Here are the preliminary results for the women’s gymnastics competition at the 2021 Summer Olympics in Tokyo, Japan. These will air in primetime on NBC on Sunday, July 25, so be warned of spoilers. The full gymnastics schedule for the 2021 Olympics can be found here.
STOP READING IF YOU DON’T WANT TO KNOW THE PRELIMINARY RESULTS FOR THE WOMEN’S GYMNASTICS QUALIFYING ROTATIONS
Team and Individual All-Around Results
The U.S. women’s gymnastics team is made up of Simone Biles, Jordan Chiles, Sunisa Lee, and Grace McCallum for the team competition, plus Jade Carey and MyKayla Skinner, who qualified to compete in the individual all-around competition and individual apparatus events.
During the preliminary competition, the U.S. team got off to an uncharacteristically rough start. Sure, they still finished in second place overall, but that’s unusual for Team USA and they may have a fight on their hands to take home the team gold medal.
After the preliminary competition concluded Sunday, July 25, Team USA was in second place with a total score of 170.562, right behind Russia with a score of 171.629. This will not affect Team USA’s ability to win the team gold medal, however, because the preliminary scores don’t carry over to the finals. But it is the first time in over a decade that the U.S. was not in first place after the preliminary competition.
In the individual all-around competition, Biles and Lee finished first and third, respectively, with scores of 57.731 and 57.166. Then in what is an unfortunate rule for the larger countries, three other U.S. gymnasts finished in the Top 24, which is how many go on to compete in the individual all-around competition, but the rule is that only two gymnasts per country get to compete.
So the U.S. representatives are Biles and Lee, despite Carey finishing ninth with a score of 56.265, Skinner finishing 11th with a score of 55.398, and McCallum finishing 13th with a score of 55.165. The only U.S. team member who didn’t finish in the Top 24 was Chiles. Chiles was actually one of the two U.S. gymnasts favored to possibly join Biles in the all-around final along with Lee, but she had two major mistakes on the beam and the uneven bars and finished a disappointing 40th place with a score of 52.698.
Individual Apparatus Results
Execution and emotion – Sunisa Lee, 🇺🇸 #ArtisticGymnastics #Tokyo2020
On the vault, Biles qualified for the event final with a 15.183, with Carey right on her heels with a 15.166. As with the individual all-around, the rule is two representatives per country, so, unfortunately, Skinner will miss out on the vault finals despite finishing fourth overall with a score of 14.866. But despite finishing 1-2-4, it wasn’t as strong of a showing as Team USA could have put forth. Biles stepped out of bounds for an automatic deduction, though her vaults are so difficult that she still finished in first place.
On the uneven parallel bars, Lee put forth a nearly flawless routine to finish in second place with a score of 15.200. Biles also qualified for the event final, earning the last spot. She actually finished in 10th place, but because the two-per-country rule took two Russian gymnasts who finished in fifth and sixth place out of contention, Biles qualified.
On the balance beam, the U.S. is sending two women to the finals — Lee finished in third place with a score of 14.200 and Biles finished in seventh place with a score of 14.066 after a shaky dismount. Biles finishing in seventh place here is also unusual, as she is favored to not only medal but possibly win the gold.
On floor exercise, Biles qualified by finishing in second place with a score of 14.133, though here again, she stepped out of bounds, which is why she didn’t finish in first place. Carey was right behind Biles in third place with a score of 14.100.
So in the event finals, Biles qualified for the finals on all four events, Carey qualified on the vault and the floor exercise, and Lee qualified on the uneven parallel bars and the balance beam. Skinner, Chiles, and McCallum failed to qualify in any individual events.
The 2021 Tokyo Summer Olympics take place from Friday, July 23 until the Closing Ceremony on Sunday, August 8.
READ NEXT: The 2021 Olympics Gymnastics Schedule
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2021 Olympics: U.S. Women’s Gymnastics Preliminary Results