MINNEAPOLIS, Minn. – Rising Gator senior Leanne Wong is eighth after Day 1 of the U.S. Gymnastics Olympic Team Trials held Friday at the Target Center<https://www.targetcenter.com/events/detail/usag> in Minneapolis, Minn.
Just when the competition was getting started, the evening ended for Gator Kayla DiCello as she suffered an injury on her vault landing. She was wheeled out of the arena and will be examined by medical staff. It was the second injury for a Gator at the Trials. Incoming freshman Skye Blakely tore her right Achilles tendon during floor exercise training on Wednesday.
Wong in Friday’s Competition:
Wong opened the meet debuting her Cheng vault, earning the evening’s third-highest vault mark (14.45). She had a clean uneven bars performance and a small bobble on an otherwise solid balance beam routine. Her floor exercise score was dinged by a step out-of-bounds on her opening tumbling pass.
Leanne Wong
Scores
Place
Vault
14.45
3
Bars
13.925
6
Beam
13.225
9
Floor
13.15
9
All-Around
54.75
8
Simone Biles leads the competition after Day 1 with an all-around total of 58.80.
Complete Olympic Trials Day 1 Standings<https://myusagym.com/meets/live/90016/results/256768/>
The final day of the U.S. Women’s Olympic Trials is Sunday, June 30. Competition airs on NBC beginning at 8:30 p.m. ET followed by the announcement of the five-member team who will compete in the Paris Games.
How to Watch:
2024 U.S. Olympic Team Trials airs live:
* June 30 | 8:30-11 p.m. ET – Women – NBC (Gainesville/Ocala Cox Cable 9) and Peacock<https://www.peacocktv.com/sports>
The 2024 Trials features 15 women competing to be among the five-member team for the U.S. Olympic Team. Both DiCello and Wong were replacement athletes for the 2020 Olympics. The U.S.’s gold-medal 2023 World Championships team included the Gator trio (DiCello – replacement athlete) and Blakely and Wong won gold with Team USA at 2022 Worlds.
Rarity: Collegiate to Olympian
Among the 15 competing Friday are five who competed as collegiates since the 2020/21 Olympics. Three – Jordan Chiles, Suni Lee and Jade Carey – are No. 2-4 in the all-around after the Trials opening day.
Name
School
2022
2023
2024
Jordan Chiles
UCLA
FR
SO
Suni Lee
Auburn
FR
SO
Jade Carey (Individual)
Oregon State
FR
SO
JR
Kayla DiCello (alternate)
Florida
FR
Leanne Wong (alternate)
Florida
FR
SO
JR
Florida’s Leanne Wong and Oregon State’s Jade Carey competed each of the last three season with their collegiate teams. Kayla DiCello was the 2023 Southeastern Conference Freshman of the Year with Florida and then took a gap year in 2024 to train for the Olympics.
Since 1980, 75 different gymnasts represented the U.S. at the Olympics. Six earned Olympic berths after competing a collegiate season:
Gymnast
Olympics
Freshman Season
Kathy Johnson Clarke
1980, 1984
1979 at Centenary
Kelly Garrison Steves
1988
1987 at Oklahoma
Mohini Bhardwaj
2004
1998 at UCLA
Alicia Sacramone
2008
2007 at Brown
Anna Li
2012*
2007 at UCLA
MyKayla Skinner
2016*, 2020
2017 at Utah
*replacement athlete
About Leanne Wong:
Leanne Wong earned her sixth U.S. Senior National Team spot earlier this month at the Xfinity U.S. Gymnastics Championships<https://floridagators.com/news/2024/6/2/gymnastics-trio-of-gators-named-to-us-senior-national-team-advance-to-olympic-trials.aspx>.
Leanne Wong 2024, 2023, 2022, 2021, 2020, 2019
Wong finished her junior season by claiming the 2024 NCAA uneven bars title<https://youtu.be/LcxHIbe0zYI?si=TRiqidJ1Mb6VMgwo>. She also took second in the all-around and vault to be the only gymnast with three top-2 individual finishes in 2024 NCAA competition. A member of the U.S.’s gold medal team at the 2022 and 2023 World Championships, Wong took all-around silver at the 2021 World Championships. She was in Tokyo as a 2020 U.S. Olympic replacement athlete.
