Gymnastics at the 2024 Paris Olympics: Stars in the medal mix, schedule and how to watch
All-around champions (2016) and (2020) are both back with their eyes on adding more Olympic hardware to their collections, and the top spot in the men’s and women’s team events are wide open as Russia — the defending champion in both — is banned from participating in team sports at the 2024 Games.
The U.S. women’s gymnastics team is heavily favored to restart its win streak after taking silver in Tokyo while the men will be seeking their first team medal since capturing bronze in 2008.
Who’s on Team USA?
The women’s team includes Biles, Lee, reigning Olympic floor exercise gold medalist , 2020 Olympic silver medalist and 16-year-old , the lone rookie on the team. Biles, Lee, and all competed in Tokyo, though was not a part of the team that placed second because she earned a spot in the 2020 Games as an individual athlete.
On the men’s side, , , , and will represent the U.S. is the only member of the team who has Olympic experience, but , and were part of the team that won bronze at the 2023 world championships.
Medal contenders
Biles, who returns to the Olympic stage after withdrawing from most of the Tokyo Games due to a mental block known as the twisties, is the one to beat in nearly every event. If she performs to her usual standard, she’ll land atop the all-around, vault and floor podiums. She is likely to earn a spot in the beam event final and challenge for a medal, but her recent scores on the event are a bit lower than the two top contenders. Chinese gymnast has the highest beam score in the past year with 15.500, and compatriot is right behind her with a 15.466. Biles’ best beam score in the past year was 14.800.
The second American gymnast joining Biles in the all-around final will come down to who has the better day in qualifications, as Lee and were neck and neck at the U.S. Olympic trials in June. Lee could also snag individual medals on bars and beam. has a shot at advancing to the floor final, but she’ll have to beat , who may upgrade her routine to increase her difficulty score, to get there. also has two difficult skills on vault that put her in the medal conversation.
Brazil will be Team USA’s toughest competition in the women’s events. , the 2020 vault champion and all-around silver medalist, leads a seasoned squad that has the potential to win the country’s first Olympic medal in the women’s team event. She’s also the only competitor who comes close to Biles in the all-around and the vault.
Other gymnasts you should keep an eye on in the women’s competitions include (particularly on beam and floor), and , who owns the highest bars score of the past year with a 15.667.
In the men’s events, and will likely emerge as the two Americans earning spots in the all-around competition. has also consistently advanced to high bar finals throughout his career. Pommel horse specialist is a world champion there and could put up a big number in an event where the U.S. has struggled.
Japan — led by Tokyo Olympics all-around gold medalist — and China will be the heavy favorites on the men’s side. They took silver and bronze, respectively, behind Russia in Tokyo and went gold-silver at the 2023 world championships.
The biggest question hanging over this Olympics gymnastics competition is ‘What if?’ Multiple top contenders suffered injuries in the run-up to the Games, resulting in a shake-up of many fans’ podium predictions.
, and , three gymnasts with strong chances of making the U.S. women’s team, withdrew from Olympic trials due to injuries. British gymnast , the 2022 world champion on floor, will not be in Paris after tearing her ACL at the 2023 world championships. Her twin sister, Jennifer, who along with Jessica helped Great Britain to a team bronze in Tokyo, is also out recovering from an ankle surgery. Italian gymnastics legend , who won silver on floor at the 2020 Games, will miss her first Olympics since her debut at the 2008 Games due to a calf injury.