U.S. women take big lead after first subdivision at Gymnastics Worlds

The U.S. women's gymnastics team was two routines away from a near perfect outing Saturday (29 October) during the first of 10 qualifying subdivisions at the 2022 World Artistic Gymnastics Championships in Liverpool, England.

The U.S. totalled 167.263, well ahead of Belgium (156.063), the only other full team performing in the first subdivision.

For the first two rotations, the team made replacing the seven-time Olympic medallist Simone Biles and reigning Olympic all-around champion Sunisa Lee seem like a breeze as they cruised through their floor routines and vaults.

The first hiccup came in rotation three on the uneven bars where 17-year-old world championships rookie Skye Blakely missed her catch-and-release move, incurring a 1.000 deduction.

Then, on the balance beam, Tokyo Olympics team silver medallist Jordan Chiles came off the apparatus twice, scoring just an 11.366.

With Biles and Lee both on hiatus from elite-level competition, the squad has turned to veterans Jade Carey, the 2020 Olympic floor champion, Chiles, and worlds debutante Shilese Jones, along with Blakely and 2021 world all-around silver medallist Leanne Wong to attempt to win a sixth-straight world team gold medal.

Saturday, Blakely got the U.S. started with a strong effort on the floor, scoring 13.600. Jones followed with a 13.800, while Chiles (14.100) and Carey (14.066) anchored the team for a 41.966 score. Their vaulting was equally impressive as they earned a 43.266.

"Floor was a really high point for us. It was super super solid," said U.S. high performance technical lead Chellsie Memmel, the 2005 world all-around champion.

On the uneven bars, Jones was the top scorer for the U.S. with a 14.566 that helped give the U.S. 41.965 total.

As the team moved to the balance beam, Chiles was leading the all-around standings ahead of Jones and Carey setting up a battle to see which of the three would advance to the individual all-around final where only two per-country can compete.

Carey was the first to go with a solid effort for a 13.133. Jones followed with a 13.200, before Blakely scored a 13.733.

But, then, disaster struck as Chiles came off first on her back handspring, layout, layout series and again on a switch leap, dropping her to the third best all-arounder among her teammates.

In the end, Jones topped the all-around standings at 55.766 with Carey registering a 55.132. Chiles' total was 53.998.

The U.S.'s main rivals for team gold, China and Brazil, compete in Sunday's (30 October) qualifying rounds.

2020 Olympic uneven bars champion Nina Derwael competed for the first time since her golden triumph, earning a 14.700 on the bars to top the standings.

"It was my first competition again since the Olympics. We just did some kind of mock meets in our own gym, but it's very different from competing somewhere else," said Derwael afterward. "The adrenaline is on the next level when you compete in an arena like this and especially with the crowd, which has been a long time as well for me, because at the Olympics, there was no one in the stands. But it's been great. I had fun, and I'm just really happy that everything kind of worked out."