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Olympic Gymnastics Live: All-Around Leaders On Uneven Bars

By Naomi Gleit

Current time in Tokyo: July 29, 8:56 p.m.

Credit…Doug Mills/The New York Times
Credit…Doug Mills/The New York Times
Credit…Doug Mills/The New York Times
Credit…Doug Mills/The New York Times
Credit…Doug Mills/The New York Times
Credit…Doug Mills/The New York Times
Credit…Doug Mills/The New York Times

Suni Lee just put in an impressive performance on bars — not because it was perfect, but because she managed to power through some slight errors that could very easily have derailed the routine.

Melnikova got a bit of a gift from the judges, in my opinion. She’s beautiful on bars, but I believe she has scored lower for better outings.

Angelina Melnikova of Russia does the same routine as her teammate Urazova and scores a few hundredths higher, 14.9.

Vladislava Urazova scores 14.866 on uneven bars, exactly the same as she did in qualifications. It’s a very good score.

Between the action here, the in-house DJ keeps playing Ed Sheeran’s “Shape of You.” Again and again and again. During team finals, Jordan Chiles was dancing to it and even coaxed Simone Biles to dance for about two seconds. But let me tell you, this song has gotten old pretty darn fast.

I much preferred the Madeon songs during the introductions of the gymnasts.

Nina Derwael hits one of the most difficult bars routines in the world, including a release move that’s named jointly after her and Georgia-Mae Fenton of Britain. She scores 15.266, one-tenth lower than she did in qualifications but still one of the highest scores anyone is capable of.

Jordan Chiles and Grace McCallum, who won silver medals with the U.S. team in the team final, were just interviewing with NBC one level up from the competition floor. As they answered questions, I could seem them peeking at the uneven bars way across the arena. Sunisa Lee, their teammate, is up on bars soon.

Jade Carey missed a connection between two skills early in her bars routine and was very short on a handstand after a pirouette.

Carey’s bars score is 13.500, which is more than six tenths lower than she scored in the qualifying round.

Jade Carey misses a big connection on bars. To land on the podium, she likely needed one of her strongest routines yet. That didn’t happen, though her set was clean. Her start value will likely be lower than it was in the qualifications, when she put up one of her best bars scores.

There’s more cheering than you’d expect in a stadium without fans. Members of delegations, Olympics staffers and volunteers are letting out big cheers whenever anyone nails an impressive routine. You can make out a distinct voice from the crowd though — the one person who seems to know everyone on the floor. Simone Biles is cheering for many gymnasts — Brazilians, Americans and French alike so far — by their first names.

Andrade scores nearly a half-point higher on bars than she did in qualifications.

Rebeca Andrade nails her bars routine and sticks the dismount cold.

Tang Xijing, who had the second-highest balance beam score in the qualifying round, just fell off the beam.

It seems that we have more and more fans here at gymnastics with every women’s event. By the last day of the competition — the balance beam final next week — this place might just be as packed as it could be, considering Covid-19 restrictions. It could be that athletes and coaches are coming to watch after they finish their events. They have 48 hours to leave the country once their competitions are over.

I’m surprised Angelina Melnikova scored a few hundredths higher than Sunisa Lee on vault. I thought Lee’s vault was cleaner. Lee should have the edge over her on bars, and Melnikova should have the edge on floor exercise at the end of the competition. Melnikova qualified into the vault final, though, because of the two-per-country rule.

Mélanie De Jesus Dos Santos of France wobbles badly on her front pike mount on balance beam. She manages to stay on the beam, but that’s a big deduction.

One rotation down, three to go. The top-ranked group heads to the uneven bars now. Rebeca Andrade is currently ranked first and Jade Carey second, but always take the rankings after a single event with a grain of salt — Andrade and Carey just competed on one of their best apparatuses, and the other gymnasts in their group didn’t.

Lu Yufei of China falls trying to connect two release moves on the uneven bars, a Tkatchev and a Gienger.

That’s a tough blow for Lu, who qualified to the uneven bars final and probably needed a good score on bars to be competitive in the all-around.

Because I’ve heard the floor exercise music for each Olympic gymnast seemingly a hundred times now here at the Tokyo Games, the bad music is starting to get to me. Yunseo Lee of Korea is on the floor now, performing to creepy music you’d hear in a horror movie about a creepy clown doll stalking children.

Credit…Doug Mills/The New York Times
Credit…Doug Mills/The New York Times
Credit…Doug Mills/The New York Times
Credit…Doug Mills/The New York Times
Credit…Doug Mills/The New York Times
Credit…Doug Mills/The New York Times
Credit…Doug Mills/The New York Times

Rebeca Andrade of Brazil just made one of the most difficult vaults in the world look easy. It’s called a Cheng, which is a roundoff onto the springboard, a half twist onto the vault and a front flip with 1½ twists.

