Respond to prefers-color-scheme dark in app web views

Follow section front redirects in Spectrum

Enable NLP source in PCS for load testing

Switch off the News Alerts Survey Widget when we have enough responses

Poll to determine if new LUF updates are available

Allows the winning A/B test variant to be turned on without Spectrum deployment

Show infinite scrolling sections in Assembler MultiView

Show option for NLP article summaries in Action Bar

Show NLP summaries collection recirc on article pages

A general feature flag for Recipe Features that aren't yet released

Feature flag for media team features that aren't yet released

Use new Orca video player for preroll plugin in Spectrum

Show the snow tracker (instead of the heat tracker) on Spectrum

Nats go over .500 the hard way by beating the O’s and Corbin Burnes

A look at what has changed since the Nationals were last above .500

Baseball can crush rookies. Why hasn’t it crushed Trey Lipscomb?

RFK Jr’s ‘history lesson’ on Russia’s invasion of Ukraine flunks the fact test

The Trump-Biden battle over the 2017 tax cut

That time football legend, rig-driving eligible bachelor Biden was arrested

Commerce Department revokes more export licenses to China’s Huawei

Substack courts TikTokers with new ‘creators’ program

Indiana primary updates: Mike Braun wins Republican governor race

No, posting is not better political activism than talking to voters

The legal — and political — stakes of Stormy Daniels on the stand

Postal worker finds WWII-era letters, drives 5 hours to deliver them

Strangers help Sesame Street puppeteer after heirloom necklace was stolen

Teen grabs wheel when driver passes out and school bus veers into traffic

The FTC’s noncompete clause rule goes too far

The next global crisis could come from the sun. We should prepare now.

Russia is using toxic chemical weapons, wrecking a ban it helped create

How Trump’s allies amplify his Truth Social messages to the wider world

In photos: The scene after a deadly tornado strikes Oklahoma

Fashion previews, protests, parties: The scene surrounding the Met Gala

Middle East conflict live updates: Israel says it has reopened key aid crossing; U.S. paused bomb shipments to Israel

U.S. signals optimism for Gaza cease-fire as Israel moves into Rafah 

Carolyn Hax: Family pushes siblings to ‘make amends’ after their mother’s death

Miss Manners: I’m offended by a golfer’s skirt choice

Ask Amy: I want to be closer with my brother. He never reaches out to me.

France tries to shed its rude reputation ahead of the Olympics

Don’t be a jerk at the airport: A guide for headphones

The new cure-all for vacation excess: the IV drip 

Indy Star bars columnist from Caitlin Clark’s games after awkward exchange

The Washington Post wins three Pulitzer Prizes

US-VOTE-POLITICS-ECONOMY-BIDEN

Stacy Revere

When the 2008 <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/olympics" target="_blank" class="contextual_link">Olympics</a> loomed on the horizon and NBC needed to introduce viewers to the gymnasts hoping to become stars in Beijing, Nastia Liukin appeared on the screen as the broadcast for the 2007 U.S. nationals began. She sat at her training facility with her feet submerged in cold water. A clip moments later showed her ankle being wrapped heavily with tape.

The nagging injury was “just one of her issues,” commentator Al Trautwig said. “The others, maybe bigger ones, are her age and her competition.”

And then Shawn Johnson appeared, diving into a swimming pool while hanging out with friends. Johnson, crowned the national champion two days later, was rightfully cast as a rising phenom — with her age, 15 at the time, described as “perfect.” Meanwhile, Liukin’s birthday dictated an Olympic timeline that was “not necessarily ideal in the world of women’s gymnastics.”

Liukin was 17. She won the Olympic all-around title the following year.

Only recently have the top Americans altered the perceptions in the United States about when female gymnasts peak. Simone Biles, who at 26 is better than she was at 16, has led the paradigm shift <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/olympics/2023/08/06/simone-biles-speaks-paris-olympics/" target=_blank>as she aims for a third Olympics</a>. If she wins the all-around title at this weekend’s U.S. championships, Biles will become the oldest women’s champion, breaking a record held by Linda Metheny-Mulvihill, who won in 1971 at 24.

