Olympic champion Suni Lee, silver medallist Jordan Chiles look ahead to 2023 U.S. Championships - Gymnastics weekly news

After successful two-event performances, U.S. gymnasts Sunisa Lee, the Olympic women's all-around champion at Tokyo 2020 in 2021, and Jordan Chiles, a team silver medallist, are now turning their attention to expanded performances at the 2023 U.S. Championships, set for 24-27 August in San Jose, California.

“It gives me a very big confidence boost,” Lee said of her performance at the recent U.S. Classic. “Actually, I didn’t think I was going to score that high on beam, and then, I saw the score and I was like, ‘Whoa!’”

Lee, who competed in elite gymnastics for the first time since winning all-around gold, team silver, and uneven bars bronze in Tokyo, has been dealing with kidney-related health issues that have made it hard to find consistent training in recent months.

Despite the challenges, Lee told Olympics.com prior to the Classic (where she only focused on beam and vault) she plans to compete on all four events in San Jose.

“I’m definitely ready for a double full at championships,” said Lee, before adding, “But, just taking it day-by-day.”

Chiles says she’s focused on a return trip to the Worlds, after helping team USA to a record sixth-straight team title in 2022.

Even though she only compeated bars and beam at the U.S. Classic, expect more from her as the season progresses.

“I’m feeling really good,” she said after competition. “My main focus is Worlds, so I’m just gonna go into Championships and do as best as I can and see how everything turns out. I’m really excited for Championships, especially debuting my new floor routine and everything like that.”

U.S. champ Brody Malone targeting Winter Cup 2024 return

2022 World men's horizontal bar champion Brody Malone is targeting an early 2024 return to competition. The two-time U.S. all-around champion suffered a season ending injury that has required multiple surgeries and months of recovery earlier in the year while performing a dismount at the DTB Cup in Stuttgart, Germany.

“I’m seven weeks post-op. I started walking at the four-week mark, took about a week to get off the crutches and just kind of walking around now,” Malone explained during an interview at the U.S. Classic outside Chicago. “That’s about it. That’s kind of the next few months.”

The Tokyo 2020 Olympian says he’s enjoyed a cautious return to the gym, performing giants on high bar and swings on parallel bars but is avoiding anything where you could fall: “Because if I fall, I’m pretty much done.”

Malone, 23, recently moved from Northern California, where he had been a member of the Stanford University team, to Sarasota, Florida, where he trains with coach Sam Mikulak, his Olympic teammate.

“That was definitely a really hard decision to make, but one that I thought was best for my career moving forward,” he said of the move.

With time on his hands, Malone has made the best of his circumstances, enjoying the beach once or twice a week. He says he’s staying positive as he targets a full return to training later this year with an eye to competing at late February’s 2024 Winter Cup.

“I’m able to start running in December, might be able to push that up to November-ish,” he said of his remaining recovery. “Around then is when I’ll be able to have no restriction in the gym, except on floor and vault, obviously, but I’ll be able to train release moves and stuff on high bar so that should give me enough time to get ready for Winter Cup, hopefully.”

From the vault…

This week, we take a look back at Dominique Moceanu’s performances in the women’s all-around final at Atlanta 1996. A member of the gold medal-winning U.S. squad, Moceanu finished ninth overall individually, earning her highest scores on the uneven bars (9.762) and vault (9.706).