By David Barron
Simone Biles, in her latest move toward another trip to the Olympics this summer in Tokyo, has been named to the 18-member USA Gymnastics senior women’s national team.
Biles, 24, was selected along with three other training partners at the family-owned World Champions Centre in Montgomery County to the team after a training camp in Indianapolis, the headquarters of USA Gymnastics.
The four-time Olympic gold medalist from Spring is joined on the squad by Jordan Chiles of Vancouver, Wash., who has been training with Biles since 2019, and by Amari Drayton, 16, of Spring and Olivia Greaves of Staten Island, N.Y.
Chiles won the all-around championship in the recent Winter Cup competition in Indianapolis. Biles, the five-time national all-around champion and five-time International Gymnastics Federation world all-around champion, did not compete in that event.
Other prominent gymnasts in position to qualify for the 2021 Tokyo Olympics who were named to the squad were former world all-around championship Morgan Hurd of Middletown, Del.; Jade Carey of Phoenix; Sunisa Lee of St. Paul; Grace McCallum of Isanti, Minn.; Riley McCusker of Brielle, N.J.; MyKayla Skinner of Gilbert, Ariz.; and three teammates from the Kansas City area, Kara Eaker, Aleah Finnegan and Leanne Wong.
Biles has not competed since 2019 but is expected to compete next month at an FIG World Cup event in Tokyo and at the upcoming USA Gymnastics championships in Fort Worth and the Olympic Trials in St. Louis.
The national team designation provides funding and training opportunities for gymnasts but has no bearing on the eventual selection of the Olympic team.
In another development involving an Olympic medalist who trains in the Houston area, 2016 women’s weightlifting bronze medalist Sarah Robles has been selected to the USA Weightlifting team that will compete in April at the Pan American Championships in the Dominican Republic.
Robles, who is from Desert Hot Springs, Calif., moved to Houston before the 2016 Olympics to training with coach Tim Swords. She is the 2017 world champion and 2019 Pan American Games championship in the women’s top weight class.
Winners at the Pan American Games can qualify spots for USA Weightlifting’s Olympic team. Four women and four men will be named to the team in mid-June.
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