Hello, and welcome to Gymnastics Insider!
The U.S. Classic will take place TODAY at 7:00 p.m. ET (start list). Big names on the roster include Skye Blakely, Jade Carey, Dulcy Caylor, Katelyn Ohashi and Leanne Wong.
This meet comes almost as we celebrate the halfway point between quads. As Simone Biles stated in a recent interview, with just two years left until the 2028 Olympics, the time for veterans to decide on a comeback is now. As for the younger athletes, they need to make a serious bid for this year’s worlds team if they want to be in the Olympics conversation.
All of this makes it sound like the stakes are quite high for the U.S. Classic. But remember, it’s totally normal for U.S. Classic to be a splatfest. It’s the beginning of the season, and for many of the athletes who have already qualified to next month’s championships, the meet doesn’t matter all that much. They’ll use it to dust off the grips, try upgrades, and practice competing under all those lights.
Besides, nationals are just a few weeks away, on Aug. 4-10, so there’s no point in going full speed here.
That said, there are a few athletes who still need to qualify to nationals here, most notably Katelyn Ohashi, who will compete on beam and floor. She needs a combined score of 26.800 on these two events to qualify.
That means Ohashi will have to do a real floor routine. At American Classic, she got a 13.150 on beam with a good set that didn’t leave much room for improvement, but did a watered-down floor. She would have needed a 13.65 on floor to get the two-event qualifications score, which to me is outside the realm of possibility (the top floor score this year is a 14.100).
As much as I’m rooting for her in this comeback, I don’t see her qualifying to nationals, at least not here. I hope she proves me wrong.
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Qualified athletes
A majority of the athletes competing today have already qualified to nationals (a Reddit hero compiled a list, for your reference). Between commercials, the cameras will point to Ohashi and the following athletes:
Skye Blakely has already qualified by virtue of being a member of the 2025 worlds team. This will be her first elite meet of the season after another successful year at Florida. Blakely told Olympics.com that she’s graduating from Florida a full year early so she can focus on making the 2028 Olympic team. She also said she’s only doing bars and beam here, but she’s listed on all four events in the rotation schedule, so that’s unclear.
Jade Carey qualified to nationals at the American Classic. There, she competed watered-down routines, including two vaults that looked too easy for her. In an interview with NBC Sports, she reiterated that she’s going for L.A. 2028 before retiring for good.
Leanne Wong also qualified as a 2025 worlds team member. Wong is a seasoned national team member and has nothing to prove here. The biggest question is what she’ll choose to do at this meet — play it safe with a solid all-around performance, or break out a Cheng when it doesn’t really matter.
Worlds team member Dulcy Caylor and Pan Ams team members Simone Rose and Lila Richardson have already qualified as well. Even without Hezly Rivera (still a question mark after pulling out of Pan Ams), Claire Pease (hopefully resting after Pan Ams), and Charleigh Bullock (who was originally on the roster but pulled out), it’s getting pretty crowded in here. For these lesser-known athletes, the U.S. Classic could be an opportune time to show off.
Qualifying to nationals: the fine print
As for the rest of them, athletes need to earn a 52.500 in the all-around, a 39.600 on three apparatuses or a 26.800 on two apparatuses to qualify for nationals. Athletes who’ve gotten a 51.50 or higher at American Classic, U.S. Classic or an international assignment can qualify via rank order to bring the total number of all-arounders at nationals to 24.
But this is where things get confusing. Just this week, the USA Gymnastics’ women’s international elite committee changed things up ever so slightly, adding rankings from national team training camps and international assignments from 2025-26 to the qualification pathway. I’m not positive, but I think this applies to two- and three-event athletes as well as all-arounders.
With high-profile athletes making comebacks, I wonder if this is a loophole they’ll use to let in the likes of Ohashi and Sunisa Lee, who announced her comeback via a heavily produced video this week.
Technically, Lee is too late to contend for the worlds team. Neither she nor Ohashi has appeared on the lists of National Team camp attendees this year. Unless they attended on the DL or there’s an extra special remote camp consisting of two athletes named Sunisa Lee and Katelyn Ohashi, because NBC wants those ratings.
Lee could also petition to compete at the U.S. Worlds Trials. The bottom line is, there’s a lot of fine print here in the interest of transparency, but in the end USAG is going to do whatever the hell they want. Enjoy!
How to watch
Junior women — 2:00 p.m. ET | Streaming live on YouTube
Senior women — 7:00 p.m. ET | Streaming live on Peacock (within U.S.) | YouTube International Feed
A delayed NBC broadcast will air on Sunday, July 19 at 4:00 p.m. ET.
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More news
As already mentioned, Sunisa Lee announced her elite comeback! What a time to be alive.
We have some Commonwealth Games rosters (h/t Reddit fam). The Comms will take place July 23 to Aug. 2 in Glasgow, Scotland. More on that next week. The Euros (Aug. 13-16) nominative roster is out as well.
Jordan Chiles collaborated with Nike on a beautiful custom leotard collection, as did Skye Blakely:
Jenna Ortega will star in a new gymnastics movie with Rose Byrne called Nasty.
Five at the IX: Sky Blakely talks U.S. Classic
Skye Blakely chatted with Inside Gymnastics in advance of the 2026 U.S. Classic.
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