(GYM) Gymnastics 2023 - 2024

Just a reminder for those who may want to watch the US Championship finals. The finals will be shown live on NBC on Sunday at 7 PM ET.

 

Shilese Jones withdraws from the US Championships citing shoulder pain as a result of a chronic labrum issue:

Gymnast Shilese Jones withdraws from US championships with shoulder injury (msn.com)

Shilese will petition to be invited to the USA Team Tryouts at the end of the month which permission will be granted. If Shilese is not ready by then, the chances of 3 Florida gymnasts making the US Paris Olympics Team goes up dramatically.

 

Trio of Gators Named to US Senior Team & Advance to the US Team Olympic Trials:

Trio of Gators Named to U.S. Senior National Team & Advance to Olympic Trials - Florida Gators

FORT WORTH, Texas – A trio with Gator ties earned a spot on the 2024-25 U.S. Senior National Team and advance to the U.S. Olympic Trials after their performances in the final day of the Xfinity U.S. Gymnastics Championships held in Dickie's Arena.

Gators Skye Blakely, Kayla DiCello and Leanne Wong are among the 16 named to the 2024-25 U.S. Senior Team. These gymnasts also advance to the Olympic Trials later this month to determine the five gymnasts who will represent the U.S. in Paris.

Blakely (113.85) and DiCello (110.80) took second and third, respectively, in the all-around. Wong was eighth (108.65). Simone Biles claimed her ninth U.S. Championships all-around title with her winning two-day total of 119.75.

All three Gators are making a return to the U.S. National Team roster.
Skye Blakely 2024, 2023, 2022, 2021
Kayla DiCello 2024, 2023, 2022, 2021, 2020
Leanne Wong 2024, 2023, 2022, 2021, 2020, 2019

Complete Results - The top 16 plus Shilese Jones will be invited to the US Olympics Team trials in Minneapolis in 4 weeks:

MyUSAGym

Simone Biles makes plenty of mistakes, but her routines are the most difficult in the world. She is the best gymnast in the world.

Shilese Jones had to sit out day 2 with a sore shoulder. When she is right, Shilese is a lock for the US Olympics Team and is a top 5 gymnast in the world.

Skye Blakely is the real deal. I will be surprised if she is not on the US Olympic Team. She will join Sloane at UF after the Olympics.

Kayla DiCello fell off bars, glad she wasn't injured, and still finished third. I will be surprised if Kayla is not on the US Olympics Team. We can welcome Kayla back after the Olympics.

I think the 5th slot on the US Olympics Team will come from the following gymnasts:

Sunisa Lee is almost but not quite completely back. She is coached by Jeff Graba so that likely is good news for Sunisa returning to Auburn in the fall, a huge plus for collegiate team gymnastics. Sunisa's progress after putting her kidney diseases into remission has been remarkable.

Jordan Chiles is too up and down in her performances. The only reason she finished 5th is because of what the next gymnast failed to do.

Leanne Wong had a wobbly performance and fell off the beam. If not for the low beam score Leanne would have been in 5th place.

The selection committee will have another meet of scores to sort out the final 5 gymnasts to represent the US in Paris.

When it came time to pick the 5th gymnasts for the 2023 World Championships, the selection committee surprised a lot of the pundits by taking Leanne Wong for her international experience and steady performances. However, after falling off the beam and finishing 8th, Leanne will have to be super impressive to make the team, doable but not easy.

Dark Horses to Watch:

Jade Carey is an outstanding gymnast, but she has lowered her difficulty and does not appear to be as sharp as she was 4 years ago when she earned a slot on the Tokyo team. She is working with her Oregon State coaches.

Hezley Rivera is a 15-year-old phenom from New Jersey who had a whale of a US Championships finishing 6th. JMO, she is too young and lacks the experience that can be counted on in Paris. Must say, I hope CJR has this gymnast on the top of the list to talk to when she can officially do so.

