It wasn’t that long ago that the US women’s gymnastics team was a force to be reckoned with. Be it the Olympics or World Championships, Team USA would always emerge as the top two, with the likes of Simone Biles and co. leading the way. Take, for example, the Rio Olympics, the Paris Olympics, and the subsequent world championships. Sadly, those days of dominance are looking like a distant past at the moment. In the recently concluded world championships in Jakarta, Indonesia, Team USA women had just two medals to their name.

For Team USA, Leanne Wong had Olympic experience, though she’d only traveled to Tokyo and Paris as an alternate. And as expected, Wong looked well on course to clinch her all-around gold. However, what has now become a controversial decision from the judges saw Russia’s Angelina Melnikova take the gold in her return as a neutral athlete. Apart from Wong, Joscelyn Roberson claimed bronze on vault. But Wong and Roberson aside, the women’s team had little to celebrate.

The US women’s team returned with the lowest medal haul since 2001. This was also the first time since 1979 that the men’s gymnastics team earned more medals than the women. So what happened? For many years, the US women’s gymnastics team had a strong core with a legendary lineup. The likes of Suni Lee, Simone Biles, Aly Raisman, Nastya Liukin, and more were both dominant and consistent in their results, especially on the biggest stages.

But with the retirement of Biles, USA women don’t have that same level of firepower on their team. And with stars like Jade Carey and Lee taking a step back from elite gymnastics at the moment, the onus is now on the next crop of gymnastics hopefuls with no clear successors. Thus, a significant void has been formed. And as the women’s gymnasts are going through a transitional phase, it can be expected that there is still time left till LA28 for Team USA to get things on track. But even then, the uncertainties remain.

US women’s gymnastics struggles as men claim more medals than in decades

The US women’s team has made sure to keep the spotlight on them for decades. But this year, the men’s team managed to shatter that streak and earned more medals than women for the first time since 1979. Simone Biles stepped into the elite realm in 2013, and since then, it has always been the US women’s team to secure the most medals, be it at World Championships or the Olympics. 

In 2021 the American women’s team won three medals in Worlds, which was their lowest since 2012. Even so, there was an explanation for the reduced hall as USAG sent their B team to the event, while their main contenders geared up for the Tokyo Olympics. This time, although Olympian Hezly Rivera withdrew from Worlds owing to an injury, all the expectations were on Joecelyn Roberson, Leanne Wong, and Dulcy Caylor.

However, their performance at nationals hinted at what was to follow in Jakarta. The scores they received weren’t competitive when compared to the rest of the field outside of the US, a situation that has been unfamiliar to the US women for nearly two decades.

It wasn’t just Simone Biles, but generation after generation of elite gymnasts who always made sure that they grabbed the medals with their gravity-defying stunts at the international meets. Now, with a generation taking a step back from the competitive realm, fans will be eagerly hoping the newer stars can reach greater heights soon.