PHOENIX (AP) — Skye Blakely’s return to the all-around competition at the elite level got off to a fabulous start. The 21-year-old posted a total of 55.600 to tie Claire Pease atop the leaderboard during the opening night of the U.S. women’s gymnastics championships on Friday.
Blakely, competing in the all-around at the elite level for the first time since rupturing her right Achilles during training at the 2024 Olympic Trials, had the second-highest score on both balance beam and uneven bars and capped the night with a dynamic performance on vault that put a national title within reach.
It won’t be easy. Pease, who won the 2025 U.S. Classic last summer, is even with Blakely after four solid and occasionally spectacular rotations.
Blakely and Pease are followed closely by Charleigh Bullock, who dazzled in her senior debut. The 16-year-old Bullock, from Spotsylvania, Virginia, will begin Sunday’s final round just two-tenths behind at 54.400.
Hezly Rivera, the defending national champion and a 2024 Olympic gold medalist, is fourth. The 18-year-old fell during a release on uneven bars but bounced back with a graceful and confident performance on balance beam, her 14.3 the highest score of the night on any apparatus.
Two-time Olympic gold medalist Jade Carey, competing in her hometown while beginning her bid for a third Olympics in two years in Los Angeles, is fifth.