The road to Paris

Meet the Dallas gymnasts competing at Olympic Team Trials this weekend

Dallas native Skye Blakely has a good chance of making the Olympic team.

Photo by Elsa/Getty Images

With the 2024 Summer Olympics Opening Ceremony just a month away, it's finally time to pick the high-profile gymnastics teams who'll represent the United States in Paris. Many powerhouse Texans - including several with Dallas ties - are among the contenders.

The path to Paris ran through Fort Worth recently at the Xfinity U.S. Gymnastics Championships, where the top finishers earned their invitations to U.S. Olympic Team Trials. This weekend (June 27-30), they'll go flip-to-flip and vault-to-vault in Minneapolis; who'll stick the landing and get a chance to compete for Olympic glory? Fans won't know until Sunday night when the full team is announced. (See schedule, below.)

The competition will be fierce. Sixteen women and 20 men will vie for just five spots each, plus two traveling and two non-traveling replacement athletes for each squad.

And realistically, the women are competing for four spots; barring any catastrophes, all-time great Simone Biles will lead the team. Also expected to make the cut: Shilese Jones, six-time World medalist.

One of the top contenders to help round out the team is Dallas native Skye Blakely. The 19-year-old, who lives in Frisco and trains at champion-producing WOGA Gymnastics, is a two-time World team champion. She was crowned the 2024 U.S. all-around silver medalist in Fort Worth, where her debut of a difficult "Cheng" vault put her prominently in the conversation for the Olympics. Three years after her bid to make the 2020 Olympic team ended with an injury, Blakely is peaking at the right time.

UPDATE 6-27-2024: Skye Blakely was injured during a practice at Olympic Trials on Wednesday, June 26. On Thursday morning, USA Gymnastics announced that she will have to withdraw from competition. "During Podium Training on Wednesday, Skye Blakely sustained a right Achilles injury and will be unable to compete in Olympic Trials. We are cheering for Skye in her recovery!" the organization posted on Facebook.

Skye Blakely, Kayla DiCello, Hezly Rivera Skye Blakely (silver) Kayla DiCello (gold) and Hezly Rivera (bronze) at the 2024 USA Gymnastics Winter Cup.Photo by Andy Lyons/Getty Images

Her WOGA training mate Hezly Rivera has an outside shot. The New Jersey native, who now calls Plano home, surprised the Fort Worth arena by finishing sixth in the Nationals all-around competition - right behind 2020 Olympic medalists Suni Lee (fourth) and Jordan Chiles (fifth) and one place ahead of Jade Carey (seventh). Given that Rivera is just 16 years old, she'll be a serious contender for the 2028 Olympics if she stays healthy.

Another WOGA gymnast in the conversation is Kaliya Lincoln. The California native, a current Frisco resident, is known for her powerful tumbling and high-flying flips on floor exercise. Lincoln pulled out of Nationals in Fort Worth due to injury, but if fully recovered at Trials, the 18-year-old could soar to a spot on the team, or as an alternate.

Also in the hunt is Plano/Frisco native Zoey Molomo. Now living in McKinney, she trains at Metroplex Gymnastics and finished just outside the top 10 in all-around in Fort Worth, landing at No. 11. The 15-year-old (she'll turn 16 on July 11) will do doubt be in the conversation for the 2028 Olympics in Los Angeles.

Zoey Molomo during training at Olympic Team Trials in Minneapolis.Facebook/USA Gymnastics

On the men's side, Plano native (and current Houston-area resident) Asher Hong is gunning for a spot on the Olympic team. He'll be up against a deep field that includes national champion Brody Malone, along with Frederick Richard, Yul Moldauer, Shane Wiskus, Colt Walker, Khoi Young, and Donnell Whittenberg.

All the gymnasts vying for a spot on the Olympic team are:

Women

Simone Biles — Spring, Texas/World Champions Centre
Skye Blakely — Frisco, Texas/WOGA Gymnastics
Jade Carey — Phoenix, Ariz./Oregon State University
Dulcy Caylor — Spring, Texas/World Champions Centre
Jordan Chiles — Vancouver, Wash./World Champions Centre
Kayla DiCello — Boyds, Md./Hill’s Gymnastics
Shilese Jones — Auburn, Wash./Ascend Gymnastics Center
Suni Lee — St. Paul, Minn./Midwest Gymnastics Center
Kaliya Lincoln — Frisco, Texas/WOGA Gymnastics
Eveylynn Lowe — Blue Springs, Mo./Great American Gymnastics Express
Zoey Molomo — Frisco, Texas/Metroplex Gymnastics
Hezly Rivera — Oradell, N.J./WOGA Gymnastics
Joscelyn Roberson — Texarkana, Texas/World Champions Centre
Simone Rose — Sammamish, Wash./Pacific Reign Gymnastics
Tiana Sumanasekera — Pleasanton, Calif./World Champions Centre
Leanne Wong — Overland Park, Kan./University of Florida

