How big is the US Olympic gymnastics team? Simone Biles, more

Six women have earned their place to represent the US at the 2021 Tokyo Olympics – Simone Biles, Sunisa Lee, Jordan Chiles, Grace McCallum, MyKayla Skinner and Jade Carey. The structure of a four-person team and two “specialists” for individual events is a completely new concept for the Tokyo Games. These athletes have worked their entire lives to reach this point in their careers and the size and age of each lady will surprise you.

Simone, 24, is perhaps the most notable name on the list with a total of 30 Olympic and World Cup medals. The Spring, Texas athlete brings new and daring moves to Tokyo this year.

At the US Classic competition in Indianapolis, the gymnast successfully managed a Yurchenko double pike on the vault, which so far only men have performed at the Olympic Games. She also did a double-twisting double flip dismount on the beam and a gravity-defying triple-twisting double flip on the bottom.

The author of Courage to Soar planned to retire from the Olympics last summer before retiring. However, when the games were postponed to July 2021 amid the coronavirus pandemic, Simone decided to train for another year. “I didn’t get this far just to get this far,” she said for 60 minutes.

One great success story comes from Jordan, 20. After winning 2nd place in the national all-around championship in 2017, she was devastated when she was not selected for the world championship. “I thought the sport didn’t want me anymore … So I went in the opposite direction,” she said of that time in her career.

Relying on her strict regime, her career took another bad blow when she finished 11th at the 2018 National Championships. Just as she was ready to quit gymnastics for good, Simone Jordan suggested they move to Texas to join her coach Cecile and Laurent Landi working out in their gym. Days after graduating from high school in Vancouver, Washington, where she attended prom and graduation, she immediately moved to the Lone Star State to begin her new education.

The 18-year-old Sunisa is considered to be one of the strongest athletes on the uneven bars with an extremely difficult routine. However, she had a hard way to get to Tokyo. In addition to recovering from a broken foot, the gymnast, who is from St. Paul, Minnesota, has suffered much devastation in her family.

In 2019, her father was paralyzed after helping a friend cut a tree. The following year she lost an aunt and an uncle to COVID-19. “That means a lot to me. I’ve worked so hard over the past few years, ”said the teenager after making the Olympic team.

However, she’s not the only one struggling with injuries. Grace, 18, broke her hand while exercising on the beam in January and needed a plate and seven screws to stabilize the bones.

MyKayla, 24, and Jade, 21, were close to making the team of four, but they will compete in individual events. The International Gymnastics Federation added the two individual places to give smaller countries that could not put together a complete team the opportunity to participate.

See the height of every US gymnast below!