Santiago 2023 - U.S. women's artistic gymnastics team golden again at Pan Am Games
Team USA has won the last six-straight golds at the event, 15 of 17 all time
Artistic Gymnastics
U.S. gymnast Jordan Chiles had the crowd at the Collective Sports Centre in the palm of her hand before she even touched an apparatus Sunday (22 October 2023) during the artistic gymnastics women's team competition at the 2023 Pan American Games in Santiago, Chile.
A delay with the balance beam score of teammate Tiana Sumanasekera meant it was nearly 12 minutes between the time Sumanasekera dismounted and Chiles was given the green flag to begin her routine.
"I wasn't even doing anything, and normally, it's me getting the crowd to get hyped, but this time it was them. I really enjoyed it," Chiles told Olympics.com afterward of the crowd's support during the wait.
The hype turned into to gold, as Team USA, which consists of Chiles, Sumanasekera, Zoe Miller, Kayla DiCello and Kaliya Lincoln, tallied a 165.196 ahead of Rebeca Andrade's Brazilian team (161.564). Canada finished with the bronze, scoring 154.230.
Chiles' big personality has made her a fan favourite throughout an elite gymnastics career that spans back a decade.
During competitions, the Washington-native, turned Houston, Texas-resident, can often be seen laughing, dancing, cheering for fellow competitors - or hyping them up to the crowd, like she did at August's U.S. Classic where trainingmate Simone Biles made her return to competition after a two-year hiatus.
Sunday in Chile, the American was surprised to find the roles rerversed as she stretched, kicked, cartwheeled, sat, chatted and cheered during what she said was a wait that felt like half an hour long.
"It helped me calm my nerves a lot knowing that it wasn't me this time helping the crowd, it was the crowd helping me," said Chiles, 22. "So, it was really cool, and just to know that there's that many supporters across the world... I was just in awe, and I was just overwhelmed with a bunch of joy."
When she finally mounted the apparatus, Chiles delivered a solid - if not perfect - routine that put her squad on track for gold.
A string of six
The win is a sixth-straight victory for the Americans, which has claimed 15 of 17 women's artistic gymnastics team titles all-time at the Pan American Games. It's their longest consecutive string, having claimed five in-a-row from 1959-75 and four-straight from 1983-1995.
2008 Olympic medallist Chellsie Memmel starred on the squad that started the current streak at the 2003 Santo Domingo Games, taking the all-around gold.
20 years later, she's in Santiago as the U.S women's program's high performance technical lead.
"I'm really happy with my performance. It's always a little bit tough to start on beam, but I thought they handled it well," said Memmel, adding of their spectacular final rotation on the uneven bars, "I think they kind of put an exclamation mark at the end of the day and all finished really well."
The U.S. recorded team totals of 42.532, vault; 42.666, uneven bars; 39.365, balance beam; and 40.633, floor exercise with Chiles leading the all-around standings at 54.666.
The women's all-around final is scheduled for Monday (23 October).
Brazil takes comfortable second
It's been a busy October for the Brazilian women's team with four of the five members in Santiago fresh off a historic team silver medal-win at the Artistic Gymnastics World Championships in Antwerp, Belgium.
The tight turn-around has seen Andrade opt out of the all-around, skipping competition on the floor exercise in Santiago, while Flavia Saraiva, who took floor silver in Antwerp, watered down some difficulty on the floor exercise.
"Since Tokyo, actually even before, we plan what we can do, how much the body can take. The Worlds was such a long competition and I wanted to be here, too. I wanted to live this. So they thought 'how can Rebeca arrive and do her best, how can she feel safe?'" said Andrade of the decision to compete in two major events back-to-back. "It was a collective decision, not just mine. I was able to perform in three apparatus and having all three counting for the team made it all worth it."
Still, Brazil was within striking distance of the Americans after two events with Andrade delivering a massive 15.100 on the vault - the event on which she is Olympic champion.
"It was really good, right? I felt like my foot was stuck, it was a hard landing!" Andrade said of her vault. "I was even shocked!"
They were just .132 back of the U.S. going into the third rotation, but, then, disaster struck on the uneven bars as Carolyne Pedro and Jade Barbosa recorded sub-11 marks.
The Brazilians finished strong on the balance beam, led by Andrade's 13.566, and earned a 39.665, the best total on the event of the competition.
"It's so good, we had our debut on the right foot. My first Panam Games, and we get a team medal," Andrade said. "It's so important to me and to the team. But there's a lot more to come, lots of competition ahead. I hope it all works out."