2016 U.S. Olympic Team Trials for Women's Gymnastics – NBC TV Broadcast and Live Streaming: Simone Biles, Gabby Douglas Expected to Compete; Schedule & Top Contenders and List of Athletes
Contenders prepare themselves for 2016 U.S. Olympic Team Trials for Women's Gymnastics.
The two-day trial will start on Friday and Sunday night (July 8 & 9) at the SAP Center in San Jose, California and will be consisting of all-around competitions — all four events in day one and all four events again in day two.
The Olympic team will be chosen by the Olympic Selection Committee headed by Martha Karolyi, U.S. women's gymnastics national team coordinator. Other members of the committee are Steve Rybacki, director of the Elite Athlete Program, and Terin Humphrey, athlete representative.
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In selecting the team, the committee will consider every individual's relative strengths and weaknesses based on a "discretionary criteria." The said criteria will include qualitative data such as the start values on each event, which is composed of the routine's maximum score, determined by the difficulty of each skill; the execution scores on each event; and the consistency of each routine. Other criteria include world class presentation, competitive readiness for maximum performance, physical capability, and professional attitude and ability to positively contribute to the team dynamic.
Fourteen Olympic hopefuls will compete in the trials. However, only four deserving gymnasts will be chosen to move forward and compete to the 2016 Olympics. Out of the 14 gymnasts, only one can automatically be qualified in the Olympic team. Simone Biles and Gabby Douglas are among the choices for automatic qualification.
Gabby Douglas is the first African-American woman to become the individual all-around champion in the history of Olympics. She has the top all-around score to secure the automatic position.
On the other hand, Simone Biles is the first African-American to become the world all-around champion. She is also the first woman to win three-consecutive world all-around titles. According to NBC, she is also favored to take the automatic place because of her consecutive wins over the past three years.
The two, however, don't consider themselves as rivals but rather teammates.
Other qualified athletes are:
- Christina Desiderio
- Brenna Dowell
- Rachel Gowey
- Laurie Hernandez
- Amelia Hundley
- Madison Kocian
- Ashton Locklear
- Maggie Nichols
- Aly Raisman
- Emily Schild
- MyKayla Skinner
- Ragan Smith
The top five chosen for the U.S Women's Olympic Gymnastics team will be announced on July 10, right after day two of the competition, at around 10 p.m. ET.
TV broadcasts will be aired live via NBC at 9:00 p.m. ET on Friday and at 8:30 p.m. on Sunday. Live streaming will only be available for those in the United States on NBC Live Extra.
