ROTTERDAM, Netherlands — The U.S. women are doing everything they can to boost their score at the 2026 gymnastics world championships.
Dulcy Caylor will compete on floor exercise in the team final on Wednesday, Oct. 21, because she gives the Americans a higher scoring potential.
Caylor didn't do the event during qualifying because it would have meant replacing an all-arounder. But her 5.7 D score — if you need a gymnastics scoring refresher, we got you — is higher than the 5.4 for both Charleigh Bullock and Skye Blakely, who did floor in qualifying.
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The Americans need to maximize every possible point if they hope to extend a team winning streak that began at the 2011 world championships and
secure a spot at the 2028 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles.
The Americans finished second in qualifying, 0.467 points behind China. The U.S. women were in the first of 10 qualifying sessions and China the last; judging got more generous with every subdivision. Especially in the unforgiving scoring format for team finals.
Unlike qualifying, when teams put up four gymnasts on each event and drop their lowest score, three gymnasts compete and all three scores count.
Each of the U.S. women will do at least one event during the team final. Pease will do four, Blakely three, Bullock and Caylor two and Reese Esponda one.
US women's gymnastics lineup for the world championships team final
- Vault: Charleigh Bullock, Claire Pease, Skye Blakely.
- Uneven bars: Charleigh Bullock, Claire Pease, Skye Blakely.
- Balance beam: Dulcy Caylor, Claire Pease, Skye Blakely.
- Floor exercise: Dulcy Caylor, Claire Pease, Reese Esponda.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: US women make lineup change as gymnastics worlds title fight tightens
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