Morgan Hurd, Jordan Chiles Lead Team USA for 2018 Pacific Rim Championships
Morgan Hurd, Jordan Chiles Lead Team USA for 2018 Pacific Rim Championships
Reigning world all-around champion Morgan Hurd leads the women's U.S. gymnastics team at the 2018 Pacific Rim Championships, which take place April 27-29.
Every two years, gymnasts from the Pacific Rim countries gather to compete in a major international meet that presents the rare opportunity for junior and senior elite gymnasts to all compete as one team in the team competition.
With a deep women's program that makes it a team medal contender, the U.S. had many gymnasts to choose from. After a verification camp to determine team members, three senior and three junior American gymnasts are headed to Medellin, Colombia, to compete at the 2018 Pacific Rim Championships, where FloGymnastics will be providing exclusive coverage.
The team competition uses a 6-5-4 format in which five of the six gymnasts can compete on an event and the top four scores will count. In addition, a sixth gymnast is allowed to compete in the event in order to qualify for all-around and/or event finals. With strong routines on every event, the U.S. women have potential to contend on every event. Learn more about each gymnast's potential below.
The Seniors
Coming off two all-around wins at major international meets and headlining this year's American delegation is reigning world all-around and American Cup champion Morgan Hurd. With superb form and flexibility, the second-year senior is solid on all four events and capable of providing great scores to Team USA on any apparatus, but she especially excels on beam. Hurd earned a world silver medal on the event last year. Her routine includes good difficulty, including a standing full and a piked full-in dismount.
Another recently accomplished all-around gymnast that will join Hurd in Colombia is Jordan Chiles. She won a bronze medal at the Stuttgart World Cup earlier this year for her all-around performance, and Pac Rims will be her first major international assignment as a senior. Chiles has quite difficult elements on bars and beam, including a Tkatchev to in-bar Gienger on bars, but is more well-known for her performances on the power events.
With two different vaults, Chiles can qualify to vault finals and is the only one on this team eligible to do so. Her Yurchenko double vault is clean and powerful, as is her second vault, a 1/2 on 3/2 off. Her tumbling on floor is high and dynamic. She begins her floor routine with a 1.5 through to double arabian and also includes a double layout, double pike, and double tuck. In addition, Chiles gets good height and extension on her leaps.
The final senior gymnast of the U.S. Pac Rims team is first-year senior elite Grace McCallum of Twin City Twisters. McCallum made her senior debut at the City of Jesolo Trophy meet earlier this month where she finished fifth in the all-around and third on vault and floor. In addition, she placed first in the all-around at the Pacific Rim verification camp also held earlier this month at World Champions Centre, where she earned her spot on this team.
The Minnesota native is strongest on vault and floor. Her DTY is very solid, and she has some big skills on floor, including a tucked full-in to open.
The Juniors
This trio consists of the top-three junior all-around gymnasts from USA Gymnastics' Pacific Rim verification camp. While each of these gymnasts is talented on all four events, each has different strengths that allow her to be valuable assets to Team USA.
Jordan Bowers of Solid Rock Gymnastics is in her third year as an elite gymnast and has made big strides since qualifying elite in 2016, including all-around bronze at the Pacific Rim verification camp. She has a powerful double-twisting Yurchenko vault and lots of difficult front tumbling on floor. In addition, she has two single-bar releases on bars and a triple wolf turn on beam.
The silver junior all-around medalist at the Pacific Rim camp was Kayla DiCello of Hill's Gymnastics. With only one full year of elite gymnastics under her belt, this will be her first international assignment. DiCello has great form on uneven bars, including nice lines and a great consistent toepoint. Her Pak salto is nice and floaty, and she has an excellent piked Jaeger and full-out dismount. Her tumbling on floor is also great, as she has a solid tucked full-in.
The final junior member of Team USA is Pacific Rim verification junior all-around gold medalist Sunisa Lee. This up-and-coming junior elite is known for her excellence and difficult combos on balance beam, but especially uneven bars. On beam, her acro series is back handspring to two feet to back handspring step out to layout two feet. She's also capable of a triple wolf turn and a switch split to switch 1/2 to back tuck. The Midwest Gymnastics Center gymnast has a jam-packed bar routine with a piked Jaeger, toe-on Nabieva (layout Tkatchev) and Pak salto to Shaposh to in-bar Gienger, topped off with a full-in dismount.
The Pacific Rim Championships will be her second international assignment as she helped the U.S. win team gold at last year's International Gymnix Junior Cup, where she also won silver on bars.
Related:
Pacific Rims Announcement: Team USA Verified Roster
Pac Rims - Team Canada Preview