Behind Biles, fellow Olympians Jordan Chiles (22) and Jade Carey (23) will contend for podium finishes, as will Shilese Jones, the 21-year-old reigning world all-around silver medalist. (Olympic all-around champion Sunisa Lee, 20, is <a href="https://static.usagym.org/PDFs/Results/2023/w_23champs_startsr1.pdf" target=_blank>slated</a> to perform only on vault and beam because of a kidney-related health issue that has limited her this year.) Among the 29 entrants in the senior women’s division, the average age is 18.1, and that probably will be higher among the top finishers.

Simone Biles is back — and still doing what other gymnasts don’t even try

“Seeing what we’re doing and being more mature, physically and mentally, in the gym, it just gives [other gymnasts] all the hope in the world that you don’t have to peak at 16,” Biles said. “Your time is still coming.”

The evolving profile of a top gymnast in the United States is attributable to everything from shifts in training methods to changes in amateurism rules for college athletes — and it mirrors a global phenomenon: At the Tokyo Olympics in 2021, the average age of medal winners in women’s gymnastics was 20.6, <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/olympics/2021/08/04/olympic-womens-gymnastics-age/" target=_blank>the highest since 1968</a>. After USA Gymnastics faced criticism for cultural issues in recent years, CEO Li Li Leung said she hopes the return of older athletes is “a vote of confidence in terms of us moving in the right direction.”

From 2006 to 2019, just 7 percent of competitors at nationals were at least 20 years old. In the past three editions of the event, that mark has risen to 17 percent. (During this same stretch, there has been a similar rise among gymnasts who were at least 18 — from 26 to 38 percent.) And most notably, these athletes have performed well.

Before Biles’s <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/olympics/2023/08/05/simone-biles-gymnastics-return/" target="_blank">post-Tokyo debut</a>, other Olympians and alternates <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/olympics/2022/08/19/jade-carey-jordan-chiles-leanne-wong-college-gymnastics-olympics/" target="_blank">already had returned</a>. Three years between Olympics, rather than four, may have enticed athletes to stick around for another attempt to make the team. “A year can make a difference — a big difference,” said Chellsie Memmel, the technical lead of the high performance staff.

In past cycles, the average age at the U.S. championships dipped the year after the Olympics — the time when some opt to end their elite careers and those who want to return may take a year off — but older gymnasts were well represented in 2022.

Last year, three of the top five finishers were at least 20: Jones, Chiles and Carey. Though 17-year-old Konnor McClain won the all-around title, the average age among the top five was about 20, a stark contrast from past years.

From 2006, when the open-ended scoring system was introduced, to 2014, the average age of the top five never exceeded 17.8, and during that span, no gymnast in her 20s ever finished that high. Memmel came the closest, placing third in 2008 just two weeks before her 20th birthday.

Memmel believed the 2004 Games, held not long after her 16th birthday, would be her “main shot” to make the team, but she continued on into her 20s, winning a silver medal with the U.S. team in 2008, and then competed through 2012.

Amid the pandemic, inside an empty gym that her parents own, Memmel started playing around with some difficult skills. At 32, she felt physically strong and decided to return to elite competition. She practiced skills that she had never done, such as a double-twisting double tuck, onto a soft surface. She prioritized conditioning and recovery, with a quality-over-quantity approach. By competing at the U.S. Classic and U.S. championships in 2021, she sparked a conversation about longevity, just before the Olympic team was named and had an average age of 21.3, the highest in decades.

There long have been older gymnasts performing at the highest level: Uzbekistan’s Oksana Chusovitina, now 48, has competed at eight Olympics. Aly Raisman won the all-around silver medal at the 2016 Olympics at 22. Other past U.S. teams included Dominique Dawes (23) and Amy Chow (22) in 2000, then Annia Hatch (26) and Mohini Bhardwaj (24) in 2004.

