MINNEAPOLIS — The nation's top gymnasts are in Minneapolis today, preparing to earn a spot on Team USA.
The competition kicks off Thursday.
Sixteen women and 20 men are vying for five spots on their respective teams. The Olympic Trials come as USA Gymnastics is in the midst of a complete overhaul, driven by USAG President and CEO Li Li Leung.
In an exclusive interview with WTHR, Leung looked ahead to the competition this week and team selection this weekend.
"Team USA's gymnastics team for the women is likely the most difficult team to make in terms of all Olympic sports," Leung said.
Seven of the women who entered, Simone Biles, Jade Carey, Jordan Chiles, Kayla DiCello, Shilese Jones, Sunisa Lee, and Leanne Wong have previously competed at an Olympic trials.
In the men's competition, Cameron Bock, Alex Diab, Paul Juda, Brody Malone, Yul Moldauer, Stephen Nedoroscik, Donnell Whittenburg, and Shane Wiskus are Olympic trial veterans.
This is the third trials for Biles, Moldauer and Whittenburg.
The athletes have won 92 medals in Olympic or World Championships competitions, including 15 Olympic medals and 77 World Championships medals.
Historically, the women's team was comprised of teenagers and the men's average age was older. But now, Leung said there is a shift, the women's average age is older, led by Biles.
"I think it's difficult to quantify the value that she has brought to the sport on a global basis. She is the greatest of all time and how do you quantify that? But what I can say is that her impact on the sport has been absolutely tremendous, and we couldn't be happier to have her back and have her be happy being back," Leung said.
Paris would be Biles' third Olympics; she turned 27 in March.
"We love to see that athletes are staying longer in the sport than they ever have been. This is a testament to, I think partially, the cultural change in the sport and that the athletes are feeling not only physically healthier but both emotionally and mentally healthier to stay in the sport," Leung said.
RELATED: Simone Biles cruises to 9th national title and gives Olympic champ Sunisa Lee a boost along the way
Leung said overall, the men are younger and competing with more difficult skills and she credits that combination for ending the men's 20-year drought of a global team medal at the 2023 World Championships. The four medals won by the U.S. is their largest medal haul since 2013.
"We're so excited to see the men performing so well. It's the first time they've medaled in terms of a team in almost the last decade. For them to take bronze in Antwerp at the last World Championships is a sign that they are riding the wave in terms of a positive trajectory," Leung said.
Men to watch
Brody Malone is the reigning U.S. champion, a title he earned in Fort Worth last month. Fred Richard, the reigning world all-around bronze medalist, finished in a close second, followed by Khoi Young.
Richard, 19, is the first U.S. man to win a world individual all-around medal since 2010. Young became the first man to win three medals at a single World Championships since Paul Hamm in 2003 and the first to win multiple individual medals since Kurt Thomas and Bart Conner in 1979.
Both teams are increasingly diverse.
"The majority of the past World Championships teams on both the men and the women were minorities, and so we're seeing a lot of diversity with our sport at the elite level, and it's fantastic to see," Leung said.
Li Li Leung's leadership
Leung is marking five years at the top of USA Gymnastics. She's charged with leading transformative change after the Dr. Larry Nassar athlete abuse scandal in 2016, which scarred hundreds of athletes, scared sponsors, and sparked bankruptcy. In 2019, Leung became the fourth person to lead the organization in 23 months as it struggled to survive.
Then the coronavirus pandemic hit.
Leung said she started rebuilding by creating a staff with 70% new people and tasked them with new priorities and new policies.
"Overall, I would say the culture of the sport has completely changed in terms of: 1) being really focused on safety and 2) being focused on the positivity of the sport," Leung said.
That's measured, Leung said, through an athlete feedback loop.
"We meet with athletes' counsel, who represent the athlete body, on a monthly basis, and we continue to solicit their feedback. As long as athletes are feeling healthy and happy, then we know that we've done our job. We also look at it in terms of performance on the field of play. Our athletes in the past year have performed at record-setting levels across all the different disciplines," Leung said.
Leung created a chief of wellness position and hired a doctor of physical therapy, Kim Kranz, in 2020. As vice president of athlete health and wellness at USA Gymnastics, Kranz is responsible for guiding athletes in injury prevention, nutrition, mental wellness, and more. USAG now provides reimbursement for mental health services to providers picked by the athletes and coaches.
"Athletes and coaches both are utilizing that reimbursement, which is fantastic to see. We are doing a lot on the mentor resource side. Also, we have 'Flip' the mascot out now because we wanted to bring some joy to the community and also in terms of the emotional support dogs, and therapy dogs, at our competitions. We rolled that out last year and that has been met with tremendous success. In fact, it's probably one of the most popular programs that we've ever rolled out," Leung said.
Dr. David Kruse currently serves as USA Gymnastics medical director and team physician and has been a team physician at the 2016 Rio Olympic Games and 2021 Tokyo Olympic Games.
New sponsors
Longtime sponsors Procter & Gamble and Kellogg's opted to not renew their sponsorships before Leung's reign, and she opted to not go market for new ones until she had cleaned house. Now heading into Paris, USAG has signed six sponsors, including Nike, which is committed through the Los Angeles Games.
"We have six core new corporate partners over 13 months. One of the big-name ones is CORE Hydration. They're part of the Keurig Dr Pepper company, so they supply the water and hydration for our athletes. We also have Comcast, which is a partner in the Olympic movement. Nike is one of our largest partners. In fact, the deal that we did with them is our largest partnership deal to date ever in history of USA Gymnastics," Leung said.
Leung said there is much work still ahead and that USAG success will be measured in more than medals.
"I think you're seeing and feeling a lighter competition, one that has more joy and positivity and fun to it. The organization is a very different place than it was five years ago. We survey our athletes anonymously. And so the fact that athletes are also performing well in the field to play and feeling happy at the same time, those are really true metrics of success. Also, we want to make sure that our community, our grassroots community, that our club system, our club owners and our coaches are thriving as well," Leung said.
Next steps
After the men's and women's teams are named this weekend, they will head to France. They will train off-site outside of Paris and adjust to the time zone before moving to the Athletes Village with the rest of the world's top athletes.
The current members of the Athlete Health and Wellness Council are:
- Kim Kranz, PT, DScPT, SCS – Chief of Athlete Wellness at USA Gymnastics
- Dr. David Kruse – Medical Director at USA Gymnastics
- Nicole Casady, FNP – Survivor's Committee representative
- Ellen Casey, MD – Women's National Team Physician
- Karen Cogan – Sports Psychologist, USOPC
- Beth Darling, PT, ATC – Team healthcare provider, Rhythmic
- Marcia Faustin, MD – Women's National Team Physician
- Annie Heffernon – VP Women's program, USA Gymnastics
- Patrick Lyell – Athlete Representative (former T&T athlete)
- Taryn Moore, ATC – Medical Coordinator at USA Gymnastics, Team healthcare provider, T&T
- Dr. Aurelia Nattiv – Sports Medicine Physician and independent council member
- Jessica Renteria – Athlete Representative (former Acro athlete)