The Core Hydration Classic on Saturday will display the depth of the U.S. women’s gymnastics program with 11 athletes in the field who own an Olympic or world championships medal.
No more than five of them can make the Paris Olympic team, which will be named after next month’s Olympic Trials.
At Classic, three U.S. Olympic all-around gold medalists will compete in the same meet for the first time in gymnastics history: Gabby Douglas (London 2012), Simone Biles (Rio 2016) and Suni Lee (Tokyo 2020).
They’re joined by Tokyo Olympic floor exercise gold medalist Jade Carey and Tokyo Olympic team silver medalist Jordan Chiles.
Plus six more women who have won at least one world championship medal — Shilese Jones, Skye Blakely, Kayla DiCello, Joscelyn Roberson, Leanne Wong and Lexi Zeiss, an alternate on the 2022 World team.
How to watch the 2024 Core Hydration Classic
The Classic airs live on CNBC and Peacock on Saturday from 7-9 p.m. ET. It also streams on NBCSports.com and the NBC Sports app for CNBC subscribers. Live results will be here.
It’s followed by the Xfinity U.S. Championships from May 30 to June 2 in Fort Worth, Texas, and the Olympic Trials from June 27-30 in Minneapolis.
Separate selection committees pick the women’s and men’s Olympic teams after trials.
The women’s all-around winner at trials automatically makes the team.
The men’s all-around winner at trials makes the team if he is also among the top three on three of the six apparatuses. The men’s program is not participating at this year’s Classic as it focuses on prep for trials and the Olympics.
For the women, a three-person committee will choose the other four Olympic team members, taking into account athlete results dating back to last fall’s world championships.
Alicia Quinn, who is on the committee as the USA Gymnastics high-performance team leader, said that Classic is “another stepping stone” in the process.
“An athlete can have the ability to prove themselves, show their (routine) upgrades, if they’ve done anything different in the time since we’ve seen them at camp or a competition or coming back from an injury,” she said. “So it’s just an opportunity for them to continue to show their growth as an athlete and just how consistent and confident they are in their abilities.”
The Olympic team selection committee is the same trio that chose the 2023 World Championships team — Quinn, Tatiana Perskaia, an international judge and longtime coach (but with no current students in the running for an Olympic spot) and Jessie DeZiel, a former elite gymnast who is the athlete representative.
Quinn, a 2008 Olympic team silver medalist, said that she, Perskaia and DeZiel have been in regular communication after competitions and training camps. They have not had in-depth talks yet on the potential makeup of the Paris team.
Athletes are at different points in their training going into Classic.
Douglas competed three weeks ago in her first meet since the 2016 Rio Olympics. Biles competed last summer for the first time since the Tokyo Games, won her sixth world all-around title in October and will compete for the first time in 2024 at Classic. Lee has already competed twice this year as she works her way back after being diagnosed with two different types of kidney diseases in early 2023.
Quinn has typically been the committee member who tells the gymnasts when they’ve been invited for international competitions. So she expects to be the one who will read off the Olympic team after trials.
“When I have to stand up there and announce who it is, I’ll be by fighting back tears knowing half the people in that room, or more than half, are going to be gutted a little bit and feeling let down,” she said. “It makes my job a little bit harder, but I’d rather have it be hard and have a great pool of athletes to choose from.”
Who is competing at the 2024 Core Hydration Classic?
The most up-to-date 2024 Core Hydration Classic field is here. At the time of publication, this was the athlete entry list:
Session 1 (2 p.m. ET, USA Gymnastics YouTube Channel)
Ly Bui
Chloe Cho
Norah Christian
Nicole Desmond
Reese Esponda
Kieryn Finnell
Jayla Hang
Cambry Haynes
Madray Johnson
Evey Lowe
Nola Matthews
Taylor McMahon
Annalisa Milton
Malea Milton
Zoey Molomo
Marissa Neal
Jazlene Pickens
Brooke Pierson
Hezly Rivera
Simone Rose
Lacie Saltzmann
Audrey Snyder
Izzy Stassi
Brynn Torry
Sabrina Visconti
CaMarah Williams
Session 2 (7 p.m. ET, CNBC, NBCSports.com, NBC Sports app, Peacock)
Simone Biles
Skye Blakely
Jade Carey
Dulcy Caylor
Jordan Chiles
Kayla DiCello
Amelia Disidore
Gabby Douglas
Tatum Drusch
Addison Fatta
Jazmyn Jimenez
Shilese Jones
Katelyn Jong
Suni Lee
Myli Lew
Kaliya Lincoln
Konnor McClain
Joscelyn Roberson
Ashlee Sullivan
Tiana Sumanasekera
Trinity Thomas
Leanne Wong
Kelise Woolford
Lexi Zeiss
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