gymnastics trials and five years since the Rio Games, the women who will represent Team USA in Tokyo walked silently through the darkness inside The Dome at America’s Center.
As the house lights lifted and fireworks illuminated the arena in red-white-and-blue sparkles and smoke, seven-time Olympic medalist Shannon Miller read the names of the top four finishers over two days of competition: Simone Biles, Sunisa Lee, Jordan Chiles and Grace McCallum.
“It’s been a really long journey from 2016 to now,” Biles said shortly after the team was announced.
After the most fraught period in the sport’s history, fans have a new Olympic team to wrap their support around — even if, like Biles, they’re not ready to embrace the organization for which the women compete.
In addition to the four-woman team, MyKayla Skinner, a 2016 alternate who finished fifth over the two days, was named in the additional individual spot and Jade Carey, who secured an individual spot through her performances in the apparatus World Cup Series, is on her way to Tokyo.
Her spot on this team seemed inevitable — to everyone, that is, but Biles, who has been emotional since arriving in St.
She said she teared up Friday night as she walked into the arena to take her first steps toward the end of a physically and mentally exhausting road.
She finished the night three points ahead of the competition and nailed one of the best floor routines of her career.
But because of her difficulty level, combined with her day-one score, she still won the meet by more than two points over Lee.
The 24-year-old knows she is the best gymnast in the world and at this point in her career, competes only against herself.
Although she is conditioned to make the most difficult skills in the world look effortless, only she, her coaches and those with access to her training sessions know the excruciating amount of work she has put into becoming comfortable enough to compete those skills – so dangerous she once performed them only into a foam pit “for fun”.
“I feel like there is a lot of expectations I put on myself and everybody puts on me as well,” Biles said.
And Lee posted the highest all-around score of the meet Sunday night, besting Biles by more than half a point.
Like Biles, Lee struggled in 2020 when she learned the Games would be postponed.
But once she returned to the gym, Lee, 18, was determined to return to 2019 form and recover the routines that won her a bronze on bars and a silver on floor at world championships.