Seven-time Olympic medallist Simone Biles is now just four routines away from a history-making ninth U.S. all-around crown, after soaring to the day one lead Friday (31 May) at the 2024 U.S. Gymnastics Championships in Ft. Worth, Texas.
Across the four events, Biles totalled a 60.450, ahead of Skye Blakely (57.050). Kayla DiCello (56.850) is third.
Reigning Olympic all-around champion Sunisa Lee competed on all four events for the first time in elite gymnastics since capturing gold at Tokyo 2020. She sits in fourth place, having earned a 55.750 total in the all-around.
Earlier in the day, two-time world all-around medallist Shilese Jones withdrew from the event with a shoulder injury.
Biles, 27, already owns the most U.S. crowns in history with eight total (2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2018, 2019, 2021, 2023). Friday night was the first time she had broken the 60.000 mark since the 2021 U.S. Olympic trials.
"She broke the 60. That was a goal of hers," Biles' coach Cecile Landi said afterward. "Very happy with her routines, [her] attitude. Everything looked really good."
Starting on the vault, she wasted no time, coming out in the first rotation with a 15.800 score - the highest on any apparatus - for her booming Yurchenko double pike.
From there, it was smooth sailing as she ticked off a 14.650 on the uneven bars and a 14.800 on the balance beam.
In the final rotation, Biles tumbled two elements named in her honour, a triple double-double and a double layout half out, to post a 15.200. Her scores lead every apparatus.
Over her more than a decade at the top of the sport, the 30-time world championships medallist has made the otherworldly feel routine.
Still, it's not something Landi takes for granted.
"I'm lucky to be with her every day," the 1996 Olympian said. "I'm not saying it's normal, but I think with the amount of work that she does, it's expected and the talent that she has."
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Blakely rebounds
Nearly two weeks removed from a somewhat disappointing competition at the U.S. Classic, Blakely has put herself firmly back in contention for the U.S. team in Paris after a stellar showing on night one of the U.S. Championships.
In Ft. Worth, Blakely debuted a long-awaited Cheng vault (round off onto the board, half turn onto the table, front with one-and-a-half twists off), scoring 15.000 the second highest single vault score of the night behind Biles.
She was also impressive on the uneven bars (14.400) and balance beam (14.450).
Blakely's all-around total even surprised the 19-year-old herself.
"My goal I wrote down was actually a 56 all around," she told reporters. "So, 57, I think really tops it, and I'm really excited about that."
It’s a reset that’s been bolstered by her competition at the Classic.
“I definitely believe being out there on the floor at [U.S. Classic] helped me enough because I was able to practice each routine, see what’s working, see what’s not,” explained Blakely in a pre-event press conference. “I came back in the gym the next week, working more details, consistency, more numbers. I feel like that really helped me.”
Lee back in the all-around
Lee’s road back has been a careful process, as she and coach Jess Graba work to bring her back to top form.
“You can’t really cram for stamina. We’ve only been training since middle of January, so we have a lot of the tricks but putting everything together under pressure in a quick warm-up format and back-to-back days [is a challenge],” said Graba prior to competition. “The pacing is try to keep her healthy, add one thing at time and live to go to the next day.”
Friday was Lee’s first all-around competition in elite gymnastics since the Tokyo 2020 all-around final. Graba says she’s capable of more, especially on the uneven bars, but wanted to make sure she could handle the load mentally.
“Her belief in the stamina isn’t quite there yet… physically, she’s fine, and she can do pretty much everything, but that doesn’t mean your mind knows it,” he said. “We have to take care to make sure we don’t push her past what her mental capabilities right now.
“We have like five or six [bars routines] that we can do right now, but right now, we’re pretty much doing a second half for this meet,” Graba said later. “The main focus for this meet was build some stamina under pressure in front of everybody, get up and get warmed up in two turns.”
