Simone Biles is headed to the Olympic Games Paris 2024 after handily winning the U.S. Olympic Team Trials for gymnastics, locking her spot on a third-straight American squad. She has seven previous Olympic medals from her appearances at Rio 2016 and Tokyo 2020.
She'll lead a team of veterans to Paris that will include Tokyo 2020 teammates Lee, Chiles, and Jade Carey. Newcomer Hezly Rivera will make her Games debut in Paris.
After the U.S. took silver in Japan, Biles says the returning Olympians are looking forward to their second chance at team gold.
"This is definitely our redemption tour. I feel like we all have more to give, and our Tokyo performances weren't the best. We weren't under the best circumstances either," the 27-year-old said. "But, I feel like we have a lot of weight on our shoulders to go out there and prove that we're better athletes, we're more mature, we're smarter, we're more consistent."
Earlier in the week, six-time World Championships medallist Shilese Jones withdrew from the competition after competing only on the uneven bars. She appeared to injure her knee during the final pre-meet warm-ups on vault and had to be assisted off the podium by medical staff. 2023 Pan American Games all-around champion Kayla DiCello also withdrew from the event.
At 16 years old, Rivera will be the youngest member of the team in Paris, and coming into competition at Minneapolis, the talented first-year senior athlete might have been under the radar.
But as injuries piled up, Rivera delivered solid performance after solid performance from what she called an underdog role.
