Catherine Rusoff
Three-time Olympic champion Gabby Douglas was hoping to use the US Classic, a key Olympic qualifying event, on Saturday as a springboard to secure her spot on the team that goes to Paris this summer.
However, the 2012 Olympics the overall and team champion struggled on the uneven bars – falling twice – before withdrawing from the rest of the remaining events. The withdrawal means the 28-year-old will not be able to qualify for the all-around at the US Championships scheduled to begin on May 30.
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Douglas, who had retired from the sport, returned to training last year in hopes of making the squad for Paris. The Olympic trials are scheduled to begin at the end of June.
Meanwhile, superstar Simone Biles looks ready for Paris. In Saturday’s event, the 27-year-old 2016 Olympic champion recorded an overall score of 59.500, nearly two points ahead of runner-up Shilese Jones.
Biles also recorded the highest scores on vault and floor exercises and placed second on the uneven bars and balance beam.
“I was really happy to be back there, to get over those nerves again, to feel that adrenaline,” Biles said. “I can’t complain about how the first date back went.”
She performed some of her signature skills, including hitting Yurchenko’s double spear on the jump and a tumbling pass that ended with a triple twisting double jump.
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Biles completed the jump — which requires her to place her hands on her knees while turning backwards twice — with coach Laurent Landi watching from the side. Landi took to the podium to spot Biles during previous attempts, a decision that cost her a neutral half-point deduction.
While Biles wasn’t perfect — she took a few big steps back as she dismounted her jump and got so much air on the triple-double that she fell out of bounds — her mix of difficulty and precision remains the standard in the sport.
Biles is a virtual lock to make the five-woman U.S. Olympic team if she remains healthy. The big question that needs to be answered over the next six weeks is who will join her in France.
Jones was brilliant on bars and steady everywhere else. Sunisa Lee, who won the Olympic title at the 2020 games in Tokyo, was fighting kidney problems over the last 18 months that made training difficult. She competed in three events and her elegant beam routine earned her a 14.600, a touch ahead of Biles’ 14.550.
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Jordan Chiles, the 2020 Olympic silver medalist, placed third in the all-around with 55.450. Jade Carey, who won gold in Tokyo, came fourth.
Konnor McClain, the US Champion in 2022He left the competition with an Achilles tendon injury suffered during the warm-up on floor exercises.
