MINNEAPOLIS — Kayla DiCello, an alternate on the 2020 U.S. Olympic Gymnastics Team, injured her Achilles tendon during her first routine on the first day of the U.S. Olympic Gymnastics Trials and will not be able to compete for a spot on the 2024 national team.
DiCello was first up on the vault and intended to perform a double twist while lying down, but instead of twisting, she curled up and upended the vault. She appears to have been injured when she stepped off the vault.
The 20-year-old DiCello quickly sat down on the mat in tears and was carried away by medical staff before being taken off the field in a wheelchair. Reigning Olympic all-around champion Suni Lee, who was in the same room as DiCello for the Minneapolis trials and was second on the vault, broke down in tears at the sight of her best friend's injury.
A former standout gymnast at the University of Florida, DiCello took last season off from NCAA gymnastics to focus solely on earning a ticket to Paris. She was an alternate on the gold medal-winning team at the 2023 World Championships and won a bronze medal in the individual all-around at the 2021 World Championships. At the U.S. Championships earlier this month, DiCello placed third in the individual all-around and second on floor exercise.
DiCello's injury came just 15 minutes after team-surefire Cirice Jones was helped to the gym after injuring her knee while warming up for the vault. Jones was introduced at the start of the meet but did not compete in that event after coming out of her warm-up rotation to grab her sweatshirt. Jones competed on the uneven bars, her specialty event, earning a score of 14.675, before withdrawing from the rest of the events. Jones is still in the running to make the Olympic team and could compete in more events on Sunday, the final day of selection.
Two days earlier, Skye Blakely, one of the front-runners to make the women's five-player team, ruptured her Achilles tendon during training. She was on crutches on Friday.
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(Photo by Tim Nwachukwu/Getty Images)
