Keeping track of all their posts is *my* Olympics.
After a year-long delay, the Tokyo Olympics are finally going ahead. The worldwide competition, which is held every four years, is one of the sporting world’s highlights, and those who compete are considered to be the elites in their field. The competition will feature multiple disciplines over the weeks-long span of the games. But for Team USA, one of the biggest sports is gymnastics, in which the country wins medals regularly. For those who want to follow this year’s competitors, the 2021 U.S. Olympic Gymnastics team’s Instagrams are the best place to start.
The U.S. Olympic teams are divided by gender into the men’s and women’s teams. Each team has 10 athletes each, with six women competitors and four alternates, plus five men’s competitors, and five alternates. With all the faces fans will be seeing in competition night after night once the games open, here are all their Instagrams to get to know them better. These accounts will also help fans gain insight into what the athletes are thinking, what it’s like to live in the Olympic village in these coronavirus-affected games, and what they’ll be up to after the games are over.
Here’s the full lineup of the U.S. Gymnasts selected to compete in the 2021 Tokyo Olympics:
Simone Biles
Age: 24
Hometown: Spring, Texas
Instagram: @simonebiles
Specialties: Technically, Biles’ specialties for the team are floor and vault, but the GOAT in gymnastics can do anything. When you have four signature moves in your sport named after you, you own it.
Brody Malone
Age: 21
Hometown: Belfast, Tennessee
Instagram: @brody1700
Specialties: Brody is the men’s team’s all-around gymnast, posting the highest single-day scores and landing the top spot on the team. He’s expected to do well in both the high bars and the floor competitions.
Jade Carey
Age: 21
Hometown: Phoenix, Arizona
Instagram: @jadecareyy
Specialties: Like Biles, Carey is a vault and floor exercise specialist. She qualified for this year’s team due to her Apparatus World Cup Series scores, which earned her an individual invite.
Sam Mikulak
Age: 28
Hometown: Newport Coast, California
Instagram: @samuelmikulak
Specialties: Mikulak has already been to the Olympics twice, having competed in the all-around, the high bar, and the vault. The 2021 games will be his third chance to land a medal.
Jordan Chiles
Age: 20
Hometown: Vancouver, Washington
Instagram: @jordanchiles
Specialties: Chiles is the 2021 U.S. Women’s Olympic team breakout star who originally went viral for her Wonder Woman-inspired floor routine in 2018. (She’s also done a routine based on Spider-Man: Far From Home.) With fans calling her “the next Biles,” she’s one to watch at the 2021 Olympics.
Yul Moldauer
Age: 24
Hometown: Wellington, Colorado
Instagram: @yul_moldauer
Specialties: Moldauer is known for his pommel horse work as well as the parallel and high bars. One of the most decorated college gymnasts in history, his first trip to the Olympics with the men’s team could be his breakout moment.
Sunisa Lee
Age: 18
Hometown: St. Paul, Minnesota
Instagram: @sunisalee_
Specialties: Sunisa “Suni” Lee made history when she landed a spot on the Women’s Olympic team as the first Hmong American Olympic gymnast. She landed on the team due to her high scores on the uneven bars and the balance beam and is expected to compete on both.
Shane Wiskus
Age: 22
Hometown: Spring Park, Minnesota
Instagram: @shanewiskus
Specialties: Wiskus was already named the 2021 top collegiate male gymnast before competing for the Olympic team. Along with Malone, Wiskus landed one of the top positions during the Olympic trials, scoring on vault, parallel bars, and high bar.
Grace McCallum
Age: 18
Hometown: Isanti, Minnesota
Instagram: @grace.mccallum
Specialties: McCallum wasn’t sure she’d make the Olympic team this year after having surgery in January for a hand injury. Her landing a spot on the team is one of this year’s feel-good comeback stories of the gymnastics team.
Alec Yoder
Age: 24
Hometown: Indianapolis, Indianna
Instagram: @alecyoder
Specialities: A pommel horse specialist, Yoder is going to the Olympics on the strength of his ability in that department.
MyKayla Skinner
Age: 24
Hometown: Gilbert, Arizona
Instagram: @mykaylaskinner2016
Specialties: Skinner was the oldest competitor at the 2021 Olympic trials; this is her second time being named to an Olympic team, having been an alternate in Rio. A vault specialist, she is expected to compete individually on that apparatus.
The artistic gymnastics competition at the 2021 Tokyo Olympic Games begin July 24, 2021.
