Skye Blakely, a two-time team world champion expected to contend for a Paris berth at the US Olympic gymnastics trials, withdrew Thursday with an Achilles tendon injury.
The 19-year-old from Texas was injured in training at the Target Center trials venue on Wednesday.
She completed a floor exercise tumbling pass and fell to the mat, receiving treatment from medical staff before being carried off the podium and departing the arena in a wheelchair.
“During podium training on Wednesday, Skye Blakely sustained a right Achilles injury and will be unable to compete in Olympic Trials,” USA Gymnastics said in a statement on Thursday morning.
The trials opened on Thursday evening with men’s competition. Women are scheduled to compete on Friday and Sunday, now with 15 women, led by Simone Biles, vying for five Olympic team spots.
It’s a devastating blow for a gymnast who arrived in Minneapolis off a runner-up finish to Biles earlier this month at the US championships in Fort Worth, Texas.
There Blakely unveiled a difficult Cheng vault that earned her a first 15-point score of her career.
The injury is a painful echo of trials for Tokyo in 2021, when Blakely, then a 16-year-old longshot to make the team, was hurt warming up on vault shortly before competition began and had to withdraw.
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