S. Gymnastics ‘Redeem Team’ Emerges In Olympic Podium Training

The U.S. women’s gymnastics team took its first step toward redemption. Five athletes took to the floor at Olympic podium training, an event designed to ensure athlete readiness on the competition equipment. Under the bright lights of Bercy Arena, the defending World Champions were all business.

Starting on beam is no easy feat – even for the world’s leading team. While the rotation was not perfect, all five athletes showed grit to conquer the event. Jordan Chiles, Jade Carey, and Simone Biles all finessed small errors to stay on the apparatus. Although Carey was without her coach and father, Brian Carey (due to an undisclosed illness reported by USA Gymnastics), she appeared unfazed on the apparatus in an impressive display of tenacity.

Rookie Hezly Rivera and defending Olympic Champion Sunisa Lee brought breathtaking elegance to the event. While Lee struggled at times, suffering from two falls, she finished her rotation with a strong, albeit downgraded routine. Most importantly, she seemed to shake off the mistakes, seen smiling and laughing with Team USA coaches Jess Graba and Cecile Landi.

Lee roared back on floor, nailing her dramatic routine with remarkable artistry to open the rotation. Brilliant once again, 2022 World floor silver medalist Chiles was rock-solid on her tumbling to go two-for-two on the day.

Biles and Carey, the previous two Olympic gold medalists on floor, showcased impressive tumbling despite small errors. 16-year-old Rivera capped the rotation with confidence. The team’s junior displayed charisma and presence beyond her age, smiling and emoting as if performing for an audience

Perhaps still adjusting to the equipment in Bercy Arena, all but one athlete stepped out-of-bounds while simply standing in the corner. Team USA will look to minimize these small but costly errors when they begin competition this weekend.

Biles remarked to Chiles, “I feel like I was on every single corner” as the two debriefed after their floor routines. Nonetheless, the two veterans helped usher a momentum shift as the team marched from floor to vault, dancing to the music in Bercy Arena.

Minutes after dancing with Chiles, Biles delivered arguably the best vault performed in women’s gymnastics history, sticking her Yurchenko double-pike, the highest-valued vault in the Women’s Code of Points. While Simone looked gold medal-ready on vault, her four teammates pieced together a solid but imperfect effort.

While Lee and Carey looked ambivalent about their efforts, they hit nonetheless, with Carey nailing her difficult Cheng vault in a promising indicator of her Olympic readiness. Chiles also showed potential on the event, working to harness her power on her clean vaults. Although Rivera stumbled on her Yurchenko double twist, she will likely not appear for the team on the event.

The team finished the day on bars with decisive hits across the board. Rivera saved her best for last, proving her worthiness on one of her key events. The bars and beam star was elegant and precise, sticking her full-twisting double tuck dismount to the approval of her coach, Valeri Liukin.

After perhaps an underwhelming day, Lee delivered…and then some. The defending bars bronze medalist was faultless, nailing all of her connections and hitting her dismount to a massive smile and hug from coaches. If Lee can replicate this routine in competition, a bars medal is within reach.

While today’s theme for Lee felt a bit like redemption, Sunday’s qualification round marks the beginning of their collective goal, and that goal is no secret: team gold. Lee expressed the team’s desire to the media at June’s U.S. Olympic Trials. Echoing her teammate’s sentiment at the conclusion of trials, Biles branded the 2024 campaign for gold as a “redemption tour.”

This is definitely our redemption tour, I feel like we all have more to give and our Tokyo performances weren’t the best…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.”

This Sunday, the path toward redemption officially takes flight. Team USA’s gymnastics ‘Redeem Team’ opens their Paris bid at 3:30 a.m. ET in the team qualifying round. The team looks to lock in a finish in the top eight to advance to Tuesday’s team final.