GYMNASTICS: Biles leads women’s World Championships team; Hurd only an alternate

Olympic gold medalist and now twice World Champion Jade Carey (USA)

USA Gymnastics named its women’s team for the FIG Artistic World Championships in Stuttgart (GER) starting on 4 October, led by Simone Biles.

Gymnastics is very much a sport of “what have you done lately” and the six women named to the Worlds team were the top six at last weekend’s Team Selection Camp All-Around in Sarasota, Florida:

● Simone Biles ~ 2019 National All-Around Champ; 1st at Selection Camp A-A
● Jade Carey ~ 7th at Nationals; 5th at Selection Camp
● Kara Eaker ~ 10th at Nationals; 3rd at Selection Camp
● Sunisa Lee ~ 2nd at Nationals; 2nd at Selection Camp
● Grace McCallum ~ 3rd at Nationals; 6th at Selection Camp
● McKayla Skinner ~ 8th at Nationals; 4th at Selection Camp

Not selected, but named as non-traveling alternates were 2017 World Champion Morgan Hurd (4th at Nationals, 9th at Selection Camp) and 2018 National Junior Champion Leanne Wong (5th at Nationals, 8th at Selection Camp).

Left out were Faith Torrez (7th at Selection Camp), Emily Lee (10th), Jordan Chiles (11th) and Trinity Thomas (12th). Not invited to the camp were past stars who have been injured, such as Ragan Smith and Riley McCusker, both members of the 2018 Worlds team.

Of the six who are headed to Stuttgart, only five will be selected to compete in the Worlds Team qualifying, but that decision won’t be made until just before the event starts.

This will be the first Worlds for Lee and Skinner, but the other four have all been there:

4: Biles: 2013-14-15-18
1: Carey: 2017
1: Eaker: 2018
1: McCallum: 2018

Only Biles has Olympic experience, from 2016, and she owns an astonishing 20 World Championships medals (14-3-3). Biles owns the career records for most gold medals (14) and most golds in an individual event (11), the most individual events medals (17) and is tied with Soviet Svetlana Khorkina (1994-2003) for the most total Worlds medals with 20.