Tiana Sumanasekera continues to impress. She is 16 years old so too young as well. She didn't appear as sharp as I remembered finishing 9th. UCLA is getting a darn fine gymnast.

My predictions for the US Olympics Team after the US Championships:

1. Simone Biles
2. Shilese Jones
3. Skye Blakely
4. Kayla DiCello
5. Sunisa Lee

I will root for Leanne Wong to have a knockout performance in the Olympics trials, but I see her on the outside looking in as Sunisa Lee continues to improve and impress, just a bit more upside than Leanne. Sunisa was good enough to win Tokyo Gold and she is good enough for the US Paris Olympics Team.

 

injured ankle so she is done.

 

Kayla DiCello's vaults from the US Gymnastics Championships as reposted by Dr. Sam:

USA Gymnastics on X: "two days, two @kayladicello vaults #XfinityChamps ✔️, #USAGTrials24 https://t.co/8WfArY4Mn5" / X (twitter.com)

It will be great to see Kayla back competing as a Gator sophomore.

 

Would be a shocker if not. Kayla, like Skye Blakely, showed up a couple of times in support of UF's young team during the 2024 season. The only certainty in this world is life, death, and taxes, but, yes, I'm fairly certain Kayla will be a sophomore with UF this fall.

Skye Blakely will be a UF freshman this fall coming to perform with sister Sloane who is a rising senior and has only one year of eligibility remaining.

If Leanne Wong makes the US Olympics Team, a further shot than the two above, she'll be back as a senior as well.

From post #1189, this is where the UF fall roster stands at this time:

2025

Sloane Blakely
Bri Edwards
Morgan Hurd
Ellie Lazzari**
Riley McCusker
Leanne Wong - ****Olympics Hopeful
Lori Brubach
Selena Harris***
Alyssa Arana
Kaylee Bluffstone
Kayla DiCello - ****Olympics Hopeful
Gabby Disidore
Skylar Draser
Danie Ferris
Anya Pilgrim
Skye Blakely* - 5-star freshman/****Olympics Hopeful
Lily Bruce - 5-star freshman
Taylor Clark - 4-star freshman

*Deferring for Olympics
**COVID Year
***UCLA Transfer
**** Olympics Hopeful

Add Victoria Nguyen or take off Morgan Hurd as they are likely a package.

 

On Kayla, I don't think she will go back on her decision to come back to UF after CJR granted her the deferral year for her to pursue her Paris Olympic dreams.

 

Shilese Jones didn't want the college experience. Now that we know about her shoulder reducing her frequency of performing, I'm glad she didn't sign with UF last November. I'm 100% more happy with UF picking up Selena Harris from UCLA.

The only people I know of who don't like CJR are LSU fans over on Tiger Droppings Gymnastics Recruiting. I'm not sure it's dislike as much as there is no professional respect for CJR. They admit UF has the talent advantage over everybody in 2025, but CJR will somehow mess it up.

 

Recruits with unique Skills:

Recruits With Unique Skills to Get Excited About - College Gym News

Beam

Skye Blakely
College: Florida

Class: 2024

One of the top beam workers in the world, Blakely competes a rare acrobatic series: a front handspring to front tuck. The series could be changed in college for consistency’s sake, but we would love to see it stick around.

Amelia Disidore
College: Florida

Class: 2025

Disidore is a master of unusual combinations on beam. She competes a roundoff to layout to two feet and a unique handstand to back handspring. This elite season she was limited to bars, but we hope to see her back in action on beam next year.

 

Suni Lee went to Auburn immediately after winning Tokyo Gold. She had to sit out part of 2023 and all of 2024 because she is fighting kidney disease which is currently in remission.

Suni is in a likely 3-way competition for the 5th spot on the Paris Olympics Team. I don't think she has a shot at Gold, but she will be a two-time Olympian if she makes the USA Olympics Team.

