With its Olympic heroes away, U.S. women's gymnastics' future takes the floor

New York Times

4 days ago

Claire Pease, with a steely gaze, started her vault run and then launched into the air, smoothly landing a Yurchenko double full and giving her coach a casual high-five as she walked off the floor.
She didn't know it at that moment, but the rising U.S. gymnast had just clinched herself a title at an event Simone Biles has won the last five times she's competed in it.
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'Tell you what, this athlete right here,' NBC's John Roethlisberger said on the Peacock broadcast, 'get ready, U.S. championships. Get ready, world championships.'
At Saturday's U.S. Classic, America's top elite women's gymnasts honed their skills ahead of next month's U.S. gymnastics championships, all of it building up to the world championships in October. There was some nostalgia. An Olympic champion was in the field. A Simone finished on the podium. However, most of it felt very new, a glimpse into what the Olympic future might look like for Team USA.
At 16, Pease will head to the U.S. championships entrenched as a name to watch after beating Simone Rose, Joscelyn Roberson, 2024 Olympic team gold medalist Hezly Rivera and plenty of others Saturday.
Biles was in the building, but not to compete. She was watching from the stands with husband Jonathan Owens, cheering on the next generation. Like her Olympic teammates Sunisa Lee, Jordan Chiles and Jade Carey, Biles stepped away from elite competition this year after the grueling run to gold in Paris.
'It means the world,' Roberson, an alternate on last summer's Olympic team, said of Biles' presence. 'I mean, she's the busiest human ever. She was at the ESPYs two days ago. She called me and she was like, 'OK, I have this, this and this, but if you really want me there, I'll be there.' And I was like, 'I kind of really want you there.' And she was like, 'OK, so it's done.''
Taking a break is nothing unusual following an Olympics, but for Biles, Lee and Chiles — three pillars of Team USA's success over the last three Olympic cycles — all have extra considerations weighing on them.
Lee, the 22-year-old all-around gold medalist at the 2021 Tokyo Olympics, was diagnosed with a kidney disease in 2023 but returned to competition that summer and went on to add an all-around bronze in Paris. She has not said whether she will try for the Los Angeles Olympics, still three years away, but in an October Q&A held on Snapchat, she responded to a question about it by writing, 'my body hurts … this sport kills me.'
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Chiles, the 24-year-old key piece of the Americans' team medals in the past two Olympics, had a hard-luck time of it in individual competition in Paris. She posted the fourth-best qualifying score in the individual all-around competition. Still, she wasn't allowed to compete in the final because she was the third American on the list. Olympic rules only allow two from each country to participate in the final.
Then, she appeared to win her first individual Olympic medal after her coach appealed her score in the floor exercise and got it raised enough to move her from fourth to third. However, a counter-appeal claimed the Americans were four seconds late in lodging their protest, and the International Olympic Committee announced it would award the bronze to Romania's Ana Bǎrbosu instead. Chiles has not returned her medal, and the case is ongoing.
Chiles — like Carey, who also has not decided on 2028 — chose to compete at the NCAA level this season. She has one more year to go at UCLA and has said she'll reevaluate her feelings on trying for L.A. after that.
And, of course, there's Biles. At 28, the most decorated gymnast in history has 11 Olympic and 30 world championship medals. She led the U.S. to team gold in 2016 in Rio de Janeiro and again last summer in Paris. In between, there was the bout with the 'twisties' — a mental block affecting awareness and control while doing aerial maneuvers — in Tokyo that led her to withdraw from competition there.
Biles, too, is undecided on trying for the 2028 Olympics, but her recent comments do not exactly sound like someone itching to come back.
'I've accomplished so much in my sport. For me to come back, it would really have to excite me,' she told French newspaper L'Equipe in April. 'But 2028 seems so far away, and my body is aging. I felt it in Paris.'
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At the very least, the U.S. women will head to this year's world championships without four of the gymnasts who have been so key to their success across the past three Olympics. And at least one of them may decide that the mental and physical toll of another Olympic run is not worth the commitment in a sport that beats up the body and generally leans younger.
The Vault that sealed gold for Claire Pease! 👏⤵️@NBCOlympics | #USClassic pic.twitter.com/3CUTwyszto
— USA Gymnastics (@USAGym) July 20, 2025
For the next generation of names atop the leaderboard in Hoffman Estates, Ill., that means their time is arriving. Pease, the 16-year-old who won the junior championship at this event last year, made her statement Saturday. In her final rotation, she posted the night's best vault score to surpass Rose for the top spot on the podium.
'More confidence, more consistency, and high execution scores,' Pease said of what she's trying to improve over the summer.
Rose, the 17-year-old who said making last year's Olympic trials proved to her that she belonged in the gym with the sport's best, has now finished on the podium at two significant competitions this season after her bronze at February's Winter Cup.
'I heard a little bit, but I just wanted to focus on me and the gymnastics,' she said of knowing where she stood heading into the last rotation. 'I didn't care about the outcome. I just focused on how I did.'
Roberson, who was part of Team USA's gold medal squad at the 2023 world championships, finished with a sparkling turn on the bars to finish in third place. At 19, she's still getting used to being the veteran in situations like this.
'A lot of times, before these meets, I would get nervous, and I'd be like, 'Oh, they're not watching me, they're watching (Biles). Just chill out.' But now, knowing that they were watching me, that made me extremely nervous. And I had to remind myself, 'This is what you worked your whole life for.''
Rivera, 17, was the headliner going into Saturday after being part of the Americans' team gold in Paris. She struggled early, with a bad fall on the dismount from the uneven bars and a slip off the beam before turning it around on floor and vault.
'It definitely took a lot of mental strength for me,' said Rivera, who was the youngest member of Team USA's delegation in Paris last year. 'I just wanted to show myself and prove to myself how strong I am. Because I know I can do everything physically, it's just a mental game at this point. So I'm glad I just switched the flip from bars and beam to floor and vault.'
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The U.S. Classic is just one piece of the team selection puzzle in the build-up to worlds. Athletes are still fine-tuning their routines and working up to the biggest stage. However, with Biles, Chiles, Lee and Carey away, the next generation has the stage right now.
And in three years, any one of them could be a new face competing in the Olympics.
'It's definitely crazy,' Ashlee Sullivan, 18, said of being in the spotlight after posting the night's top score on the beam. 'I never really think that people care. I don't really feel like people know me or people really watch me, so it's kind of crazy to hear all that.'
(Top photo of, from left, Simone Rose, Claire Pease and Joscelyn Roberson: Courtesy of USA Gymnastics)