Still, gymnasts have <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/olympics/2021/07/31/oldest-youngest-olympians/" target=_blank>historically been younger</a> than their Olympic peers. And it is a “physically demanding sport,” Memmel said. A gymnast begins competing as a senior — the group eligible for the Olympics and world championships — during the year of her 16th birthday. With 30-plus hours per week of training, longevity requires coaches who strategically pace athletes to peak at the right time and stay healthy.

With ‘obvious’ motivation, Simone Biles sets sights on a third Olympics

MyKayla Skinner, a Tokyo Olympian at 24, said in 2021 she didn’t think she would have been able to <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/olympics/2021/08/04/olympic-womens-gymnastics-age/" target=_blank>continue with elite gymnastics</a> for so long if Martha Karolyi was still in charge of the national team, citing the intensity of training.

Gymnasts need to be prepared to perform their skills on competitive surfaces — as opposed to softer landings used to minimize the risk of injuries — and “that does come with repetition and being strong in your mind, knowing that you can do it,” Memmel said. “So it is always trying to find a good balance.”

As the national staff prepares training plans for the upcoming world championships, Memmel said: “We’ll take into account their bodies, the rest and recovery that they need, and the numbers are probably going to be a little bit different if we are going to have an older team.”

As more gymnasts in their 20s compete at the highest level in the United States, others can see that example and norms begin to shift.

“We’re doing a lot harder gymnastics when we’re older, too,” said Carey, the <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/olympics/2021/08/02/jade-carey-olympics-gymnastics-gold-floor/" target=_blank>Olympic floor champion</a>. “ … We can keep going for as long as we feel good.”

Laurence Griffiths

Changes in NCAA compensation rules allow athletes to compete in college while making money through endorsement deals. In the past, American gymnasts could have stuck with the elite level through older ages, but if they wanted to go to college, they might have felt <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/olympics/2021/07/20/olympic-gymnasts-nil/" target=_blank>they had to abandon their elite career</a> to do so. In the wake of the rule change, several prominent gymnasts have competed in both realms simultaneously.

“Colleges are, I think, trying to work harder with these athletes to make it work,” Memmel said, and gymnasts are excused from national team camps while they are competing in the NCAA.

Next year, the United States could be in a previously unfathomable position with three past Olympic all-around champions hoping to compete in Paris. In addition to Biles and Lee, 2012 gold medalist <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/olympics/2023/07/13/gabby-douglas-three-time-olympic-champion-announces-return-gymnastics/" target=_blank>Gabby Douglas</a> announced her intention to return to elite gymnastics.

This Olympic cycle might be an anomaly — with Biles choosing to return after the disappointment in Tokyo, the shorter time between Games and perhaps a uniquely talented group of past Olympians capable of extending their careers.

But Memmel said she expects the trend to continue into the next cycle, with more gymnasts seeking to follow in the path of those excelling now.

University of Georgia, BBA in management information systems

Emily Giambalvo is a sports reporter focusing on data-driven projects with the enterprise and investigations team.

Emily Giambalvo

washpost

Led by Simone Biles, older U.S. gymnasts are also some of the best

the-washington-post

2023 U.S. Classic

Staff

Getty Images

At 26, Simone Biles leads a mature group of gymnasts

Stacy Revere/Getty

The Washington Post

name

prism://prism.query/site,/sports/olympics&limit=20

Olympics

Olympics news including photos, videos, medal counts, highlights, schedules and more from The Washington Post.

prism://prism.query/site-articles-only,/sports&limit=20

Sports

The Washington Post Sports section provides sports news, video, scores, analysis and updates about high school, college, and pro sports teams, including the Capitals, Nationals, Washington Football Team, United and Wizards. Post Sports also offers blogs and discussions about the latest sports news.

The stunners. The cheers. The home runs, hat tricks and gameday magic. Don’t miss out with The Sports Moment, a newsletter for the biggest sports news.