The 2024 Olympics female gymnastics qualifying events have started. The USA team is looking to bring home the gold this time. In the 2021 Tokyo Olympics, the team won the silver medal.
The USA team was off to a good start. There was one sad highlight. Champion gymnast Simone Biles injured her lower left leg while she was warming up for her floor exercise routine.
Even though she sustained an injury, she is most likely to qualify for three of four of the gymnastics competitions in beam, floor and vault.
Biles said that it hurt her to push off and exited the arena floor for a break. She returned with a taped up ankle and stayed in the competition.
Although there was a decent size mistake in the floor exercise portion, she left the qualification with a substantial lead. Her total score is 59.566. According to an article by the Associated Press, “U.S. coach Cecile Landi said only that Biles’ injury was minor, has been bothering her for a couple of weeks and there was no discussion of sidelining the seven-time Olympic medalist.”
Teammate Lee beat Chiles with a small lead to qualify in the second USA spot for individual finals. Another team member, Carey, suffered a bad fall during the floor exercise competition. Unfortunately, she lost her opportunity to defend her gold medal.
The best eight teams will advance to team finals to be held on July 30. The highest ranking 24 individuals will qualify for finals on August 1.
