Simone Biles to lead U.S. gymnastics team’s quest for gold at Tokyo Olympics

Not that there was any doubt, but Simone Biles will go to the Tokyo Games as the U.S. Olympic trials all-around champion.

Biles made a few uncharacteristic wobbles in Sunday’s trials finale, and her fall off the balance beam drew gasps from the crowd of about 20,000 at the Dome at America’s Center. She had so much power on her floor exercise tumbling passes that she went out of bounds twice, though the crowd didn’t care and gave a standing ovation in tribute to the defending Olympic all-around gold medalist.

Sunisa Lee of St. Paul, Minn., had a higher second-day score than Biles, 58.166 points to 57.533, but Biles’ two-day total of 118.098 (to 115.832 for Lee) was still more than enough for Biles to win and be the leader of a strong and skillful four-woman U.S. team. Biles and Lee earned automatic berths for finishing in the top two at the trials. It will be the first Olympics for Lee, 18.

Jordan Chiles, a 20-year-old incoming UCLA freshman who trains alongside Biles in Spring, Tex., also was named to the Tokyo team and will be a first-time Olympian. That was a relatively easy decision because of her impressive third-place finish at the trials with 114.631 points, built around her dynamic floor exercise routine and second-ranked (behind Lee) performances on the uneven bars. A selection committee chose fourth-place trials finisher Grace McCallum as the fourth member and MyKayla Skinner for an individual spot.

Jade Carey of Phoenix, 21, also will go to Tokyo because she earned an individual spot based on her performances in floor exercise and vault in the International Gymnastics Federation’s Apparatus World Cup series.

Tokyo Olympics Coverage

Biles won gold medals in the 2016 Rio Games in the all-around and team events as well as in vault and floor exercise. She also won bronze on the balance beam. Biles, 24, will try to become the first woman to repeat as Olympic all-around champion since Vera Caslavaka of Czechoslovakia won in 1964 and again in 1968.

Biles, wearing a red leotard with silvery glitter, started out on vault on Sunday. Although she didn’t do the history-making Yurchenko double pike vault that she performed in May at the U.S. Classic competition, her vaults were stunningly powerful and high, as usual. She had a backward hop on her Cheng vault and another hop on her Amanar vault but she’s still in a class by herself.

Her uneven bars routine wasn’t as smooth as usual, but her 6.1 difficulty score helped her score 13.833 points. She dropped off the balance beam after performing an aerial cartwheel but her 6.5 difficulty score allowed her to pick up 13.70 points. The total score is the sum of the difficulty and execution scores. On floor exercise, she went out of bounds while landing a triple double (three twists, two flips). She put her right foot out of bounds on her second pass and was less than exuberant as she returned to the sidelines. However, she returned the crowd’s affection by waving and smiling.

Emma Malabuyo, an incoming UCLA freshman, finished ninth with 110.531 points and was named an Olympic alternate, along with Kara Eaker, Kayla DiCello and Leanne Wong.

Another UCLA recruit, Emily Lee, appeared to injure her ankle or leg during her floor exercise routine and was unable to continue. She was the final performer of the event.