U.S. Gymnastics Championships kick off Thursday in Tampa
TAMPA — Current Olympians, and perhaps a few future ones, will be at Amalie Arena this week for the U.S. Gymnastics Championships.
The men compete Thursday and Saturday while the women are in action Friday and Sunday. Junior gymnasts will hit the floor at 1:30 p.m. while seniors begin at 7.
Eight ticket packages are available at ticketmaster.com. Tickets start as low as $66 with pricing dependent on seating and event preferences.
Peacock will stream all senior competitions. CNBC will air the final day of the senior men’s competition live Saturday. The senior women’s competition will broadcast live on NBC Sunday. Junior sessions will be available to stream on FlipNow.
“The sport’s landscape has seen a tremendous amount of change and opportunity over the last 12 months, and we are already less than two years away from the Paris Games,” USA Gymnastics chief programs officer Stefanie Korepin said in a news release. “With returning Olympians, exciting breakout stars ... (this year’s championships) will be more competitive than ever.”
Here are five athletes, who made their Olympic debut in Tokyo, to keep an eye on once competition begins.
Jade Carey
Carey, 22, of Phoenix, Ariz., took home a gold medal in the floor exercise category with her score of 14.366 at the 2020 Olympics. It was the United States’ third straight gold medal in the floor event over the past three Summer Games (Simone Biles won in Rio in 2016; Aly Raisman won in London in 2012).
Carey, a 2022-23 sophomore at Oregon State University, finished fourth overall in the all-around category at the NCAA Championships this spring and second (silver) in the uneven bars. Additionally, she was named the 2022 Pac-12 Gymnast of the Year.
Jordan Chiles
Chiles, 21, of Tualatin, Ore., earned a silver medal at the 2020 Olympics for the women’s artistic team all-around. In Tokyo, Chiles finished with the highest vault score (14.666) for Team USA and the second-highest score for the uneven bars (14.166).
This year, Chiles made her collegiate debut for UCLA, earning her first perfect score at the collegiate level (her first of three this season) on the uneven bars in a Feb. 4 meet against Utah. Additionally, she won the all-around with a 39.700 score against the Utes.
Brody Malone
In Tokyo, Malone, a seven-time Stanford champion, placed fourth in the high bar and helped the U.S. men’s team to a fifth-place overall finish. Malone, 22, of Johnson City, Tenn., will look to defend his 2021 title as the U.S. all-around and vault champion in the senior men’s competition.
Yul Moldauer
IIn Tokyo, Moldauer advanced to the floor exercise final and finished sixth overall. He competed in every team all-around event except the high bar, posting a personal-best score of 14.566 on the parallel bars. The 25-year-old Arvada, Col., native most recently finished second at the 2022 Winter Cup in the parallel bars and finished third in the still rings.
Shane Wiskus
Wiskus, 23, of Waconia, Minn., finished with a team-high score of 14.166 on the still rings in Tokyo, contributing to Team USA’s fifth-place finish. He was set to compete in the Winter Cup earlier this year but withdrew due to a knee injury. He returned to action in June at the Pan American Championships, finishing sixth in the senior all-around and fourth in the senior high bar final.
Floridians competing
Javier Alfonso, of Miami, from the University of Michigan (senior men)
Benjamin Aguilar, of Siesta Key, from EVO Gymnastics (junior men)
Jaden Blank, of Lakewood Ranch, from EVO Gymnastics (junior men)
Charlotte Booth, of Clermont, from Brandy Johnson’s Global Gymnastics (senior women)
Conor Heary, of Sarasota, from EVO Gymnastics (junior men, scratched)
Alex Karadzhov, of St. Petersburg, from EVO Gymnastics (junior men)
Jake Prabhakaran, of Tampa, from LaFleur’s Gymnastics (junior men)
Garrett Schooley, of Sarasota, from EVO Gymnastics (senior men)
Dylan Shepard, of Casselberry, from Gymnastics USA (junior men)
Contact Mari Faiello at mfaiello@tampabay.com. Follow @faiello_mari.
