USA, Great Britain, Canada earn Paris qualification with medal wins at Gymnastics Worlds

See you in Paris.

The U.S., Great Britain and Canada women's gymnastics squads finished with gold, silver and bronze and tickets to Paris 2024 Tuesday (1 November) in the team final at the 2022 World Artistic Gymnastics Championships in Liverpool, England. All three earned their National Olympic Committees five-woman team berths to the Games.

Team USA, led by a mix of Olympic veterans, world medallists and debutantes, struck gold for the sixth consecutive time, earning a team total of 166.564. Great Britain's 163.363 was second, ahead of Canada's 160.563.

Led by stars like Gabby Douglas, Aly Raisman, Simone Biles and Sunisa Lee, the U.S. has dominated the team event at the World Artistic Gymnastics Championships becoming the first women's team to win six-straight team gold medals, a streak dating back to 2011. Only one other women's team, Romania, has won five in-a-row, while the Chinese men claimed six consecutive wins from 2003-2014.

"It honestly feels amazing. It’s been a very long journey. Even getting to this point, this is my fourth time trying to even get to a world championships, and coming back with a gold medal is definitely an ambition," said Tokyo 2020 silver medallist Jordan Chiles. "I’m really excited and I couldn’t be more proud of myself."

For the British, it's just their second women's team medal, having come third the last time the worlds were held in Great Britain in 2015. The bronze medal win for Canada is the first in the program's history in the event.

The Americans took the lead after a strong vaulting performance in the opening rotation where they scored 43.133. Olympic floor exercise champion Jade Carey was the team's top performer, earning a 14.800 for her Cheng (Yurchenko half-on, front one-and-a-half twist) vault.

They would never relinquish the lead, going from strength to strength.

Shilese Jones led on the uneven bars with a 14.333 score, as they posted a 42.199.

As the teams moved to the third apparatus, the U.S. held a 2.100 lead over Great Britain.

Despite a fall from balance beam anchor Skye Blakely on her standing back full, the U.S. increased its lead to 2.200 after earning a 39.399.

Great Britain and the U.S. went back and forth in the final rotation on the floor, but the U.S. advantage meant they would have to open the door to not take home gold.

And they didn't, capped by a rock solid performance of Chiles' routine set to Lizzo. She scored 14.000 after Carey and Jones delivered 14.100 and 13.733 marks, respectively. Their total was 41.833.

"I'm still on high emotion right now. It's crazy just to even think about it, we came here to have fun and enjoy the ride," said Chiles who jumped for joy after her beam routine. "Honestly, I feel like there's more to give. There's always more to give, whether it's in me or any of the other girls. So, we're going to see how everything turns out. Like Shi said, day by day, week by week, month by month, year by year, '24. Here we come."

Hometown Heroes

Great Britain came into the competition hot after a summer of success, having claimed gold at the Commonwealth Games (as England) and silver at the Europeans.

Their performance Tuesday was solid, with only two major errors, but the Americans were too strong to be caught.

Still, the hometown crowd was delighted with their silver triumph.

“The atmosphere was electric,” said Jessica Gadirova. “Thank you for everyone for coming, it definitely helped us.”

Tears of joy for Canada

While the United States and Great Britain were battling for the top two spots on the podium, Japan and Canada were on a collision course for bronze.

With Canada ending on the balance beam that had claimed many teams including China and Italy, which suffered multiple falls, it seemed the advantage might lie with Japan.

But led by the strength of three-time Olympian Ellie Black, Team Canada produced the second best team total on the balance beam, a 39.632, putting pressure on Japan.

Last to go for the Japanese, who led Canada by nearly a point, disaster stuck Fukasawa Kokoro who went the wrong way on a pirouette, repeated an element and ultimately came off the uneven bars. After remounting, she fell again, earning just a 9.400, dropping Japan to seventh and giving Canada their first-ever team medal at the worlds.

When the result was confirmed on the arena scoreboard, Team Canada erupted and Black fell to the ground, sobbing.

"I was so proud and so blown away, and I think you realise in those moments, you know, that that means we get to send a team to the Olympics. We have worked so hard for this and we put it all together out there on the floor," Black, holding back tears, told Olympics.com."The team is my favourite, and to be able to be up there on the podium with the team, it's the best feeling."