MINNEAPOLIS — Since Shilese Jones returned to Seattle to continue her gymnastics career two and a half years ago, she’s owned the process.
It began from a dark place, having lost her confidence and then her father in 2021. But from the first day she arrived at Ascend Gymnastics in Auburn in early 2022, Jones had a goal of making the next U.S. Olympic team, and she was resolute in achieving it.
“I think when her dad passed, it gave her a big reality check. Like, ‘I’m doing this for me,’” her coach, Sarah Korngold, said. “She gets it. She’s there. She knows why she’s doing it.”
Once lost in the shuffle among the talent-rich U.S. women’s program, Jones leveled up her gymnastics to become not just a winner but also a star, commanding attention with her dynamic routines and charismatic stage presence.
The 21-year-old has been nearly unrivaled in international gymnastics this quad, winning six medals — including silver and bronze in the all around — at the last two world championships. Her face is plastered on signs around Minneapolis this week. Coming into the trials, she was considered not just a near-lock for the U.S. team but also a favorite to win multiple medals in Paris.
That’s what made Friday night all the more jarring.
On a typical practice vault just 40 minutes before the start of the U.S. Olympic Team Trials, the journey ended. At least for 2024.
Going through her usual vault warmup, Jones hurt her left knee and had to leave the arena for treatment. Though she was able to come back and ultimately posted the top score of the night on the uneven bars — an event in which she’s also won a pair of world championships medals — Jones scratched her other three events.
There was some hope that Jones could come back Sunday and still make the Paris team. In fact, her bars score was so high that by some calculations she still could have been part of the highest-scoring team with just that one event.
Instead, USA Gymnastics announced Saturday that Jones was withdrawing from the competition, ending her shot at the Paris Olympic team.
Just like that, it was over.
Jones hasn’t revealed the exact nature of the injury, and she hasn’t spoken to reporters since arriving in Minneapolis. Korngold described the gymnast as “optimistic” in a text message to The Seattle Times on Friday night but didn’t immediately respond to messages Saturday.
Injuries to Jones and two other Paris favorites — Skye Blakely, during training on Wednesday, and Kayla DiCello, in the first routine of Day 1 — put a damper on the opening night of competition, though the gymnasts still provided plenty for the sold-out Target Center crowd to cheer for.
One of the biggest surprises of the night was the reemergence of Jordan Chiles, a 2021 Olympian originally from Vancouver, Washington. The 23-year-old had been in the mix but not among the very top group at earlier meets this year.
That changed on Friday. In a performance reminiscent of her breakout 2021 season, Chiles, who now trains with Simone Biles in the Houston area, put up top scores across all four events to take the runner-up spot into the break. She trails only the all-world Biles, whose 2.5-point lead is more than the margin separating second and ninth place.
The always popular Chiles, who grew her following while competing collegiately at UCLA, elicits some of the loudest cheers from the crowd as she brings a sense of fun to a sport often seen as serious and intense.
At Friday morning practice, the gymnast found herself overthinking things and getting stressed out. To cool her nerves, she turned up some Beyoncé, GloRilla, Megan Thee Stallion — “Like every girl artist that you can think of.”
“I was like, OK, you know what? If these girls can slay like this, I can go out there and slay like them,” Chiles said.
That did the trick.
Chiles’ high-energy gymnastics lit up the crowd and put her in the driver’s seat to securing a second Olympic berth.
One Olympic spot will go to the all-around winner over the two days, which is all but certain to be Biles. The rest of the squad will be chosen by a three-person committee. Fellow returning Olympians Suni Lee and Jade Carey round out the top four, followed by Josc Roberson, Kaliya Lincoln, Hezly Rivera, Leanne Wong and Tiana Sumanasekera — all of whom are still in the mix for Paris.
Simone Rose, a 16-year-old from Sammamish, opened up with solid performances on vault and uneven bars Friday, but she fell during an acro series on balance beam and then stepped out of bound on floor to end the night in 10th place.
The five-woman team will be named at the conclusion of Sunday night’s competition.
Olympic Trials champion Fred Richard and 2021 Olympian Brody Malone headline the men’s team that was announced Saturday night. They’ll be joined in Paris by Asher Hong, Paul Juda and Stephen Nedoroscik.
The Paris Games begin July 26, with gymnastics starting the following day.