MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — Reigning Olympic gold medalist Sunisa Lee, six-time world championship medalist Leigh Jones and national runner-up Skye Blakely are all facing health concerns ahead of the U.S. Olympic Trials.
Li, who has been battling a kidney condition for nearly two years, felt unwell during training on Wednesday, but her longtime coach, Jess Grubba, doesn't think it will interfere with her ability to compete when qualifying begins on Friday night.
“She was a little nauseous this morning,” Graba said. “She's OK. She finished her assignment. I said, 'You don't have to keep going. Just finish it.'”
The 21-year-old Li had been dealing with kidney problems for more than 18 months that had hindered her training and caused her weight to fluctuate wildly. She came to the hometown trials coming off a promising performance at U.S. Championships, where she placed fourth in the all-around and also performed well on her strengths, the uneven bars and balance beam.
“She's competing well,” Graba said. “She's very aware that her scores are internationally competitive, so I think everybody knows that. So I think (the trials) will just (be enough) to show that she can be a Suni.”
Lee isn't the only candidate with a winning percentage below 100%.
Jones, arguably the best American gymnast outside of Simone Biles, trained with her right shoulder taped to deal with a mild tear in her labrum.
The 21-year-old Jones withdrew from competing in the U.S. Championships scheduled for earlier this month. She applied to compete in the trials and was accepted, then rested for a week before getting back in shape with the hope of being selected for the five-man Olympic team on Sunday night.
“She's in pretty good shape,” Jones' coach, Sarah Korngold, said. “Her biggest problem right now is the same as any regular endurance problem, which is not having enough repetitions.”
Korngold said Jones had been in significant pain leading up to the U.S. championships but was feeling better for her second Olympic trials. Jones has had shoulder problems on and off for two years, and Korngold described what happened earlier this month as a “relapse.”
“Hopefully she can get strong quickly and get back in 'normal shape' pretty quickly and show the selection committee that she still has time (until Paris), so hopefully she can do well here and show she's ready to compete,” Korngold said.
Blakely, who tore ligaments in her elbow at the 2021 Olympic Trials, was carted off the court in a wheelchair Wednesday evening with a feared serious leg injury. The 19-year-old Blakely was in tears as she was examined. Blakely came to Minneapolis as a favorite to make the team after her impressive performance at nationals.
Alicia Sacramone Quinn, USA Gymnastics' chief strategy officer and a member of the three-person selection committee, said the team would be chosen based on the five best gymnasts as of Sunday night, not whether they could make it in time for the women's qualifying round in Paris on July 28.
“We always have to look at what's in front of us right now,” Quinn said, “because that's really what we can rely on.”
___
AP Summer Olympics: https://apnews.com/hub/2024-paris-olympic-games
