Gymnastics at the 2024 Paris Olympics: Stars in the mix for medals, schedule and how to watch

Many familiar faces will grace the floor exercise and sprint down the vault runway as artistic gymnastics takes over Paris’ Bercy Arena during the 2024 Olympics, and the United States boasts some of the biggest stars in the mix for medals.

All-around champions Simone Biles (2016) and Sunisa Lee (2020) are both back with their eyes on adding more Olympic hardware to their collections, and the top spot in the men’s and women’s team events are wide open as Russia — the defending champion in both — is banned from participating in team sports at the 2024 Games.

The U.S. women’s gymnastics team is heavily favored to restart its win streak after taking silver in Tokyo while the men will be seeking their first team medal since capturing bronze in 2008.

Schedule

Note: All men’s and women’s qualification subdivisions also include mixed groups of individual athletes.

How to watch

TV: NBC, E!, Telemundo and Universo

Streaming: Peacock, NBCOlympics.com, NBC.com, NBC app and NBC Olympics app

Check here for full, day-by-day TV and streaming info.

Who’s on Team USA? 

The women’s team includes Biles, Lee, reigning Olympic floor exercise gold medalist Jade Carey, 2020 Olympic silver medalist Jordan Chiles and 16-year-old Hezly Rivera, the lone rookie on the team. Biles, Lee, Chiles and Carey all competed in Tokyo, though Carey was not a part of the team that placed second because she earned a spot in the 2020 Games as an individual athlete. 

Jade Carey, Sunisa Lee, Simone Biles, Jordan Chiles and Hezly Rivera will represent Team USA in Paris. (Courtesy of GK Elite)

On the men’s side, Brody Malone, Frederick Richard, Paul Juda, Asher Hong and Stephen Nedoroscik will represent the U.S. Malone is the only member of the team who has Olympic experience, but Richard, Hong and Juda were part of the team that won bronze at the 2023 world championships. 

Medal contenders

Biles, who returns to the Olympic stage after withdrawing from most of the Tokyo Games due to a mental block known as the twisties, is the one to beat in nearly every event. If she performs to her usual standard, she’ll land atop the all-around, vault and floor podiums. She is likely to earn a spot in the beam event final and challenge for a medal, but her recent scores on the event are a bit lower than the two top contenders. Chinese gymnast Qiu Qiyuan has the highest beam score in the past year with 15.500, and compatriot Zhou Yaqin is right behind her with a 15.466. Biles’ best beam score in the past year was 14.800.

The second American gymnast joining Biles in the all-around final will come down to who has the better day in qualifications, as Lee and Chiles were neck and neck at the U.S. Olympic trials in June. Lee could also snag individual medals on bars and beam. Chiles has a shot at advancing to the floor final, but she’ll have to beat Carey, who may upgrade her routine to increase her difficulty score, to get there. Carey also has two difficult skills on vault that put her in the medal conversation.

Brazil will be Team USA’s toughest competition in the women’s events. Rebeca Andrade, the 2020 vault champion and all-around silver medalist, leads a seasoned squad that has the potential to win the country’s first Olympic medal in the women’s team event. She’s also the only competitor who comes close to Biles in the all-around and the vault.

Other gymnasts you should keep an eye on in the women’s competitions include Brazil’s Flávia Saraiva (particularly on beam and floor), France’s Mélanie Johanna de Jesus dos Santos and Algeria’s Kaylia Nemour, who owns the highest bars score of the past year with a 15.667.

In the men’s events, Malone and Richard will likely emerge as the two Americans earning spots in the all-around competition. Malone has also consistently advanced to high bar finals throughout his career. Pommel horse specialist Nedoroscik is a world champion there and could put up a big number in an event where the U.S. has struggled.

Japan — led by Tokyo Olympics all-around gold medalist Daiki Hashimoto — and China will be the heavy favorites on the men’s side. They took silver and bronze, respectively, behind Russia in Tokyo and went gold-silver at the 2023 world championships.

Key storylines

The biggest question hanging over this Olympics gymnastics competition is “What if?” Multiple top contenders suffered injuries in the run-up to the Games, resulting in a shake-up of many fans’ podium predictions.

Shilese Jones, Kayla DiCello and Skye Blakely, three gymnasts with strong chances of making the U.S. women’s team, withdrew from Olympic trials due to injuries. British gymnast Jessica Gadirova, the 2022 world champion on floor, will not be in Paris after tearing her ACL at the 2023 world championships. Her twin sister, Jennifer, who along with Jessica helped Great Britain to a team bronze in Tokyo, is also out recovering from an ankle surgery. Italian gymnastics legend Vanessa Ferrari, who won silver on floor at the 2020 Games, will miss her first Olympics since her debut at the 2008 Games due to a calf injury.

More reading

(Photo of Simone Biles, Sunisa Lee and Jordan Chiles: Elsa / Getty Images)