Simone Biles and 4 Olympians to watch in 2023 Xfinity U.S. Gymnastics Championships
By Marci Rubin
One year out from the 2024 Olympics, several U.S. Olympic gymnasts have their sights on a return to the Games. The road to Paris continues with the Xfinity U.S. Gymnastics Championships from August 24-27 at the SAP Center in San Jose, California.
The 2023 Xfinity U.S. Gymnastics Championships will be filled with talented artistic gymnasts who aim to earn spots on the national team. These athletes hope to compete at the 2023 World Championships and 2024 Olympics. Elite gymnasts participated in the Core Hydration Classic earlier this month. The event served as a qualifier for the national championships.
Some Olympic veterans are hungry for another run at greatness on the world’s stage. Simone Biles headlines USA Gymnastics’ senior women’s field for the Championships. Alongside the veterans, young gymnasts seek to make a name for themselves in the sport.
One Olympic veteran who will not be at Championships is Gabby Douglas, who is training to make her third Olympic team. Although Douglas is training, the 27-year-old is not back in competitions yet. She’ll make a comeback to competition within the next year in order to have an opportunity to qualify for Paris 2024. Douglas was the 2012 Olympic all-around champion, and she won Olympic gold with the U.S. team in 2012 and 2016.
Fans eagerly await Douglas’s return to elite competition for the first time since 2016. Douglas, Biles, and Aly Raisman are the only American women to make two Olympic Gymnastics teams since 2000. Now, Douglas and Biles seek to become the first American women since Dominique Dawes (1992, 1996, 2000) to make three Olympic Gymnastics teams.
Which Olympians will participate in the 2023 U.S. Gymnastics Championships? Here are the four women who will compete.
Olympians to watch in 2023 Gymnastics Championships: 4. Jade Carey
Jade Carey represented the United States as an individual athlete at the 2020 Olympic Games (which took place in 2021 due to COVID-19). At the Games, Carey competed on the floor exercise and vault, earning a place in the finals for each. Carey was favored to earn a medal in the vault final but a mistake on her first of two vaults led to an eighth-place finish. She persevered and earned a gold medal in the floor exercise final. Carey is a strong and confident gymnast who remains calm under pressure.
Carey competes for Oregon State in NCAA gymnastics, earning second on the uneven bars at the 2022 NCAA Championships and second on the balance beam in 2023. She was named the Pac-12 Gymnast of the Year two years in a row. Carey has scored seven perfect 10’s in two years of NCAA gymnastics, with at least one perfect 10 on all four apparatus. A rare choice, the 23-year-old intends to continue participating in NCAA gymnastics and elite gymnastics simultaneously while pursuing the 2024 Olympics.
The individual athlete spots no longer exist for the 2024 Olympics. Athletes will need to prove their value as all-around gymnasts. In order to participate in the next Games, Carey seeks to earn a spot on the U.S. Women’s Gymnastics team, which will consist of five gymnasts.
At the recent Core Hydration Classic, Carey performed only on the balance beam. Since this meet is considered a a tune-up prior to Championships, gymnasts often choose to focus on specific events rather than competing in the all-around. Carey and the rest of the gymnasts will up their game in the weeks between the Classic and the U.S. Championships.