Simone Biles storms to first, Suni Lee in third after Day 1 of U.S. Olympic women’s gymnastics trials

Simone Biles, Suni Lee and Jordan Chiles electrified the Target Center crowd on the first night of competition at the United States Olympic trials in women’s gymnastics on Friday.

Biles, the four-time gold medalist seeking her third trip to the Olympics at age 27, finished on top of the all-around standings with a score of 58.900. Chiles was second, two and a half points behind Biles at 56.400. Lee, of St. Paul, was in third at 56.025, competing in front of a home crowd as the reigning Olympic all-around champion.

Biles, Chiles and Lee — members of the women’s team at the Tokyo Games in 2021 — are priming themselves for a reunion at the Paris Olympics, along with Jade Carey, who is in fourth. Leanne Wong, an alternate in Tokyo, is in eighth.

“[Biles] is somebody that I’m always going to look up to no matter what it is in life, whether it’s gymnastics, whether it’s just life in general,” Chiles said. “To be behind her, it just makes me feel more confident. Going into Day Two, let’s just keep it like that.”

The gymnasts will do it all again on Sunday night before the five Olympic gymnasts — and two alternates — can start packing their bags for Paris.

The highest-scoring woman after two days of competition will automatically qualify for the Olympic team. A committee will choose the other four team members, factoring results from international competitions and four other American events, including the recent U.S. championships, over the past year. The committee also will weigh potential for team, all-around and individual event medals.

The last two world championship teams have taken the top five finishers in the all-around from the trials event.

“I would say that just happened to be happenstance,” said Alicia Sacramone Quinn, the strategic lead for the women’s team at USA Gymnastics. “I think it’s always a puzzle, and that’s how we talk about it. And it’s a combination of our best all-rounders, our best event finalists, so it just happened to play out that way. … Honestly we were kind of lucky and we didn’t have anything too crazy to have to work through. So it’s been relatively easy to do selections up until this point. We know this one will not be easy at all.”

Injuries will play a role in the committee’s decision after Friday night got off to an unnerving start. While warming up on vault, Shilese Jones, a member of the gold-medal-winning 2022 and 2023 world championship teams, landed awkwardly. She held her knee before being helped off the floor by her coaches. She opted out of a vault attempt, put in a strong performance on uneven bars on the next rotation (14.675) and then took the rest of the night off.

Her status for Sunday’s competition is unknown. Jones had skipped the U.S. championships to rest a shoulder injury, but her coach, Sarah Korngold, said this week that Jones was not in pain from that long-term injury.

On the first vault of the night, Kayla DiCello landed, tipped backward onto the mat and grimaced. She held her foot and shook her head before being carried off the mat. She withdrew from Friday night’s portion of the trials soon after with an undisclosed injury.

DiCello, 20, was considered a contender for the Olympic team after placing third in the all-around at the U.S. national championships this month and winning all-around gold at the 2023 Pan American Games.

“It’s always hard to see one of your teammates get hurt,” said Laurent Landi, one of Biles’ coaches. “It’s the second one this week so it’s becoming a little bit stressful right now.”

Another gymnast thought to have an inside track on a spot on the Paris team, Skye Blakely, suffered an Achilles injury in training on Wednesday. After the first rotation’s conclusion Friday, she took the floor in crutches, waving and teary-eyed, and received a 30-second standing ovation from the crowd.

Landi told the gymnasts to be in a bubble and focus on themselves. “Control the controllable,” he added.

On her second rotation of the night, Biles had a shaky performance on the balance beam. She stumbled on her mount, then wavered on her first pass across the beam and wobbled coming out of a rotation. She looked visibly frustrated afterward and appeared to let out an expletive.

He said Biles was very angry after her beam routine, but bounced back with “an almost perfect floor and an amazing vault.” Biles finished with the top scores in both apparatuses to soar into first place after sitting in second to Wong after two rotations.

The Target Center crowd offered a standing ovation after Biles’ signature first vault, almost as if calling for an encore. Her score of 15.975 was the highest of the night on the apparatus and a full 1.375 points clear of the next-best vault.

“It was a great recovery,” Landi said. “Just trust your training.”