In some ways, the World Gymnastics Championships that start Saturday mark the beginning of the run-up to the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics.
The meet includes the first global team competitions since the Paris Games. The team medalists will clinch the first spots at LA 2028 for their countries.
In other ways, worlds will show where the U.S. women stand at the midpoint of the Olympic cycle after more than a decade of dominance.
The Americans won the last seven team titles at worlds dating to 2011. At least one U.S. woman earned an individual all-around medal at all 23 Olympic or world championships competitions since 2003.
Both of those streaks are expected to be challenged in Rotterdam, Netherlands, where the team finals are Tuesday (men) and Wednesday (women), the all-arounds are next Thursday (men) and Friday (women) and individual event finals are Saturday and Sunday (all live on Peacock and NBCSN).
Hezly Rivera withdraws from worlds
The U.S. women’s roster at worlds originally included one gymnast with Olympic experience — Hezly Rivera, who was the youngest American across all sports in Paris at age 16.
But Rivera, the 2025 and 2026 U.S. all-around champion, medically withdrew Saturday, two days after she said a left ankle injury limited her in training.
The U.S. roster at the last six worlds with a team event included Simone Biles five times. At the one worlds that Biles missed in 2022, the Americans were still experienced with Jade Carey and Jordan Chiles, each coming off an Olympic medal the year before.
The U.S. has one world championships team event veteran on this five-woman roster: Skye Blakely, who is at her fourth consecutive worlds. Three others — Claire Pease, Charleigh Bullock and Reese Esponda — are making senior global championship debuts.
Dulcy Caylor, the alternate who replaced Rivera on the roster, competed at the 2025 Worlds, which included individual events only.
“There’s been speculation that Team USA isn’t going to have the level of maybe depth or the points advantages that we had in the past and that maybe we aren’t as strong,” Betty Okino, a 1992 Olympic bronze medalist and U.S. national team leader, said at the team selection competition last month. “I’m ready for these girls to shut that conversation down.”
A team of gymnasts from Russia won the European title in August, but three leading Russian women were denied visas by Dutch authorities to enter the Netherlands for worlds.
China, another traditional power, won both the Asian Championships in June and the Asian Games in August.
“The world is getting stronger, that’s for sure,” said Chellsie Memmel, a 2008 Olympic silver medalist and another U.S. team leader. “We’re still very confident. We do have three strong vaulters that we can put forward and go on from there. There’s other events that I’d like to have a little bit more difficulty on, but the athletes are working really hard to get to that point.”
New all-around champ to be crowned
The top three all-around finishers at last month’s selection competition — Pease, Blakely and Bullock — have never competed in an all-around at a senior global championship.
A maximum of two gymnasts per country can make the all-around final of 24 out of qualifying.
“It’s new at this stage, but it’s not new to them,” Memmel, the 2005 World all-around champion by .001 over Nastia Liukin, said Thursday. “They all have gone out and competed all-around multiple times this year. This stage is just a little bit bigger. But when you’re talking to them in that sense, we just try to say, ‘It is just another competition. You are prepared for this.’”
Biles won the all-around at six of the last 10 worlds. When she wasn’t there, other Americans stepped up: (Morgan Hurd, gold, 2017), Leanne Wong (silver, 2021 and 2025), Kayla DiCello (bronze, 2021) and Shilese Jones (silver, 2022).
None of the 2024 Olympic all-around medalists are in this year’s field with Biles and Suni Lee absent and Brazilian Rebeca Andrade not doing all four events. Angelina Melnikova, the 2021 and 2025 World all-around champion, was one of the Russian gymnasts denied a visa.
“We’ve got a very strong team and then very strong individual athletes to put forward for both (the all-around and individual event finals),” Memmel said before Rivera withdrew. “So I’m excited to see what they do because I know what they’re capable of.”
