Simone Biles wins seventh US title, more than any other woman in history – OlympicTalk
In a career full of historical accomplishments, Simone Biles She raised the bar once again when she won the US Gymnastics Championships with 119.65 points in Fort Worth, Texas on Sunday.
With seven U.S. titles – one of all the seniors she’s taken on since 2013 – Biles has more than any other woman in history. She was previously tied with for six Clara Schroth Lomadywon between 1945 and 1952 when the AAU was the national governing body of the sport. Bile is now bound with Alfred Jochim (1925-1930; 1933) for most Americans.
Biles, 24, has won every all-around event since the 2013 US Championships.
“It’s really emotional, especially when I’m doing an Olympic run for the second time,” Biles told NBC Andrea Joyce on NBCSN. “It’s really crazy.”
As she gradually builds up in defense of her all-round Olympic title, Biles has not shown all of her toughest skills, but has dominated nonetheless.
On both days, she left out the double-double balance beam descent named after her and the Yurchenko double jump, which she was the first woman to perform when she made her debut at the US Classic two weeks ago.
“We’ll definitely do it at trials,” she told the vault’s media. “I didn’t do it in this competition because I pinched my ankles on Wednesday and they didn’t feel that good, so we just decided not to do it and not rush it so I wouldn’t do it too nervous.”
Biles had the highest combined score on the beams, floor, and vault; This is the fourth time she has won three or more event titles at Nationals.
“I feel like every single championship stands out for a different reason, but this one stands out because it’s the way to Tokyo,” said Biles.
FACT: @Simone_Biles spends more time in the air than on the ground. #USGymChamps pic.twitter.com/AwLvSCsB5Z
– #TokyoOlympics (@NBCOlympics) June 6, 2021
Her floor routine, which includes two eponymous skills, is so far ahead of the rest of the field that Biles went out of bounds four times between the two routines and still won that title with 1.5 points. However, she showed improvements on Sunday, going out only once and scoring 0.3 more than on Friday. Her all-round score was also 0.55 points higher.
The gap to Galle was 4.7 points Suni LeeAlso in 2019 with 114.95 runner-up, closely followed by Jordan Chile‘114.45 points. Biles has won five of her national titles by more than four points.
Lee competed for the first time since the 2019 World Championships in the all-around competition, where she won silver on the floor and bronze on the uneven bars. She missed two months of training in 2020 when she broke a bone in her left foot, then another two months with left Achilles tendon problems. The 18-year-old won her second national title on parallel bars this week.
Fly up ✅
Record the landing ✅ @ sunisalee_ // #USGymChamps pic.twitter.com/x1pBCwcQbi
– #TokyoOlympics (@NBCOlympics) June 7, 2021
“I think this is a really good confidence booster because I didn’t even have my full potential on the floor and my jump could of course have been a little better and today my bar was a bit rough,” said Lee. “It definitely helps my confidence because I know I don’t have to be 100 percent to be at the top with Simone, so I’m really proud of myself.”
Chiles, 20, is having a breakout year after finishing sixth in the previous Nationals in 2019. A close friend and training colleague of Biles at the World Champions Center in Spring, Texas, she won the Winter Cup in February and finished second behind Biles in last month’s US Classics.
She said everything changed for her after moving from her hometown of Vancouver, Washington to Spring, Texas in 2019 to work out under coaches at Biles’ gym Cecile and Laurent Landi.
“When I moved to WCC, I had the worst lack of confidence in my entire gymnastics career, and I think it definitely helps to have the right coaching and teammates who can support you with anything, throughout your gymnastics and even in your life general ”, shared Chiles. “I honestly can’t thank Cecile and Laurent enough because they are honestly the stupidest people I have ever met in my life and it’s crazy to see how I have been in the past to this day; I can definitely say that my self-confidence is much better than it was then. “
Biles accompanied and encouraged Chileans on their way.
“I told her she did and she belongs here and that we will go there [Olympic] Try and do exactly the same thing because that’s what we trained for, ”Biles said of Chiles. “I’m glad that she can go out there and show the world what she is capable of, because she deserves it.”
