Golden Girls Rerun: The Door Remains Open for Gold Medal Gymnasts to Return

Courtesy of TIME

The United States women’s artistic gymnastics team in the 2024 Paris Summer Olympics, or the Golden Girls, featured four returning Olympians and made history as the oldest U.S. women’s team by average age. While none of the athletes are actually “old,” four of the athletes are considered old by dated gymnastics standards (save Uzbekistan’s Oksana Chusovitina who is eyeing her ninth Olympics and just turned 50), which gave them the Golden Girls nickname despite being in their 20s.

Hezly Rivera, the youngest member of the 2024 team, who just turned 17, is back to elite competition and would have a great shot of making the 2028 team, this time with more international competition and several years of experience under her belt. For Jordan Chiles, Jade Carey, Suni Lee, and Simone Biles, the question of returning for another Olympics remains up in the air. We’ve heard many vague or non-answers from the gymnasts on a possible third, or for Biles fourth, Olympics. But, to my hope and possibly delusion, we also haven’t heard any hard “no”s. And competing on home soil could be a big motivator for any Olympic athlete weighing a return.

Now, what is the likelihood that we get to watch a rerun of the Golden Girls?

Hezly Rivera

Courtesy of Olympics.com

Like I said, Hezly Rivera is the most likely of the 2024 Olympic gymnasts to make a push for the 2028 Los Angeles Games. Rivera would be 20 years old, have much more experience under her belt including Olympic experience, and was likely already being paced for 2028 with the shift to gymnasts continuing to compete into their 20s rather than retiring in their teens. Rivera is committed to LSU and could continue to train elite while competing in college, just like Philippines Olympian Aleah Finnegan.

Jordan Chiles

Courtesy of Olympics.com

Jordan Chiles still has a year left at UCLA, and that’s where her focus is for now. As far as a return to elite after her time in the NCAA goes that is still up in the air. Chiles would be right at home, though, for the next Olympics. While artistic gymnastics will be housed in the Arena in Downtown Los Angeles (better known as Crypto.com Arena, home of the Los Angeles Lakers, Sparks, and Kings), and not UCLA’s Pauley Pavilion, if there is one gymnast who knows how to perform in front of a crowd in LA, it’s Jordan Chiles!

Jade Carey

Courtesy of AP

Jade Carey just finished competing in her last season in the NCAA at Oregon State. While Carey has not confirmed one way or another that she’s done competing, she now gets well-deserved rest after being go-go-go for two Olympics and four NCAA seasons with no breaks in between. I can’t imagine a gymnastics world without Jade Carey, who made her Worlds debut in 2017. With how great and consistent Carey was on every event in college, and how much power she gets on vault and floor in elite, I hope we haven’t seen the last of her yet!

Suni Lee

Courtesy of AP

Suni Lee inspired me to write this article (and she inspires me everyday) when, in a recent video with Sephora, she kept the door open for another Olympics. With the health issues Lee battled, she didn’t even know that she would make her second Olympics. Lee had her own redemption within her sport, and now she has the chance to compete for herself without anything to prove. And I would love to see her grace the uneven bars and beam again.

“This is the first time in my life where I’ve ever been able to experience actual real life world problems, just because my whole life has always been gymnastics. I would train nine hours a day every single day for 18 years of my life. It was a lot on my body, right now I’m still in pain even though I haven’t done anything since [the Olympics]. It’s been a lot, but I’m having so much fun right now. I’m like, am I willing to give up all the opportunities again? Then, I mean, everything’s a sacrifice. I already did two [Olympics], I feel like I don’t need to do another one. But also there is a part of me where I feel like I do have so much left to prove not to everybody else but to myself,” Lee said.

Simone Biles

Courtesy of People.com

If Simone Biles were to announce her retirement, she would retire in a great spot as she herself has said she feels she has nothing else left to accomplish. But, at the same time, nearly a year after the Olympics, Biles has yet to say, in any way, that she is done with the sport. Whether she returns to the all-around, only competes select events, or gets a skill named after on bars, is all up in the air, but has not been shut down. The only thing we do know is she would be done competing her extremely difficult Biles II on vault.

There are two more things, though, that Biles could check off: competing at the Olympics on home soil, and becoming the first American woman to compete in artistic gymnastics in four Olympic Games.

So, a Golden Girls rerun? It’s a long shot. But never say never!