Follow our Olympics coverage in the lead-up to the Paris Games.
MINNEAPOLIS — Her left leg, the one with the torn Achilles tendon, wrapped in a hard cast and an ace bandage, Skye Blakely leaned on her crutches as she alternately wiped tears from her eyes and waved to the crowd. Not far from her, on the same floor of the Target Center, Shilese Jones tried to coax her injured left knee into performing well enough to simply participate in the meet, and somewhere in the bowels of the arena, a medical team tended to Kayla DiCello, who had to be carted off the floor via a wheelchair.
Meanwhile, 13 other women tried to act like nothing had happened. The U.S. Olympic trials need no incentivizing when it comes to creating pressure. The sheer math of the endeavor packs plenty of punch on its own. Only five women will make it to Paris, and while the discretionary selection process offers gymnastics a trials relief not enjoyed in the win-or-go-home world of swimming and track, the enormity of what’s at stake at this meet still weighs plenty heavy.
“No matter what meet I’ve done in my life, this is still the most stressful one I’ll do in my whole career because you find out if you make it or not,” says Jordan Chiles, who has already survived and advanced to one Olympic Games….