Men

Fuzzy Benas — Richmond, Texas/University of Oklahoma
Jeremy Bischoff — Santa Clarita, Calif./Stanford University
Cameron Bock — Tustin, Calif./University of Michigan
Tate Costa — Narragansett, R.I./University of Illinois
Alex Diab — Hinsdale, Ill./EVO Gymnastics
Asher Hong — Tomball, Texas/Stanford University
Patrick Hoopes — Lehi, Utah/U.S. Air Force Academy
Paul Juda — Deerfield, Ill./University of Michigan
Josh Karnes — Erie, Pa./Penn State University
Brody Malone — Aragon, Ga. /EVO Gymnastics
Kiran Mandava — Cypress, Texas/Cypress Academy of Gymnastics
Yul Moldauer — Arvada, Colo./5280 Gymnastics
Stephen Nedoroscik — Worcester, Mass./EVO Gymnastics
Curran Phillips — Naperville, Ill./EVO Gymnastics
Frederick Richard — Stoughton, Mass./University of Michigan
Kai Uemura — Chicago, Ill./Lakeshore Academy
Colt Walker — Cedar Park, Texas/Stanford University
Donnell Whittenburg — Baltimore, Md./Salto Gymnastics
Shane Wiskus — Spring Park, Minn./EVO Gymnastics
Khoi Young — Bowie, Md./Stanford University

Local fans will get a chance to see Biles and other top athletes on the post-Olympics Gold Over America Tour coming to Fort Worth in October. Tickets are now on sale.

Competition schedule and how to watch
The 2024 Gymnastics Olympic Team Trials will run June 27-30 in Minneapolis, with men's events taking place Thursday and Saturday, and women's events on Friday and Sunday. Courtesy of USA Gymnastics, the full schedule will be:

Thursday, June 27 – 5:45-8 pm CT – Men’s Day 1 (USA Network, Peacock)
Friday, Jun 28 – 6:40-9 pm CT – Women’s Day 1 (NBC, Peacock)
Saturday, June 29 – 2:15-5 pm CT – Men’s Day 2, Men’s Olympic Team named (NBC, Peacock)
Sunday, June 30 – 7:10-10 pm CT – Women’s Day 2, Women’s Olympic Team named (NBC, Peacock)

For more information on broadcast and streaming schedule, visit the NBC site and check local listings and providers.

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The story contains material from Associated Press and USA Gymnastics. It was updated with the news of Skye Blakely's injury on June 27.

blakely gymnastics olympic trials lincoln simone biles sports

Movie Review

Jessica Chastain drama Dreams stumbles through steamy romance

Photo courtesy of Teorema

Isaac Hernández and Jessica Chastain in Dreams.

The opening scenes of the new drama Dreams are bracing, fictional sequences that call to mind real-life scenarios. In them, a young Mexican man named Fernando (Isaac Hernández) goes through a somewhat harrowing journey from the back of a semi truck in South Texas all the way to San Francisco. It’s a familiar immigrant story that seems to set the stage for a film with something interesting to say.

It turns out, however, that Fernando has not made the long and arduous trek for a job. Instead, it’s to be with Jennifer McCarthy (Jessica Chastain), a rich woman who helps lead a foundation dedicated to multiple things, including funding dance academies. Fernando, a talented dancer, and Jennifer have been in an off-and-on affair for years, with Jennifer wanting to keep their relationship a secret.

Although both are drawn to each other in an inexplicable, lustful way, their bond is tenuous, with each of them dissatisfied for different reasons. Fernando clearly sacrifices much more of himself than Jennifer, who wants for nothing except maybe more affection from her father, Michael (Marshall Bell), and brother, Jake (Rupert Friend).

Writer/director Michel Franco seems to try to inject tension into Fernando and Jennifer’s relationship from the start, an attempt that is only halfway successful. It’s clear from the way they greet each other - not to mention a steamy sex scene shortly thereafter - that they have known each other for a good length of time. Franco is able to get across this familiarity with an economy of scenes, and the intensity of their bond holds for a while.

But as the film progresses and both of them grow disenchanted with their arrangement, Franco starts taking the story in some odd directions. The biggest issue is that it’s never clear at what point in time the story is taking place. Fernando ends up making multiple trips back and forth across the border, with Jennifer doing the same at one point, and Franco’s use of flashbacks muddies the waters, wrong-footing the audience when he should be trying to draw them further into Fernando and Jennifer’s complications.

Revelations in the final act make the story even more confusing, as both main characters start saying and doing harsh things that seem to come out of nowhere. That would be all well and good if Franco actually committed to their changes of heart, but he keeps things wishy-washy for most of the final 15 minutes, resulting in an ending that makes little sense for either character.

Despite the story issues, both Chastain and Hernández give compelling performances. Chastain has been a little under the radar since winning an Oscar for The Eyes of Tammy Faye, but she keeps this character interesting longer than it should have been. Hernández has limited credits and appears to have been cast for his dancing ability, but he goes toe-to-toe with Chastain on more than one occasion and acquits himself well.

Dreams had all of the ideas to explore a more in-depth story about the complicated immigration policies between Mexico and the U.S., or how wealthy people take advantage of those less fortunate. But Franco never finds the right footing, settling instead for a titillating and somewhat mystifying relationship story that feels half-baked.

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Dreams is now playing in select theaters.

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