MONTREAL — With words of advice from Aly Raisman, four U.S. women began the new Olympic cycle by qualifying for world gymnastics championships finals Wednesday night.
“She texted all of us today, we were in a group chat,” said Ragan Smith, who qualified second into Friday’s all-around final at the 1976 Olympic Stadium. “She said have fun, show off, just do what you do in training and trust your training.”
It helped.
“It always helps,” said Smith, a Rio Olympic alternate. “At Olympic Trials, whenever I was there, she always calmed me down and stuff and cheered for me. She was the leader of the five girls [captain of the Olympic team]. She always helped every single one of us.”
Smith and Morgan Hurd led the way Wednesday, qualifying second and sixth into the all-around final.
WORLDS: All women’s finals qualifiers
Smith, the U.S. all-around champion in August, fell off the balance beam but was otherwise fairly clean. She also had the top floor exercise score.
Smith scored 55.932 overall, one thousandth of a point behind Japanese leader Mai Murakami.
“I had a few mistakes, but pretty good,” Smith said. “I don’t really care about the scores right now.”
Hurd, who was sixth at the P&G Championships in August while coming back from elbow surgery, scored 54.832.
She also qualified second into the balance beam final but put her knee down on a floor exercise pass. She beamed afterward.
“It’s a big, glowing orb inside me,” said Hurd, a 16-year-old in her first year a senior gymnast.
Everyone starts from zero in the finals.
Ashton Locklear, also an Olympic alternate, and Jade Carey, in her first year as an elite gymnast, made the eight-woman uneven bars and vault finals Saturday, respectively.
Carey also qualified third into Sunday’s floor final with Smith, while Hurd is in the beam final.
The Americans, with no Olympic experience, are competing against a new international field.
Zero Rio Olympic champions are in the finals, with most of the gold medalists taking the year off, including every member of the Final Five.
Romanian Larisa Iordache, perhaps the closest woman to a rival to Simone Biles in the last Olympic cycle, tore her Achilles in warm-up and withdrew.
Iordache entered as a co-favorite with Smith. Smith competed a few hours after Iordache and was unaware that her biggest threat was already out.
Now, Smith has an even greater chance of extending the U.S. run of Olympic and world all-around titles dating to 2011 (Jordyn Wieber, Gabby Douglas, Simone Biles).
Locklear, who was edged out for an Olympic spot by Madison Kocian, scored 14.566 on uneven bars.
She qualified sixth into that final, which includes China’s Fan Yilin, who was part of a four-way tie for gold in 2015.
On vault, Carey soared on her Amanar, taking one big step on the landing, and averaged 14.849 for the two vaults.
Only one woman outscored her in qualifying, reigning world champ Maria Paseka of Russia.
Uzbekistan’s Oksana Chusovitina, who last year became the oldest female Olympic gymnast ever at 41, was the eighth and last qualifier into the vault final.
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