On Tuesday, Oct. 8, the US women's gymnastics team will try to win its seventh World Championship title in Stuttgart, Germany. Simone Biles automatically qualified for a spot when she won the all-around competition during the World Team Selection Camp, and five others were chosen to fly to Stuttgart to represent the US: Jade Carey, Kara Eaker, Grace McCallum, Sunisa Lee [1], and MyKayla Skinner.
"Every time I make the team, I feel like it's so surreal," Simone told USA Gymnastics [2], "and I'm really excited to get out there and showcase what the team has, what I have." Team USA already has a guaranteed spot at the Tokyo Olympics next year after winning a team medal (gold) at 2018 Worlds [3], though we won't find out who's on that roster until the end of June 2020. Meanwhile, we can't wait to see these women bring it!
On Oct. 3, the team was narrowed down from six to five [4], as MyKayla was named an official alternate. She posted on Twitter [5] shortly after, "I just wanted to say thank you to everyone! The past 5 months have been one heck of a ride but I wouldn't trade it for the world. Still can't believe I made the worlds team & get to be apart of something so special! Can't wait to cheer on my girls! They will be amazing." Ahead, check out a little bit about each of these gymnasts and watch them do their thing.
Sunisa Lee
Sunisa, 16, is a St. Paul native who committed to competing for Auburn University come college. She finished second at the 2019 US Gymnastic Championships [7]. At that competition, she also won gold on bars and bronze on floor. And, as a junior last year, she was the Pacific Rim Championships silver medalist on vault, beam, and floor. Read more about her here [8].
Sunisa's USA Gymnastics highlight page: view more of her accomplishments on this page [9]
Sunisa's Instagram: @sunisalee_ [10]
Jade Carey
Jade received a silver medal on floor and vault at the 2017 World Gymnastics Championships, and she got the same results [11] in August at the 2019 US Gymnastics Championships. In fact, the 19-year-old from Phoenix, AZ, is known as a specialist on those two events, and she's a future Ohio State Buckeyes gymnast. She passed up on the opportunity to contend for a spot on the Worlds team in 2018. Instead, she competed in the apparatus World Cup series, an eight-competition [12] series that started that year. FIG rules prohibited her from doing both.
Since, for this upcoming Olympic Games only, each country has four, not five, gymnasts competing in the team event, two additional gymnasts can qualify individually as event specialists. This is what the apparatus World Cup series could do for Jade — she'll reportedly know if she's able to clinch a ticket to Tokyo [13] as early as February.
Jade's USA Gymnastics highlight page: view more of her accomplishments on this page [14]
Jade's Instagram: @jadecareyy [15]
Grace McCallum
Grace, 16, finished third at the US Gymnastics Championships this year behind Sunisa and Simone. She also placed third at the GK US Classic this year [16]. She's from Isanti, MN and was on the women's Worlds team last year along with Simone and Kara. "I think this is a really amazing group of girls," she told USA Gymnastics. "I think we're gonna have so much fun, we're gonna work really hard in the gym."
Grace's USA Gymnastics highlight page: view more of her accomplishments on this page [17]
Grace's Instagram: @grace.mccallum [18]
Kara Eaker
Kara got silver at Nationals (US Gymnastics Championships) on beam and finished third in the all-around at the Worlds selection camp this year. She, along with Simone and Grace, was a member of the gold-medal-winning 2018 World Championships team. The 16-year-old currently residing in Grain Valley, MO, is committed to joining Utah Utes women's college gymnastics in the future.
Kara's USA Gymnastics highlights page: view more of her accomplishments on this page [19]
Kara's Instagram: @_karaeaker [20]
Simone Biles
In case you aren't familiar with Simone — which would be a shame, but I'll let it slide just this once — she's a five-time Olympic medalist and has the most World medals out of any female gymnast. Not to mention, she was the first female gymnast to rack up four World all-around titles. If she places on the podium four times next week, she'd become the most decorated World medal gymnast [21], period.
The 22-year-old currently resides in Spring, TX, and has two skills bearing her name: one on vault and one on floor. At Worlds, she has the chance to get two more (maybe even a third! [22]) named after her in the FIG Code of Points, which she told POPSUGAR in the past is her main goal before the Tokyo Olympics [23]. So, look out for her triple double [24] on floor, and her double double dismount off of beam [25]. Read up on how she takes care of her mental health here [26].
Simone's USA Gymnastics highlights page: view more of her accomplishments on this page [27]
Simone's Instagram: @simonebiles [28]
Alternate: MyKayla Skinner
MyKayla, 22, finished fourth in the all-around at the 2016 Olympic trials, but was named an alternate for the Rio Games. She then spent three years competing on the collegiate level for the University of Utah, where she won NCAA titles on floor exercise (2017) and vault (2018) and finished second in the all-around in both 2017 and 2018. MyKayla held a 161-routine hit streak during her collegiate career and announced she was taking a break prior to her senior year to reenter the elite world and contend for Tokyo 2020. You can read up more about her here [29].
MyKayla's USA Gymnastics highlights page: view more of her accomplishments on this page [30]
MyKayla's Instagram: @mykaylaskinner2016 [31]
Let's Get That Win, Ladies!
