Named to the roster were three-time world gymnastics champion Simone Biles, Olympic all-around champion Gabby Douglas, three-time Olympic medalist Aly Raisman, Laurie Hernandez and Madison Kocian. Raisman and Douglas both competed on the gold medal-winning 2012 Olympic team. None of this though takes away from how talented of a gymnast Skinner is nor what she was able to accomplish at the U.S. Olympic Trials. She won the Olympic trials all-around, making her place on the team the only secure spot.
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But she finished third on uneven bars behind Kocian and Locklear, and national team coordinator Martha Karolyi has long believed in Douglas’s ability to turn it up when the pressure is on.
Along with the five member team, Ashton Locklear, MyKayla Skinner and Ragan Smith were named as the team’s three alternates. Runner-up Deajah Stevens will also make her Olympic debut as will Jenna Prandini, who upset favorite Allyson Felix by 100th of a second for third.
The top all-around finisher after two days of competition will auto-qualify to the five-gymnast squad, but the rest will have to make the cut based on how the committee wants to construct the team. You probably remember Aly Raisman and Gabby Douglas ― they were on the women’s Olympic team in 2012.
“I lost the joy”, she said.
Madison Kocian was chosen for the team for her medal-worthy uneven bars routine.
“Just when we thought we were at the physical limit of the sport, then here comes Simone Biles”, Retton said Saturday (July 9) at the US Olympic gymnastics team trials. The Texan won on the uneven bars at the Olympic Trials.
The P&G Championships standout then went to balance beam, where the confidence from her gold medal at the Jesolo Trophy helped lead her to an incredible 15.700 with a attractive routine throughout. Douglas’ life has been filled with distractions since winning Olympic gold in London, the latest being this weekend when she unexpectedly changed which one of her coaches is with her on the floor at competitions.
“Yesterday in training I stuck one and Marta was like, ‘If you don’t do that tomorrow, I’m gonna. and I was like, oh snap”, Biles said.
Gabby Douglas is going to Rio. She revealed to Team USA that since hearing she made the team, she hasn’t been as emotional as she’d expected: “I think it just hasn’t really sunk in yet”. “I think that last year, it was her dress rehearsal for this year”. “I know we can get better”.
A combination that includes Douglas, who hopped off beam during both rounds at trials and has openly talked about her sagging confidence.
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“She did four for four but the selections is based on three of three (routines) and if you look up her scores on every single even, her score is not factoring in, not even one time in three of three counts”, Karoyli said. Huddle also won the 10,000 meters at the Trials last weekend to earn a spot on the US team for the Rio Games next month. She had a forgettable performance at the world championships last fall – failing to make an individual event final – and seemed to be in the middle of the pack as recently as March.
