Paris 2024 Olympics: Parisian landmarks to serve as competition venues
The city last hosted in 1924, and it received these Olympics in 2017 as part of a double award with Los Angeles, which will host in 2028.
Sandy Hooper, USA TODAY
The U.S. women are back to their winning ways. And this title comes with a trip to the Paris Olympics.
The Americans rolled to their sixth consecutive title at the world gymnastics championships Tuesday, their total of 166.564 points more than three points better than Britain (163.363 points). Canada was third at 160.563 points, winning its first-ever team medal at the world championships.
All three qualified for the 2024 Olympics, with the remaining nine teams in Paris to be decided at next year’s world championships.
“Beyond words, honestly. Speechless,” Shilese Jones said. “We’re all capable of doing big things and more. This is just the beginning of everybody’s comeback career. Just wait and see. I’m super proud and I know we’ll be able to hit something big in ‘24.”
When the final results posted, Tokyo Olympian Jordan Chiles bent over, briefly overcome with emotion, while the rest of her teammates huddled around her in a group hug.
The U.S. women have won the team title at every major competition but one since 2011. The lone exception came last year in Tokyo, where they won the silver medal behind Russia after Simone Biles had to withdraw after the first event with a case of the “twisties.”
Russia was not at these worlds, banned because of its invasion of Ukraine earlier this year. But it might not have mattered if they were.
Even without Biles and Tokyo all-around champion Sunisa Lee, the Americans were dominant. On a day when the balance beam and uneven bars were claiming one team’s medal hopes after another, the U.S. women counted just one fall in their 12 routines.
That was by Skye Blakely, who came off the beam after her foot landed on the edge of the 4-inch apparatus on a back somersault. But Blakely, the youngest member of the U.S. team, recovered nicely – her 13.266 was the second-best score for the Americans – and the U.S. women had built up such a big lead by that point that the error was merely an afterthought.
“I told them, ‘If something doesn’t go perfect, it’s OK. Brush it off. You’ve got your team. They’ve got your back,’ ” said Chellsie Memmel, who was part of the first U.S. team to win the world title, in 2003, and is now the high performance technical lead.
“I’m so proud of Skye for nailing the rest of that beam routine. That was awesome.”
With Chiles and Jade Carey, the other Tokyo holdover, leading the way, the Americans put on a show of power on vault, their first event. Only Brazil’s Rebeca Andrade, the reigning Olympic champion, scored better than Carey and Chiles, and they gave the U.S. a lead that was never tested the rest of the night.
But this was as much about proving their worth to themselves as it was proving it to the rest of the world. That was clear when Chiles walked off the podium after her balance beam routine screaming and pumping her fist.
Chiles fell on beam during qualifying in Tokyo, and then again in qualifying at these world championships. But Memmel had no qualms about putting Chiles in the lineup for the final, where countries have to count the scores of all three gymnasts on each event.
Sure enough, Chiles delivered, her 13.333 the highest U.S. score on beam.
“I stood up and screamed. She needed that. That was my first thought. She needed to do that for herself,” Memmel said. “I knew she could, we all knew she could. But she needed to do that to prove to herself that she could do it when she needed to.”
Chiles agreed.
“It just gives me the ability to know that no matter what’s thrown at me, I can do anything,” she said.
“Honestly I feel like there’s more to give. There’s always more to give. Whether it’s in me or any of the other girls,” Chiles added. “Like Shi said, day by day, week by week, month by month, year by year — 2024, here we come.”
