See Simone Biles and Team USA Training in Patriotic Leotards in Paris
There's nothing quite like the excitement that erupts when Americans see the USA gymnastics team take center stage at the Summer Olympics, and that's never been more obvious than with the Paris 2024 Summer Olympic games, which kick off this weekend following opening ceremonies on Friday, July 26.
There are 12 countries competing in the teams portion of competition, and 24 countries represented in the individual all-around competition, but it's the five women representing the United States, a team that has held nicknames like the "Fierce Five" in the 2012 London Games, the "Final Five" in the 2016 Rio Games and the "Fighting Four" in the 2021 Tokyo Games (after team member Simone Biles withdrew from competition) that everyone will be watching.
Lucky for fans, team captain, Simone — who is back for her third Olympic games as the oldest U.S. gymnast to compete in the last 72 years at 27 — gave a first look at training in Paris in the days leading up to the opening ceremony. She shared two photos of herself alongside teammates Jade Carey, 24, Jordan Chiles, 23, reigning Olympic all-around champion Suni Lee, 21, and Hezly Rivera, 16, in red, white and blue "USA" practice leotards, covered in chalk, posing together and making funny faces. Simply captioned with, "🇫🇷🇫🇷🇫🇷", when the United States fans saw it, they were fired up.
"PARIS ISN'T READYYY!”, someone commented. "This team has already made us extremely proud. Good luck team USA," another wrote. "Good luck girls!!! You guys are an inspiration to girls across the world 🥹," a different person chimed in. One fan said, "This is the representation I want to see for our country! ❤️🔥 Get it girls."
The men's artistic gymnastics team competition starts Saturday, July 27 with qualifiers, with the women's qualifiers kicking off the following day on Sunday, July 28. The team of five will compete for team gold in the women's team final the following Tuesday, July 30, with the individual all-around final — the individual gold — on Thursday, August 1.
Although all five of the Olympic team will compete in the team competition, thanks to the "two-per-country" rule (a rule many gymnasts aren't a fan of), which states no more than two gymnasts from one country can compete in the individual all-around competition, only two girls from the American team are able to move on as part of the top 24 gymnasts from the all-around (all four events: floor, bars, vault and beam) results. From there, the top eight gymnasts on each individual apparatus will advance to the specific event finals.
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