Suni trains under Auburn HC Jeff Graba. My thought is she will return to Auburn this fall if her kidney disease which I have read is incurable remains in remission. The meds she takes when fighting the disease causes her to gain too much weight for gymnastics.

Increasingly, gymnasts are crossing over between college team gymnastics and elites when it suits their needs. Leanne Wong, Kayla DiCello, Jade Carey (Oregon State), and Jordan Chiles (UCLA) come to mind, but there are others. Some collegiate gymnasts will compete on other countries national teams in the Paris Olympics before returning to collegiate team gymnastics this fall. Linzie Brown an ex-gymnast for Denver who now is a college assistant coach will be performing in Paris for another country. UF rising sophomore Anya Pilgrim last performed internationally for Barbados in the 2023 World Championships. I'd imagine that if Barbados made the call to come and compete that Anya would be in Paris too.

I think the old mold of either elites or college has been broken and at the highest performance levels, Suni Lee being the best example.

 

This is only good if and when implemented and if better judging is the result.

Plans Underway to Introduce Supervisor of Officials to Enhance Judging Accuracy and Accountability - College Gym News

In an email sent Tuesday morning from the National Association of Women’s Gymnastics Judges, the Women’s Collegiate Gymnastics Association is looking for a supervisor of officials to conduct “activities related to the review, evaluation, and assessment of the performance of collegiate gymnastics judges.” This position, which will report to the WCGA executive director, is a long-awaited step toward providing oversight to college gymnastics judges who are often criticized for their inconsistency and sometimes inaccurate scoring.

The supervisor of officials will oversee a newly created “SCORE Board,” which will be responsible for oversight, feedback, and training of NCAA judges. The SCORE Board will create baseline routines, which are used by judging panels immediately prior to a competition to aid in standardizing deductions and scoring on each event. This process is already in place for NCAA judging, but the process may change under the direction of the new board and supervisor of officials.

The SCORE Board and supervisor of officials will conduct weekly reviews of routines during the NCAA season. For the first time, individual judges will receive detailed feedback on their scores from the SCORE Board, which will ideally help them judge better in the future. These reviews will be summarized, and common mistakes, issues, or problems will be shared in an effort to better educate all NCAA judges.

The SCORE Board will also implement a new process of scoring and ranking individual judges. Although it is unclear how judges will be ranked or scored going forward, it is likely the weekly reviews as well as the coach, judge, and meet referee evaluations will factor into this system. These rankings will be presented to the NCAA postseason selection committee and will likely factor in selection of regionals and nationals officials.

First, it isn't hard news if not implemented in time for the 2025 season. Words without actions are worthless.

Second, it is a long-term process, not a quick fix.

Third, out of control, corrupt, and incompetent judges will likely run for the hills rather than submit to this type of monitored judging and corrective training. If so, collegiate gymnastics could have a judge shortage until new properly trained judges can be placed in the meets.

Fourth, I'll believe this when it actually happens.

 

Good article on Jordan Chiles of UCLA who deferred 2024 to prepare for the US Olympics Trials:

"You are that girl !"- Jordan Chiles' mother Gina celebrates the American gymnast's qualification for the U.S. Olympic trials (msn.com)

Jordan Chiles' mother Gina recently expressed her thoughts on her daughter qualifying for the 2024 U.S. Gymnastics Olympics Team Trials, slated from June 27 to 30 at Target Center in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Jordan will look to book her slot in the five-member USA team that will be heading to the 2024 Paris Olympics.

Chiles will be aiming to join the USA squad for a second time in the Summer Games, having previously represented the nation at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics and winning the silver medal in the team event.

Following her brilliant performance in the 2024 Xfinity U.S. Gymnastics Championships, she was named in the 16-member roster that will be vying for Olympic spots at the 2024 Olympic Team Trials. It is worth noting that only 5 gymnasts can make it to the U.S. Olympic squad in the women's category.

Jordan will be rejoining UCLA after the Paris Olympics.