The U.S. men’s and women’s gymnastics teams qualified for the Rio 2016 Olympic Games with their performances at this week’s FIG Artistic Gymnastics World Championships in Glasgow, Scotland.
The five-member men's team will be determined at the 2016 U.S. Olympic Team Trials for Men's Gymnastics on June 23-25, 2016, and the five women will be selected at the 2016 U.S. Olympic Team Trials for Women's Gymnastics on July 8-10, 2016.
Team USA has competed in the women’s gymnastics team event at every non-boycotted Games since 1928 and every men’s gymnastics team event at a non-boycotted Games since 1920.
The defending Olympic champions, the U.S. women have won two gold medals, three silver medals and three bronze medals in Olympic history, while the men have won one gold, three silvers and two bronzes.
By finishing in the top eight of the qualification rounds, both teams also qualified for the world championships team finals.
The U.S. women qualified first, setting themselves up well in their quest for a third consecutive world championships title. Meanwhile, the men qualified fifth and will have a tough time earning their third consecutive world bronze medal. The women’s team final is Tuesday and the men’s Wednesday. Live streaming is available via USAGymWorlds.com.
In addition to the team finals, U.S. athletes have 16 opportunities to win individual medals at worlds.
Leading that charge is two-time defending world all-around champion Simone Biles, who qualified first to the women’s all-around final, vault final, balance beam final and floor exercise final. 2012 Olympic all-around champion Gabby Douglas also qualified to the all-around final, finishing third in qualification, and will be one of two U.S. athletes in the uneven bars final. Joining her is U.S. uneven bars champion Madison Kocian. Kocian and Douglas finished third and sixth in qualification. First-time world team member Maggie Nichols qualified third for the floor exercise.
Aly Raisman finished fifth in all-around qualification and seventh on floor, but was left out of both event finals due to the two-per-country rule. Biles was also left out of the uneven bars final (eighth) for that reason.
Danell Leyva stood out in the men’s qualification, earning his spot in three individual finals. The 2012 Olympic all-around bronze medalist has failed to finish higher than fifth at the U.S. championships since the London Games but appears to be returning to top form in Glasgow. Leyva finished fourth in all-around qualification as the only U.S. athlete to make that final. He also finished first on high bar and sixth on parallel bars. He is the 2011 world champion and 2014 bronze medalist on parallel bars.
Donnell Whittenburg, who was fourth in last year’s all-around qualification before slipping to 17th in the final, made two event finals, finishing eighth on both still rings and vault. 2013 world rings bronze medalist Brandon Wynn joins Whittenburg in that final, qualifying third. Chris Brooks finished sixth on high bar, joining Leyva in that final, and Alex Naddour was fifth on pommel horse.
Women's all-around final is Thursday, Oct. 29, followed by men's on Oct. 30. Event finals are held over two days, Oct. 31-Nov. 1.
