By Steve Keating
SANTIAGO (Reuters) – Even without Simone Biles and Rebeca Andrade, the artistic gymnastic all-around final produced one of the Pan Am Games’ compelling competitions on Monday with Kayla DiCello taking gold, signalling she will be a contender for a spot on the U.S. Paris Olympic squad.
While many of 39 sports at the Pan Ams lack depth and quality, the women’s all-around field had enough of both to leave a sellout crowd on the edge of their seats until DiCello, the last to compete, had her floor routine score pop up on top of the leaderboard.
As expected, the battle for podium places was between the United States and Brazil, who sent out athletes all with Olympic and or world championship medals on their resumes.
DiCello, an alternate on the U.S. squad that won gold at the recent world championships in Antwerp and an all-around bronze medallist at the 2021 worlds, posted the best scores on the uneven bars and floor, helping her to a winning total of 54.699 points.
Brazil’s Flavia Saraiva took silver on 54.565, with Jordan Chiles making it two Americans on the podium taking bronze.
DiCello’s win returned the all-around title to the U.S. after Canada’s Ellie Black won gold at the previous two Games in Toronto and Lima
While a Pan Am gold medal is special for DiCello, it is still a step towards a bigger goal claiming one of the coveted five spots on the U.S. Olympic squad.
With one of the those places going to Biles, the battle for the four remaining berths that will be up for grabs at the Olympic trials in June in Indianapolis is expected to be as tough or tougher than getting onto the Paris podium.
“Going into 2024, I would say everyone look out for everyone because having the athletes that were at worlds and the athletes that are here it’s going to be a very interesting Olympic trials,” said DiCello. “Honestly any event whether it is international or our own home meets it prepares us for bigger events, especially knowing 2024 is coming up.
“The biggest one we are all going for is Paris, so we’ll see what happens.”
While all-time great Biles sat out the Pan Ams, Andrade the all-round silver medallists at the Tokyo Olympics, was expected to lead the Brazilian fight against the Americans for the all-around title.
But Andrade forfeited a spot when she chose to rest her knees and not to compete in the floor exercise during Sunday’s team competition, which was also the qualifier for the all-around.
(Reporting by Steve Keating in Santiago; Editing by Sonali Paul)