After pushing off of the vaulting table, Andrade soared so high into the air that it made her look weightless. She received 15.3 points, just one-tenth off of her score in qualification. That 15.4 score in qualification was the best score of the day — even higher than Simone Biles’s vault, which is usually the best, by far.

Andrade’s score was high enough to lead all gymnasts after one rotation.

Angelina Melnikova plays it safe with a double-twisting vault. She scores a 14.633, just slightly ahead of Lee.

The Swiss gymnast Giulia Steingruber has some seriously angry floor music. Head-banger lite.

Angelina Melnikova of Russia does a double-twisting Yurchenko. Like her teammate Urazova, her leg form is a bit messy, but she lands well. All of the top competitors are hitting so far.

Simone Biles could be mistaken for any other fan here (well, if there were paying spectators). She’s cheering, checking her phone and chatting with a friend. (Jordan Chiles, that is.)

Gorgeous pirouetting work from Tang Xijing of China on the uneven bars. She lost her balance slightly on one handstand but recovered well.

Nina Derwael of Belgium does a 1.5-twisting Yurchenko, which is one of the easiest vaults we’ll see today. Where Derwael really shines is on the uneven bars, where she had the highest score in the qualifying round.

Vladislava Urazova, from Russia, does a double-twisting Yurchenko with some leg form problems in the air but a solid landing. She landed a bit oddly, with her feet crossed, but stuck it nonetheless and doesn’t seem to be hurt at all.

Jade Carey also does a Cheng, with some leg separation as she comes off the springboard and a hop backward. 15.2 for her.

Andrade’s score on that vault in the qualifying round, 15.4, was the highest of the day. She scores one-tenth lower today, 15.3, but don’t be fooled — that is a MASSIVE score.

Rebeca Andrade of Brazil nails one of the most difficult vaults in the world, called the Cheng. It’s a roundoff onto the springboard, a half twist onto the vault, and a front layout with one and a half twists. It looks like her right foot might have been just barely out of bounds, but that would only be a one-tenth deduction.

Suni Lee just stuck a double-twisting Yurchenko. Great start for her. This vault isn’t as difficult as the ones we’ll see from some other gymnasts, but given that vault isn’t Lee’s best event, that performance couldn’t be better for her.

In one of the first routines of the day, Alice D’Amato of Italy, the 15th-ranked qualifier, just fell on balance beam.

Simone Biles, who pulled out of this competition because of mental health concerns, is in the stands with the rest of the U.S. team. They are here to see which gymnast not named Simone Biles will be the first to win an all-around at the world championships or the Olympics since 2013. Those gymnasts can’t be on the competition floor — this event is only for the all-arounders and their coaches.

Sunisa Lee will be the first competitor on vault. It’s her weakest event, and she typically performs a less difficult vault (a double-twisting Yurchenko) than her teammate Jade Carey. So, if you see Lee out of the first three places after this rotation, fear not.

The top-ranked group will start on vault and then rotate to bars, beam and floor. The second group will start on bars and rotate in the same order, finishing on the vault.

The competition is divided into four groups of six gymnasts each, which will rotate through the four apparatuses. The groups are determined by rank in the qualifying round — the gymnasts ranked 1-6 in one group, 7-12 in another, and so on — with one exception. Jade Carey, whose qualifying score would place her in the second group, will compete in the first because Simone Biles was already assigned to that group when she withdrew and Carey took her place.

Rebeca Andrade of Brazil on Sunday.
Credit…Dylan Martinez/Reuters

With Simone Biles out of the competition, there are several contenders from outside the United States who could contend for the gold. Here are a few of them:

  • Rebeca Andrade of Brazil placed second in the qualification, where her competition went so well that, for a fleeting moment, it seemed her total score could have surpassed Biles’s. She earned a 15.4 that night after executing a near-perfect Cheng, a very difficult vault that only a handful of gymnasts can do.

  • Angelina Melnikova and Vladislava Urazova will represent Russia, which won the team event. Russia has never won an Olympic all-around title as an independent nation, though the Soviet Union had dominated the sport for decades. Both women are stellar on the uneven bars, but fell on the beam in the team final and cannot afford that mistake here.

  • China finished a disappointing seventh in the team event, so Tang Xijing and Lu Yufei will be looking for redemption. Tang finished second all-around to Biles at the 2019 world championship. Both women are capable of high scores on the bars and beam.

  • Nina Derwael of Belgium, Melanie de Jesus dos Santos of France, Mai Murakami of Japan, and the twins Jessica and Jennifer Gadirova of Britain all could win a medal, especially if the top contenders falter. Derwael qualified in seventh all-around and will also challenge Lee in what should be an exciting uneven bars final on Sunday. De Jesus dos Santos is the 2019 European champion, and Murakami was second to Biles at the 2018 world championship. The Gadirovas, like the Russians, already have Olympic medals; Britain won the bronze on Tuesday, its first team medal in women’s gymnastics since 1928.

