Gymnast Kaliya Lincoln uses learnings from breakout 2023 season ahead of U.S. trials
Gymnast Kaliya Lincoln’s road to the U.S. Olympic Team Trials for gymnastics has been full of learnings.
The 18-year-old burst on the American gymnastics scene at last year’s Winter Cup, where she won the floor exercise.
She impressed again at the U.S. Classic and U.S. Championships, finishing second on the event to 2016 Olympic floor gold medallist and six-time world floor exercise champion Simone Biles.
Lincoln ended her breakout year helping Team USA to gold at the Pan American Games in Santiago, Chile. Individually, she took top honours on the floor exercise, the event that had quickly become her trademark.
“I definitely learned that I do tend to get very nervous in some situations but being able to compete and have the experience and opportunity, it definitely helped me learn from it and live with it and kind of control my nerves,” Lincoln told a small group of media, including Olympics.com, at a U.S. gymnastics national team camp earlier this year. “Just focus on me and my gymnastics, and not everything else going on around me.”
And there is a lot going around Lincoln, especially at the moment.
The future Louisiana State University gymnast is set to compete at the U.S. trials for Paris 2024 after withdrawing from the recent U.S. Championships with a tweaked foot. Lincoln, along with Shilese Jones, successfully petitioned to enter the trials.
That landed her at what she said was one of her biggest goals for the season.
“I want people to know that I’m here this year to show everyone what I can do, to kind of show everyone who I am and speak through my gymnastics,” said Lincoln. “One of my main goals this year is to have a very healthy season and be able to compete at the Olympic trials.”
Floor is the key for Lincoln
Lincoln’s strength on the floor exercise could be her key to the Olympics.
According to the Washington Post, the highest scoring U.S. team based on results across the 2023 and 2024 seasons includes Lincoln for her prowess – and 14.233 score – on the event.
The past year has given her the tools she’ll need to contend.
“It was for me the world selection camp,” said Lincoln of when she felt like she started to belong among the sport’s upper echelon. “I came in from [the U.S.] championships not having the best competition, so I was definitely still nervous from that competition. But once I saw my results from selection camp, it definitely gave me a boost of confidence.”
So, too, her berth and subsequent performance at the Pan Am Games.
“Pan Ams definitely taught me a lot of things,” Lincoln said. “It’s different from international assignments I’ve been to before. It’s bigger. I think I would just be more prepared for the next international assignment and kind of understand what’s going on and how everything works. I’ll definitely take that with me.”
Lincoln has one other secret weapon in her back pocket – advice from her idol-turned-friend Gabby Douglas, the 2012 Olympic champion.
“She gives me a bunch of advice,” she says. “If I have any questions, if I need someone to talk to, she’s obviously there for me. Before every competition, she does send me a text saying good luck.”
It’s a surreal feeling for the teenager who was just five when Douglas grabbed her first of three Olympic golds at London 2012.
“It’s kind of hard to believe sometimes because she was my role model for so long, and now I’m having normal conversations with her,” said Lincoln. “It’s definitely still shocking to me.”