LIVERPOOL, England – Headlined by three current NCAA stars, the United States’ women’s team won a record sixth-straight world title and Olympic berth on Tuesday at the 2022 World Gymnastics Championships at M&S Bank Arena, besting silver medalist Great Britain by more than three points – 166.564 to 163.363.
“We’re all capable of doing big things and more,” Shilese Jones said after the meet. “This is the beginning of everybody’s comeback career. Just wait and see.”
The U.S. vaulted, literally, to the top of the leaderboard in the first rotation, starting on the apparatus with the host nation, who qualified second. The team’s 43.133 vault total was the top score of the night on the event, and after the strong start – which was highlighted by Jade Carey’s Cheng (14.800) – the five-woman squad never relinquished the top spot.
As the top two teams began what would be a dominating competition, much of the rest of the field struggled to hit routines; Italy, which has a lights out lineup of bars workers, saw two of its three competitors fall. Over on beam, China also had two falls. Third-place qualifier Brazil started strong on bars, but the loss of Flavia Saraiva in the all-around due to injury, along with multiple falls later in the meet, would prove insurmountable in the nation’s bid for its first world team medal.
In the second rotation, the U.S. put up Jordan Chiles (14.100), Leanne Wong (13.766), and Jones (14.333), to build a two-point lead on the Brits as their Jessica Gadirova (12.800) had a major error on her Ezhova release.
As the U.S. rotated to beam, any doubts that their world dominance may be over were slowly fading, and even a fall from Skye Blakely (13.266) on her standing full didn’t seem like more than a small blemish on an otherwise dominating performance. For her part, Chiles redeemed herself (13.333) after a fall in qualifying dashed her chance to qualify to the all-around final.
“In the practices between qualifications and now I told myself ‘just do your thing, just do Jordan, because you’re more than what happened’,” Chiles said. “I stayed confident and trusted my gut, and everybody trusted me.”
A fall from Britain’s beam anchor Alice Kinsella (12.266) all but assured a U.S. win heading into the final rotation, with three strong from routines from Jones, Olympic champion Carey, and Chiles merely a formality in the nation’s defense bid. Great Britain’s silver medal was also mathematically assured, allowing the Gadirova twins and Kinsella to perform without abandon in front of an electric home crowd.
As Chiles’ 14.000 popped up on the scoreboard, celebrations ensued for both nations, with the British crowd celebrating as if their gymnasts had won it all.
Over near beam, a scene of pure happiness unfolded as Canada, the only team to go 12-for-12 in hit routines, won the bronze – it’s first world team medal. Longtime Canadian star Ellie Black put up a 13.833 in the anchor spot to hold off Japan.
“I am so proud of my team, I am so proud of what we did out there,” Black said. “We were calm and collected and we had so much fun. To end on the podium, I am blown away.”
The top-three podium finishers also secured five-person team berths for their countries to the 2024 Paris Olympic Games.