  • Ellie Black, Canada’s best gymnast, withdrew from the competition on Wednesday after reinjuring her left ankle.

Jade Carey performs her floor routine during the qualification round.
Credit…Chang W. Lee/The New York Times

The American gymnast Jade Carey is so good on the floor exercise that she might debut the hardest tumbling pass ever to be attempted by a woman in competition: the triple-twisting double layout.

During the skill, Carey launches herself into a roundoff and back handspring before rising to complete three twists and two back flips. The feat is similar to Biles’s triple-double on the floor, but whereas Biles tucks her knees into her chest, Carey increases the difficulty by keeping her body straight.

So far, she has only attempted the skill in practice.

In the all-around final, Carey will slot into the spot once allotted to Biles, who was scheduled to close out the competition on the floor but withdrew, citing mental health challenges and “a little bit of the twisties” (a term that refers to a gymnast’s ability to sense where she is in space). That means Carey will have her three other scores — on the vault, uneven bars and beam — in hand. If the math shows that she is just out of the medals, the risk of trying the skill might be worth the reward.

If she were to land the triple-twisting double layout, it would be named the Carey.

Sunisa Lee on the balance beam during the team final.
Credit…Chang W. Lee/The New York Times

Sunisa Lee and Jade Carey will represent the United States. Biles’s decision to step back created the spot for Carey, who would have qualified for the all-around final if not for a rule that allows only two gymnasts from any country to compete in the event.

Lee is the second-best all-around gymnast in the United States, behind Biles, and is a strong contender for a medal. During qualifying, she placed third among the 24 gymnasts but she did not do her most difficult uneven bars routine — the one she performed during the team final.

At the Olympic trials, she outscored Biles on one of the two days of competition, something no other gymnast had done since 2013.

Lee, 18, will also compete next week in the uneven bars and beam finals. She has a good chance of becoming the Olympic champion on the bars because her routine is the most difficult in the world. In the team final on Tuesday it scored a 15.4, tying for the highest mark in women’s gymnastics at these Games so far.

Carey did not win silver with the U.S. team on Tuesday because she secured her own spot in the Olympics, separate from the U.S.A. Gymnastics selection process, by ranking first on the vault in the multiyear World Cup series. She is capable of winning individual medals on vault and floor and has already qualified for both of those finals next week.

The yearlong postponement of the Olympics allowed Carey, 21, to improve her uneven bars and beam skills. As she steps up for the all-around, she will need to score her best on those two events to contend for a medal. But Carey will finish the day on the floor exercise, where she could debut a risky skill: a triple-twisting double layout. It would be the hardest tumbling pass ever performed by a woman.

The Americans MyKayla Skinner and Grace McCallum will not participate in the final because of the two-per-country rule. Skinner was fourth best among the Americans and 11th best among all gymnasts in the qualifying round, but a lower-ranked athlete from another nation will compete instead. McCallum was fifth best among the Americans and 13th best among all gymnasts, while Jordan Chiles finished a distant 40th overall.

Gabby Douglas, the 2012 Olympic champion, was similarly left out of the all-around in 2016, despite qualifying in third place behind Biles and Aly Raisman.

Sunisa Lee during the uneven bars in the team final on Tuesday night.
Credit…Doug Mills/The New York Times

Simone Biles will not repeat as the Olympic all-around champion on Thursday after pulling herself from the event. The shake-up, which came after she withdrew from the team competition on Tuesday, opens the door for her teammate Sunisa Lee, or Rebeca Andrade of Brazil, or the Russians, or the Chinese, to win the individual title. Biles could still participate in the four apparatus finals next week.

The United States has won each Olympic all-around title since 2004, when Carly Patterson became the first American winner of the competition since Mary Lou Retton in 1984. Brazil has never won an Olympic medal in women’s gymnastics.

The women’s gymnastics all-around final begins Thursday at 7:50 p.m. local time in Tokyo, and is expected to last about two hours, with the winner determined following turns on the vault, uneven bars, balance beam and floor exercise.

WATCH LIVE: In the United States, the competition begins at 6:50 a.m. Eastern time. It can be streamed live via the NBC Olympics site, Peacock or the NBC Sports app.

TAPE DELAY: Many fans will prefer to stream a replay or watch the tape-delayed broadcast, which will air on NBC at 8 p.m. Eastern time. To avoid spoilers, turn off mobile news notifications and try to stay off social media.

The all-around will test 24 individual athletes on vault, uneven bars, balance beam and floor exercise. Their scores on each apparatus will be totaled to determine the most complete gymnast.

Each routine will receive a “D score” for difficulty (such as a 5.4 for the common double-twisting Yurchenko vault) and an “E score” for execution (starting at 10 and decreasing for errors). The two scores are combined, so that the double-twisting Yurchenko could merit a maximum possible score of 15.4.

For a more in-depth explanation, watch this helpful video:

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Naomi Gleit