Sunisa Lee, Jordan Chiles and Grace McCallum Fight On With Simone Biles Out

The United States has reigned over women’s gymnastics for more than a decade, with the last team defeat handed to it by Russia in 2010, by only two-tenths of a point. Since then — and particularly with Simone Biles’s emergence on the world scene in 2013 — the American team has seemed unstoppable.

But on Tuesday evening, Biles left the competition floor after performing on the first apparatus of the night, the vault. She had bailed out of the vault she had planned to do — a Yurchenko with 2½ twists, watering it down to 1½ twists. She stumbled out of the landing.

Afterward, she left the competition floor with a team trainer. The team continued competing without her, still hoping to win the gold medal for the third consecutive Olympics.

Here’s who is competing for the U.S. in the team finals: Sunisa Lee, Jordan Chiles and Grace McCallum.

Sunisa Lee

18, Minnesota

Sunisa Lee, known as Suni, has a good chance of being the Olympic champion on the uneven bars, where she performs the most difficult routine in the world. She is also the second-best all-around gymnast in the U.S., behind Biles, and is a strong contender for a medal in the all-around final.

She finished first on bars and second in the all-around at the Olympic Trials, at this year’s national championships, and at the national championships in 2019 (which took place just days after her father, John Lee, was partly paralyzed in an accident). At Trials, she outscored Biles on one of the two days of competition, something no other gymnast has done since 2013.

Lee, who is the first Hmong American to represent the United States at the Olympics, said on social media this month that her goals for the Olympics were to win gold with the American team, silver in the all-around, gold or silver on bars, and a medal of any color on beam.

Jordan Chiles

20, Texas

Jordan Chiles, who was the third-ranked all-arounder at the national championships and Olympic Trials, is an unusually well-rounded and consistent gymnast. She finished in the top four on every apparatus at the national championships this month, and she is the only gymnast on the team who made no major mistakes in any of the four major domestic competitions this year: She did 24 routines and hit all of them.

That consistency makes her a huge asset to the team, which can count on her for a solid score on any and every event, although the fact that she doesn’t have one standout event may make it hard for her to win individual medals given that only two gymnasts per country can qualify to each final.

Chiles had a rocky route to the Olympics, frequently missing out on major international competitions and almost quitting in 2018 because, she said, “I didn’t think the sport wanted me anymore.”

Perhaps no gymnast benefited as much from the postponement of the Games as she did: She went from being left off the 2019 World Championships team to doing so well in 2021 that she was pretty much a lock for Tokyo before the Olympic Trials even started.

Grace McCallum

18, Minnesota

Grace McCallum had fierce competition for the last spot on the team, which she secured with a fourth-place finish at the Olympic Trials. Like Chiles, she is a well-rounded competitor, able to earn a good score wherever she is needed.

Given the makeup of the team, she is expected to contribute most on floor and vault, complementing Suni Lee’s strength on bars and beam.

McCallum was part of the gold-medal-winning U.S. teams at the 2018 and 2019 World Championships, but had a serious setback early this year when she broke her hand, requiring a plate and seven pins to stabilize it. Her performances have visibly improved from one competition to the next as she has recovered, and she is expected to be at full strength in Tokyo.