Team USA announces roster for Paris Olympics artistic gymnastics team
The U.S. Olympic Committee has announced the athletes who will represent Team USA in one of the most popular Olympic sports — artistic gymnastics.
It's a more mature, more experienced, and more focused women's national team headed to Paris.
The roster includes familiar names — Simone Biles, Suni Lee, Jade Carey, and Jordan Chiles. The newcomer is Hezly Rivera, who at 16 years old, is one of the youngest members of Team USA. The veterans have a collective 12 medals among them and they're on a self-described "redemption tour" after taking the team silver in Tokyo.
Simone Biles said, "We all have more to give and our Tokyo performances weren't the best. We weren't under the best circumstances either, but I feel like we have a lot of weight on our shoulders to go out there and prove that we're better athletes, we're more mature, we're smarter, we're more consistent."
The men's team is much greener. Brody Malone is the only returning Olympian. He leads a group of five including Asher Hong, Paul Juda, Stephen Nedoroscik and Frederick Richard. The team has a new strategy — attempt more difficult moves to get higher scores.
Brody Malone said, "Yeah, you have the bonus system, but you have to have the guys who get behind it and want to have the drive and want to make that push -- and I've seen that with every single person on this National Team."
Artistic gymnastics events will take place from July 27 through August 5. Rhythmic gymnastics is scheduled for August 8 through August 10, and trampoline gymnastics will be on August 2.
