In a way, the World Gymnastics Championships that begin Saturday mark the beginning of the run-up to the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics. The meet includes the first global team competitions since the Paris Games. The team medalists will achieve first places in LA 2028 for their countries. In other ways, the worlds will show where the American women stand at the midpoint of the Olympic cycle after more than a decade of dominance. Americans have won the last seven team titles at worlds dating back to 2011. At least one American woman has earned an individual medal in all 23 Olympic or world championships since 2003. Both streaks are expected to be challenged in Rotterdam, Netherlands, where the team finals are Tuesday (men) and Wednesday (women), the all-around finals are next Thursday (men) and Friday (women) and the individual event finals are Saturday and Sunday (all in live on Peacock and NBCSN). The World Gymnastics Championships will take place from October 17 to 25 in Rotterdam, Netherlands. Hezly Rivera withdraws from worlds The U.S. women’s roster at worlds originally included a gymnast with Olympic experience: Hezly Rivera, who was the youngest American in all sports in Paris at age 16. But Rivera, the US overall champion in 2025 and 2026, medically retired on Saturday, two days after she said a left ankle injury was limiting her in training. The U.S. roster at the last six World Cups with a team event has included Simone Biles five times. In the only worlds Biles missed in 2022, the Americans still had experience with Jade Carey and Jordan Chiles, each of whom won an Olympic medal the year before. The United States has a veteran of world championship team events on this five-woman roster: Skye Blakely, who is at her fourth consecutive worlds. Three others, Claire Pease, Charleigh Bullock and Reese Esponda, are making their senior world championship debuts. Dulcy Caylor, the alternate who replaced Rivera on the roster, competed at the 2025 Worlds, which included individual events only. “There has been speculation that Team USA will not have the level of depth or point advantages that we have had in the past and that we may not be as strong,” said Betty Okino, 1992 Olympic bronze medalist and US national. team leader said at the team selection competition last month. “I’m ready for these girls to close that conversation.” A team of gymnasts from Russia won the European title in August, but Dutch authorities denied visas to three prominent Russian women to enter the Netherlands for the worlds. China, another traditional power, won both the Asian Championships in June and the Asian Games in August. “The world is getting stronger, that’s for sure,” said Chellsie Memmel, the 2008 Olympic silver medalist and another leader of the U.S. team. “We still have a lot of confidence. We have three strong jumpers that we can field and go from there. There are other events that I would like to have a little more difficulty in, but the athletes are working very hard to get to that point.” Hezly Rivera, Olympic gold medalist and two-time reigning national champion, talks about how she became comfortable being uncomfortable, the moment she knew she wanted to go to the Olympics, what Paris was like, and more. New overall champion to be crowned The top three finishers in last month’s selection competition, Pease, Blakely and Bullock, have never competed in a senior world championship. A maximum of two gymnasts per country can reach the general final of 24 qualifications. “It’s new at this stage, but it’s not new for them,” Memmel, the 2005 world champion by .001 over Nastia Liukin, said Thursday. “They’ve all gone out and competed in every aspect several times this year. This stage is a little bigger. But when you talk to them in that sense, we just try to say, ‘It’s just another competition. You’re ready for this.'” Biles has won the all-around in six of the last 10 world championships. When she wasn’t there, other Americans stepped forward: (Morgan Hurd, gold, 2017), Leanne Wong (silver, 2021 and 2025), Kayla DiCello (bronze, 2021) and Shilese Jones (silver, 2022). None of the 2024 overall Olympic medalists are in this year’s field with Biles and Suni Lee absent and Brazil’s Rebeca Andrade. the four events. Angelina Melnikova, the 2021 and 2025 world champion, was one of the Russian gymnasts who were denied a visa. “We have a very strong team and then very strong individual athletes to present for both (the overall and individual event finals),” Memmel said before Rivera withdrew. “So I’m excited to see what they do because I know what they’re capable of.” Rebeca Andrade became Brazil’s most decorated Olympian in Paris and then told her coach she needed a break.
