2023 Pan American Games all-around champion Kayla DiCello has withdrawn from the U.S. Olympic Team Trials – Gymnastics, USA Gymnastics announced Friday (28 June) after she was carried off the podium by medical personnel following her vault in the opening moments of competition.
“Kayla Dicello is unable to continue competition tonight after sustaining an injury on vault. Her condition is being evaluated by the medical team,” the federation said.
The 20-year-old was heavily taped during Wednesday’s (26 June) official practice and was seen wearing a brace on her right lower leg in a video posted to Olympic all-around champion Suni Lee‘s TikTok.
DiCello was a reserve athlete for the Tokyo 2020 Games, something she told media earlier this year had fueled her run toward Paris 2024.
“I was like, ‘I think I want to go for 2024, I want to go to the Olympics, because… I’m very grateful that I was an Olympic alternate at 2021, but I wasn’t satisfied with that,” she said. “I wanted to go back and do everything that I could so I can make this team.”
In the three years since Tokyo, DiCello has been a stalwart of the U.S. squad, earning an all-around bronze medal at the 2021 World Championships and serving as the alternate for the 2023 U.S. World Championships team that won its seventh-straight global title.
DiCello helped lead the Americans to Pan American Games team gold in Santiago late last year, adding individual all-around gold and floor exercise silver to her haul.
She was a member of the 2023 University of Florida women’s gymnastics team that finished runner-up at the NCAA Championships.
