Meet This Year’s Team USA Women’s Gymnastics Olympic Team

After a grueling run-up to the Olympic Trials, these five elite women’s gymnasts will represent Team USA At the 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris, France.

Every four years, America is captivated by the USA Women’s Gymnastics Olympic Team. This summer’s group that will be heading to Paris, France for the 2024 Summer Olympics will surely be no different and will be household names soon enough (if they aren’t already).

This year’s Olympic Trials in Minneapolis were marred by injuries to three strong contenders in Shilese Jones, Skye Blakely, and Kayla DiCello. But, the USA is still going to send a very strong team and will be the favorites to take home the gold.

Four of these gymnasts are familiar faces from the 2020 Summer Olympics held in Tokyo, Japan, and one is a fresh face who will be going back to high school in the fall.

After we meet each gymnast, 1988 Olympian and former Olympic commentator Melissa Marlowe will weigh in on each Team USA member.

Simone Biles

The greatest women’s gymnast of all time is back for her third Olympics, and looking for a bit of redemption from her Tokyo 2020 experience. Biles, the heavy favorite to take home the Olympic All-Around crown that year as well as be the star of the team expected to win gold in the team competition, had “the twisties” a gymnastics phenomenon that essentially means that gymnasts get “lost” in the air. This forced her to pull out of the Olympic Team Final in the middle of the meet, and she missed the all-around, vault, and uneven bars finals before finishing with a bronze medal on the balance beam.

The seven-time Olympic Medalist took home four golds in Rio in 2016, winning the team competition, the all-around, the vault, and the floor exercise.

Still, she will enter as the favorite in the all-around, vault, and floor, with medal chances on the balance beam and uneven bars. Now 27 and the oldest women’s American gymnast to make an Olympic Team since the 1950s, is a six-time.

Biles, who has pushed the limits of what many thought was possible in the sport, has five skills named after her. She will be one of the biggest worldwide stars of the Olympic Games.

She has a record 30 World Championships medals, including 23 gold medals and six World All-Around titles.

Simone Biles resides in Spring, Texas, and trains at her family-owned gym, World Champions Centre, under the tutelage of Laurent Landi and Cecile Canqueteau-Landi.

Expert’s Opinion:  “Simone appears to be at the top of her game, both physically and mentally. She will be challenged by Rebecca Andrade, who is rumored to have 2 new vaults prepared for Paris to challenge her for gold on that event. Simone seems to have learned to not wear the weight of the world on her shoulders anymore and is soaking in the process.”

Sunisa Lee

When Simone Biles was forced to withdraw from the all-around finals in Tokyo three years ago, it was Sunisa Lee who took advantage of her absence, winning a wide-open competition to become Olympic All-Around Champion, the most prestigious title in the sport.

It hasn’t been smooth sailing for the 21-year-old since. After an impressive debut college season at Auburn, her college career was cut short in 2023 when she was diagnosed with an incurable kidney disease. That, plus injuries threatened to end her gymnastics career. But, she peaked at the right time to make her second-straight Olympic team.

While she may not as big of a medal threat in the all-around that she was in Tokyo, Lee has a good chance to make the all-around finals and could be a medal threat on the uneven bars, as well. She won a bronze medal on that event in Tokyo.

The St. Paul, Minnesota native trains at Midwest Gymnastics Center and is coached by Jess Graba.

Expert’s Opinion: “Suni is an athlete who makes one believe in miracles, and after her immense health battles she has proven to be one of the most resilient athletes of these Olympic Games.”

Jordan Chiles

Jordan Chiles is another familiar face for Team USA, as she was also on the team that won a silver medal in the team competition in Tokyo three summers ago.

Chiles is a solid all-arounder that will provide experience and consistency on all four events for the United States.  She took third in the all-around at Olympic Trials behind Biles and Lee.

Chiles went through a bit of a rut in her gymnastics  last year while trying to balance the rigors of being a student-athlete at UCLA and staying sharp enough for the demanding realm of elite gymnastics. She was left off the World Championships team from a year ago, but that only fueled her.

The 2022 World Silver medalist on vault and floor exercise should continue to contribute strongly on those events. Her vault, while lacking the top-end difficulty of vaults performed by Simone Biles, is consistent and will likely lead off the team finals.

Expect her to compete in multiple events in the team finals and maybe sneak into an event final, as well.

Chiles, 23, resides in Conroe, Texas, after leaving UCLA to pursue another Olympic sport, and trains with Simone Biles at World Champions Centre under the direction of Laurent Landi and Cecile Canqueteau-Landi.

Expert’s Opinion: Jordan took an huge gamble leaving UCLA and was not afraid to fiercely follow her dream of returning to the Games. After a return plagued by inconsistency, she never lost sight that the ultimate goal was July of 2024.

Jade Carey

Jade Carey is the final Olympian to be making a return trip for Team USA, though her story and Tokyo experience is a bit different from the rest.

Due to a now-scrapped format that called for four-person teams with the ability to add up to two gymnasts from a country that would compete but would be ineligible for the team competition. No, it did not make any sense at all.

Carey pursued one of the two extra slots last cycle and won it, and had an outstanding Olympic Games. An uncharacteristic letdown in the vault final was overshadowed by an outstanding performance in the floor exercise final, as Jade Carey won the gold medal. She’s continued to shine in her college career at Oregon State, with five top-three NCAA finishes, and her powerful gymnastics is her calling card.

While Biles will be the USA’s ace on vault and floor exercise, expect Jade Carey to be a medal contender on both and boost the team score on those two events during the team competition.

The 24-year-old Phoenix native trains at both Arizona Sunrays at the direction her dad, Brian Carey, and at Oregon State University under head coach Tanya Chaplin.

Expert’s Opinion: “Jade has never varied in her rock-steady approach to both Elite and NCAA. It was inspiring to see her stay in college and commit to both levels of competition. I think the consistency required of NCAA gymnastics helped her immensely.”

Hezly Rivera

Hezly Rivera came into Olympic Trials as a potential alternate pick, and ended up having an outstanding meet to make the team.

Rivera, who just turned 16 in June, is by far the youngest member of Team USA, and is in her first year of senior-level gymnastics. Needless to say, she’s made it a special one.

Rivera was an afterthought to make the team just a few short months ago, but a good performance at the US National Gymnastics Championships gave her a fighting chance to make the team at Olympic Trials, and she delivered.

Rivera finished fifth in the all-around, and came up big on two events that the team needed a boost in, the uneven bars and  balance beam. She finished 4th on the uneven bars and tied for first on the balance beam at Olympic Trials. That strong performance meant that she fit perfectly to be the team’s fifth gymnast, narrowly edging out alternates Joscelyn Roberson and Leanne Wong.

Expect her to compete on the balance beam and possibly uneven bars in the Team Final for the United States.

While this will be her first major international senior competition, Hezly Rivera took home two medals from last year’s Junior Worlds.

Rivera’s family relocated from New Jersey to Plano, Texas to be tutored by legendary coach Valeri Liukin.

Expert’s Opinion: With the 5th spot up for grabs, the committee felt Hezly would have the most advantageous routines to fill in gaps. While in the past it was normal to have Olympic teams with several of the gymnasts just 14 or 15 years old, the minimum age was raised to 16 in 2000.  Now, she is the junior member of the team. She has the best mentors imaginable for Paris.