Simone Biles made a spectacular return to gymnastics after nearly two years away from competition last weekend by winning the 2023 Xfinity U.S. Gymnastics Championships in San Jose, California.
Biles, 26, solidified her position as the greatest gymnast in American history – and surely one of the greatest athletes of all time – by winning her eighth national championship in eleven years. It was a triumphant return after Biles was forced to partially withdraw from the 2020 Tokyo Olympics after suddenly encountering a psychological issue known by gymnasts as the “twisties” which caused her to lose awareness mid-air in several tumbling moves.
In opting to withdraw rather than put her safety at risk, Biles became a spokesperson for mental health awareness and brought much-needed attention to the personal tribulations of athletes at high levels of competition. She never formally retired from gymnastics after Tokyo, but many wondered whether Biles would ever return to the competition floor.
Yet she did return, and she dominated the competition with a series of routines which blended incredible difficulty with excellent execution. Biles looked and performed as though she had not taken a single day off. Her return to the podium in San Jose also earned her a spot on the national team and she is a lock to compete at the 2023 World Championships in November, her first Worlds in four years.
The other major standout of the competition was Shilese Jones, a three-time medalist at last year’s World Championships. Jones, 21, is best known for her work on the uneven bars, but she put together a complete and absolutely gorgeous performance on all four events in the competition to walk away with the all-around silver. She thus also solidified her position on the US National Team and seems all but certain to compete at Worlds, where her technical excellence and artistry make her a strong contender on the international stage.
Only five women can represent the United States at the World Championships, and the battle for the final three spots is far messier. This is in great part due to the NCAA’s new Name Image Likeness (NIL) rules, which permit student-athletes to earn money from their own image without sacrificing collegiate eligibility. The adjustment to NIL rules has widened the field, encouraging many athletes to continue their elite careers as college students instead of retiring.
Elite (Olympic-level) gymnastics in the United States has traditionally been dominated by young girls, mostly between the ages of fifteen and eighteen. These girls were forced to chose between benefitting from the sponsorship deals of Olympic fame or earning a scholarship to compete at university. Conventional wisdom held that female gymnasts peaked around the age of sixteen, and many of the sport’s greatest competitors ‘retired’ while teenagers.
The NIL policy change and more progressive attitudes about training have rendered this traditional wisdom obsolete. Partially as a result of these adjustments, the average age of the gymnasts on last weekend’s podium was 22. Ten years ago, it was 16. University of Florida athletes Leanne Wong and Kayla DiCello placed third and eight respectively, while UCLA’s Jordan Chiles, a member of the Tokyo Olympic squad, finished fifth.
Remarkably, four of the five women who represented the United States at the Tokyo Olympics have committed to an elite comeback. Biles and Chiles are joined in this regard by the Olympic all-around champion Sunisa Lee and the floor exercise gold medalist Jade Carey. Both Lee and Carey face a slightly more uphill battle to return. Lee is battling a kidney condition and medication side-effects which forced her to compete only on balance beam and vault, disqualifying her from being named to the National Team. Jade Carey suffered several falls over the two-day competition and finished just fifteen overall.
Both Lee and Carey are expected to receive invitations to the World Team Selections Camp in November, due to their veteran experience and Olympic resumes. Yet the 2023 National Championships illustrated that the current U.S. women’s elite field is perhaps the deepest it has ever been. Carey and Lee might be some of the best gymnasts in the world, but they were still outscored by their compatriots in San Jose.
The fight for the five spots on the U.S. World Championship Team, and in turn the five spots on the 2024 Paris Olympic Team, might be tighter and more competitive than some of the international meets themselves. Only time will tell which of these women will be triumphant, yet last weekend’s competition already signaled a new era in American gymnastics and solidified the staying power of last quad’s competitors.
Image “File:Simone Biles Rio 2016b.jpg” by Fernando Frazão/Agência Brasil is licensed under CC BY 3.0.