Rivera is unshakeable on beam
Despite watching Lee have a rough go on the beam, Hezly Rivera nailed her routine.
The selection committee is seated directly in front of the beam and had to have been impressed by Rivera's stability under pressure. She is now two-for-two on her most important routines of the night.
Tiana Sumanasekera will aim to beat Rivera's 14.275 on beam in the next rotation, but it will be a tall order.
Full circle moment for Roberson, Biles
In April 2015, Simone Biles shared a viral video of a tiny young gymnast doing a “perfect” standing back flip with a full twist.
“im in awe,” Biles wrote, adding “some1 help me find this cutie. I wanna meet her, so she could teach me a thing or two.”
That 9-year-old pint-sized powerhouse was none other than Joscelyn Roberson, who now trains alongside the GOAT at World Champions Centre.
Tonight, 18-year-old Roberson has a shot to become her 2024 Paris Olympics teammate, too.
Roberson also made her idol Biles the subject of an elementary school project — perhaps someday, she’ll be on her own trifold poster board.
Rare mistakes from Lee on beam
Lee had the highest beam score Friday but will not continue that trajectory after an uncharacteristically poor showing on the beam.
Her leaps were stunning, as usual, but she fell on her first skill, the mount. She also had other large wobbles and earned a 12.825, nearly two points below her score on Day 1.
She is still in good standing at third in the all-around despite the mistakes.
Biles is efficient on bars
Bars is not Biles' best event, but she is still a world medalist on the apparatus.
That is partially because her routine is very well-constructed. She is able to minimize deductions by performing as few skills as possible. The ones she does perform she performs exceedingly well, hitting every handstand as close to 180 degrees as possible.
Key routines to come
Biles started her night on the vault, where she performed her Yurchenko double pike for a 15.500.
Tiana Sumanasekera, Joscelyn Roberson, Jordan Chiles and more — Biles' training mates at World Champions Centre, the gym her family owns in Spring, Texas — will proceed in what is called "Olympic order," or vault, bars, beam, then floor.
Hezly Rivera and Leanne Wong, who are among a handful of gymnasts competing for the fifth and final spot on the Olympic team, started on bars and will end on vault. Their showdown could have major implications for selection.
Wong performs her best beam of the year
Under the highest pressure of her gymnastics career, Wong hit a clutch beam routine. There was only one visible balance check, and she connected her skills fluidly.
Wong is the most experienced contender in comparison with Tiana Sumanasekera, Joscelyn Roberson and Hezly Rivera. That appeared to pay off on this event, and she scored a 13.650, her best score of the entire year.
USA Gymnastics leadership reeling after string of injuries
Heartbreak is par for the course at the U.S. Olympic trials, but athletes aren’t the only ones with broken dreams. Even USA Gymnastics leadership is reeling after three of the five front-runners for the Olympic team went down with injuries in the past week.
Chellsie Memmel, a 2008 Olympic medalist and technical lead for the U.S. women's team, told NBC News yesterday that it has "not been a fun week."
"It's obviously very challenging from the perspective of putting the team together," Memmel said. "It's really hard to separate and take the emotion out of it, because it's just hard to watch, but we have to put together the strongest team that we can put forward, and that's what we're going to do."
Memmel dealt with plenty of ill-timed injuries herself, having missed the 2004 Olympics because of a foot injury. At the 2008 Olympics, she was limited to competing on the uneven bars after she broke her ankle in Beijing.
Olympic dreams could be made or broken on beam
The fifth spot of the Paris Olympic team is likely to come down to the balance beam tonight.
On a hypothetical team of Biles, Chiles, Lee and Carey, the U.S. women will be looking for support from another strong beam worker.
A fall on beam tonight from Hezly Rivera, Tiana Sumanasekera, Leanne Wong or Joscelyn Roberson could knock them out of Olympic contention; hit routines could punch their tickets to Paris.
Biles' coach wants her to 'just do her normal'
After a shaky outing on the balance beam on Day 1, Biles' coach, Laurent Landi, told her to "just do her normal" going into the second half of the competition tonight.
"I don’t want her to do better, just do her normal. That's all," Landi told reporters Friday. "Stuff will happen, mistakes will happen, it’s part of gymnastics. I don’t think there is anybody that didn’t make a tiny mistake today. I mean, it’s trials. They are trying to make the Olympic team; it’s supposed to be stressful."
Carey's leg days pay off with impressive save
Carey also performed two vaults, a Cheng and an Amanar, which could hold as the highest vault scores of the night behind Biles.
She landed the Amanar (a Yurchenko with a 2½ twist) a bit low and a had to fight to stay on her feet, but her legs of steel pulled it off.