FORT WORTH, Texas — What do you get for the nine-time national all-around champion who has it all? Apparently an engraved silver belt buckle.
On Sunday night, Simone Biles won the USA Gymnastics Championships with a total score of 119.750 (60.450 on Day 1, 59.300 on Day 2) to win the trophy that is the symbol of Texas. She also won all the individual events.
The 27-year-old’s biggest mistake over the course of two nights was over-rotating her Yurchenko double spear jump and landing on her back. Even with the fall, she still scored 15,000 points because the vault was so difficult and Biles had almost no flaws except the landing.
She started on the balance beam, did a 14.800 on the stationary routine, and added a 15.100 on the floor exercise. Although her triple twisting double back tuck was a little too much and popped out of bounds, she only took a slight landing penalty on her other three super-difficult tumbling passes.
Simon does Simon’s thing. 👑#XfinityChamps | 📺 NBC & @Peacock pic.twitter.com/7jkqwFaRbS
— NBC Olympics and Paralympics (@NBCOlympics) June 2, 2024
Biles capped off her all-around performance on the uneven bars by gliding in her typically fast fashion to score a 14.400.
On her historic night, Biles took time out to cheer on another Olympic all-around champion, Suni Lee, who opened the night with a vault fall. Lee competed in the double twist vault on Friday and warmed up on Sunday, but she did not gain enough height from the vault to complete both twists because her hand slipped while vaulting in competition.
She completed a 1 1/2 twist and seated vault, similar to the incomplete vault Biles performed while battling a twist in the Tokyo team finals. Lee was uninjured, but walked off the court and back to her feet after a fluke vault, where Biles approached her to offer some support.
“After Suni vaulted, I knew exactly what was going through her head. I dealt with this in Tokyo, so I knew she needed some encouragement and someone to believe in her gymnastics and believe in her, so that’s exactly what I did,” Biles said, adding that Lee asked her to support No. Her next move after balancing the vault was on the bars.
Lee turned things around with a 14.500 on the bars, not counting the full range of difficulty she planned to show at the Olympic Trials, and finished fourth in the all-around in her first all-around meet since 2021. Erls was credited with helping her stay on the ground after her vault fall.
“She has been one of my biggest inspirations for a long time. I know we were teammates and competitors, but she was someone I looked up to, so hearing her say these words meant a lot,” Lee said.
Skye Blakely performed well again with a bar score of 14.450 to retain second place. The 19-year-old has struggled with consistency issues at international competition, but with the debut of an upgraded vault and eight striking routines over two nights, she strengthened her case for selection to the Paris Olympic team. reason.
Tokyo silver medalist Jordan Chiles climbed to fifth in the all-around rankings with a 14.100m lift, while 2020 floor exercise gold medalist Jade Carey finished seventh. Both men documented falling off the beam, but they were not alone. The four-inch event caused trouble for several gymnasts on Sunday, with Parisian Leanne Wong also falling.
Sixteen gymnasts have earned invitations to the Olympic trials, scheduled for June 27-30 in Minneapolis, where they will compete for a spot on the five-member team heading to Paris. These include Shilese Jones and Kaliya Lincoln, who withdrew from the tournament but successfully applied to participate in the trials.
On the men’s side, Brody Malone won his third all-around national title and first game back from a devastating knee injury in March 2023 that required three surgeries. Finished first on the high bar on Saturday night.
Victory is guaranteed. 🙌
Brody Malone ended the weekend with his third U.S. All-Around Championship! #XfinityChamps pic.twitter.com/XSwh0HQ0Mm
— NBC Olympics and Paralympics (@NBCOlympics) June 2, 2024
The 24-year-old, who had to relearn how to walk after suffering a tibial plateau fracture, partial ACL tear and complete posterior cruciate ligament tear, is expected to join Michigan State’s Frederick Richard this summer De and Stanford University’s Coy Young were selected to the Olympic team for the second time. The two 2023 World Championships medalists finished second and third respectively in the men’s all-around.
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