(Photo: USA Gymnastics)
2. The Olympic gymnastics team will be picked this weekend...and it's slightly complicated 🤸♀️
Simone Biles is expected to win the U.S. Gymnastic Olympic Trials this weekend (June 27-30 in Minneapolis). But after the winner of the all-around earns their automatic Olympic slot to Paris, the other four spots on the five-person team will be picked by a selection committee.
How do U.S. gymnasts qualify for the Olympics
Because the U.S. focus is on winning the team gold again (which they lost to the Russia Olympic Committee team in Tokyo), they will prioritize selecting athletes for their team medal chances:
Teams in Paris are made up of five athletes
Four athletes have to compete on each event, and the top three scores count for the team total
Biles & Shilese Jones (who skipped Nationals due to a shoulder injury) are likely to compete in all four events in the team competition and in the all-around
Who do you then use to fill out the final three spots? Do you go for athletes who have a standout event where you might need the extra points, or do you go for solid all-around athletes?
TRY IT: You can experiment with picking your own team in this interactive game
Who to watch at Gymnastics Olympic Trials?
Sixteen women will compete for those five spots. Along with Simone Biles 🐐, that includes:
Suni Lee - who won the all-around gold medal in Tokyo, and has since come back from kidney disease
Jade Carey - the defending Olympic gold medalist on the floor exercise
Shilese Jones - a 6x Worlds medalist and all-around athlete
Jordan Chiles - two silvers on vault & floor at Worlds
Kayla DiCello - the Tokyo alternate
WATCH: The women's competition on Peacock & NBC on Friday from 8-10 p.m. ET and Sunday from 8:30-11 p.m. ET
Other Olympic news:
- LA28 announced updated venue plans for the 2028 Olympics. The Games will use & reuse a number of existing stadiums (including renovating the historic old Olympic Coliseum) and will move softball and slalom canoe to Oklahoma.
3. What is overtraining syndrome?
When Simone Manuel made the Paris Olympic team this week first in the 4x100m relay and then as an individual after winning the 50m free, there was a reason she got so emotional. Her journey back after overtraining syndrome has been no small feat.
The 2016 Olympic gold medalist was diagnosed with overtraining syndrome in 2021, but tried to power through the Tokyo Olympic Trials — and failed to make the event in which she was the defending Olympic and world champ. She struggled through the relays in Tokyo & disclosed her diagnosis of overtraining syndrome, but was met with little sympathy.
Why? Because people don't understand how badly her body was messed up.
Understanding overtraining syndrome
In general, athletes achieve short-term or long-term functional overreach by combining intense training (which leads to a short-term decrease in performance) with rest and recovery (which leads to getting faster and fitter). However, if you overreach too much for too long, your body starts to break down.
Symptoms include: large decreases in performance no matter how much you train, insomnia and trouble sleeping, extreme fatigue, depression and poor motivation. If it gets worse, it can even lead to: injuries that keep coming back, recurring colds or illness, irregular menstrual cycles, poor skin and hair, and digestion issues.
It's considered a complex physiological systems failure — and is often closely related to low energy availability. (ie. If your energy output exceeds your energy input for too long, systems break down.)
READ: Overtraining Syndrome: A Practical Guide
If caught early, you can rest and fuel up and recover. If caught too late, it can take far longer for your body to regroup.
For Simone Manuel, she was forced to sit on the couch for almost six months and wasn't allowed to elevate her heart rate. When she was finally able to start exercising again, she couldn't go back to the training groups she was used to. She got a membership at the local 24-Hour Fitness and started swimming slow, easy laps.
It was a long road back — but she recovered and is now on her third Olympic team ⭐ Believe in what's right for YOU.
LISTEN: 'The Runners Who Went So Hard They Were Never the Same'
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