Kaliya Lincoln will have a spot on the LSU gymnastics team when she arrives on campus later this year.
First, though, she is trying to earn a spot on the U.S. women’s gymnastics team. In 2024, that just may be the hardest team in the world, in any sport, to make.
Lincoln is one of 16 female gymnasts invited to this week’s U.S. Olympic artistic gymnastics trials. The men’s competition is Thursday and Saturday at the Target Center in Minneapolis, while the women’s competition is Friday and Sunday.
All of the action will be shown on NBC, USA and Peacock.
Lincoln withdrew from competition last month during the U.S. championships at Dickies Arena in Fort Worth, Texas, site of LSU’s NCAA championship victory in April. LSU gymnastics coach Jay Clark said Lincoln tweaked her foot on balance beam.
Lincoln — along with Shilese Jones, who injured her shoulder in Fort Worth — petitioned for spots in the Olympic trials and were accepted.
“I don’t think they would accept her petition if she didn’t have a chance,” Clark said at the time.
Lincoln, who will compete for LSU in 2025, won a team gold and individual floor medal in October at the Pan American Games in Santiago, Chile.
If Lincoln had a path onto the five-person U.S. team, it was expected to be on floor.
“She is a powerhouse on floor,” said Patricia Duffy, founder of the website Gymnastics-Now.com, who speculated that Lincoln would be in contention for an alternate spot.
That math may have changed for Lincoln and the other U.S. contenders in an unfortunate way Wednesday as Skye Blakely, a Florida signee, went down with an injury while practicing on floor. There was no immediate information on Blakely’s injury, but it appeared to be a similar situation to the torn Achilles tendon suffered by LSU’s Konnor McClain in May at a pre-Olympic event in Hartford, Connecticut.
Also to be decided in Minneapolis is the U.S. trampoline team. Aliaksei Shostak, Nicole Ahsinger and Sarah Webster of Lafayette are all in contention. Shostak and Ahsinger competed in the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.
The U.S. gymnasts will be announced Sunday. The Olympics begin July 26 in Paris.