Jordan Chiles’ floor routine is just utterly magical. ✨ @ ChilesJordan // #USGymChamps pic.twitter.com/4QdjC02v5i
– #TokyoOlympics (@NBCOlympics) June 7, 2021
Olympic trials will take place in less than three weeks – June 24-27 in St. Louis, Missouri – after which four athletes will be selected to compete in the team event in Tokyo, with a fifth athlete competing solely as a lone competitor.
“The gymnast doesn’t have to be an all-rounder,” said Forster about the additional individual athlete. “Our goal is to give our athletes the most opportunities to win medals for themselves and for Team USA. We believe that we will have our strongest all-rounders on the team. … Anyone who really moves up and shows the best potential for winning one or more medals will deserve this place. “
While Biles, Lee and Chiles are all favorites to form the Olympic team – especially since the first two finishers automatically qualify in the trials – the battle for fourth team spot is tight.
In Fort Worth, places four through nine are less than a point apart.
Emma Malabuyo finished fourth with 110.45 points – an impressive result after her senior career had been marred by injuries so far; Malabuyo finished seventh after the competition on Friday evening.
“Emma Malabuyo was definitely super impressive,” said high-performance team coordinator Tom Forster to the media. “She came from a very, very low position in the US Classic and it’s great to see her back in the international form she was in a few years ago as she struggled with a few injuries here and there. … There were a few surprises, but I would say it was the best surprise that we weren’t expecting. “
Leanne Wong (110.15), Jade Carey (110), Skye Blakely (109.55) and Grace McCallum (109.55) complete the top eight, all of which have automatically qualified for the Olympic Trials. Olympic selection 2016 MyKayla Skinner is exactly in this mix and occupies ninth place with 109.5 points, only 0.95 from fourth after eight routines.
MyKayla just does her thing in the safe 😱 @ mykaylaskinner // #USGymChamps pic.twitter.com/HX4QPXEr4I
– #TokyoOlympics (@NBCOlympics) June 7, 2021
Carey is the only American gymnast to have already secured a spot in Tokyo by collecting the maximum number of points on the floor during the 2019-20 World Cup. If she automatically qualifies for the four-man Olympic team (and chooses to fill that team seat), the US will lose her single seat and send one less gymnast to Tokyo.
After the competition, it was revealed that Skinner, Kara Eaker, Kayla DiCello, Shilese Jones, Emily Lee, Amari Drayton, Ava Siegfeldt, Addison Done, Zoe Miller and Riley McCusker were also selected to compete in St. Louis. Additional athletes can apply for trials, a process that is still ongoing.
Among those likely to petition are the 2016 gold and silver medalists Laurie Hernandez, All around world champion 2017 Morgan Hurd and world champion in all-around competition in 2005 Chellsie Memmel.
Hernandez, who returned to competition for the first time since the Rio Olympics in February, hyperextended her knee during the beam warm-up on Friday and scratched herself from the rest of that session after performing her beam routine on the first rotation. At that time, she was hoping to return on the second day, but withdrew from the meeting entirely.
Hurd has had a tough time competing this spring since she had her fifth and sixth elbow surgeries in March. She only performed Beam and Floor at both the US Classic and the Nationals, finishing 26th and 23rd respectively that week.
Memmel, a 2008 Olympian, took part in the US Classic for the first time in nine years. Today, 32-year-old mother of two, she returned to gymnastics out of love for sport and was ultimately convinced to make a competitive comeback that inspired many. Memmel had the fifth highest number of individual jump points on day 1 and was 13th overall on the bar. She fell on her Arab on the beam on the second day and fell off the bars on both days – an event in which she won the world title 18 years ago. After falling on bars twice on Sunday, she decided not to quit the routine.
Chellsie Memmel. That’s the tweet. @ CMemmel // #USGymChamps
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📱 NBC sports app pic.twitter.com/ogCEDFHeHx
– #TokyoOlympics (@NBCOlympics) June 6, 2021
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