Star Tribune
USA Gymnastics to hold Olympic Trials at Target Center in June 2024
Minnesota Sports and Events announced Tuesday that the 2024 U.S. Olympic trials for gymnastics will be held at Target Center next June.
The trials, set for June 27-30, 2024, will determine the U.S. men’s and women’s gymnastics teams for the 2024 Paris Olympics. The event will feature two days of competition for each gender. Five men and five women will be named to the teams that will compete in Paris.
Tickets for the event are on sale now. The gymnastics trials, one of the most anticipated pre-Olympic events, typically sell out.
In conjunction with the Olympic trials, Target Center also will host the USA Gymnastics Championships for rhythmic gymnastics, acrobatic and trampoline and tumbling. That event, which will be June 22-26, will help select the U.S. Olympic team for rhythmic gymnastics and trampoline. Organizers said nearly 6,000 participants are expected for the nine days of events.
Minnesota Sports and Events is a nonprofit organization that works to bring major events to the state. It had been aggressively pursuing the gymnastics trials, which were held in St. Louis prior to the Tokyo Olympics in 2021.
Minnesota had three athletes on the U.S. gymnastics teams for the Tokyo Games, and several athletes with ties to the state could compete at the 2024 trials. Suni Lee of St. Paul won the gold medal in the all-around at the Tokyo Olympics, as well as silver in the team event with Grace McCallum of Isanti and bronze on uneven bars. After two seasons of college gymnastics at Auburn, Lee is training towards the Paris Games at her home gym, Midwest Gymnastics Center in Little Canada.
Shane Wiskus, a former Gophers gymnast from Spring Park, was on the U.S. men’s team that finished fifth at the Tokyo Games. He is continuing to compete as a member of the men’s senior national team and is now training in Florida.
Two gymnasts who train at Twin City Twisters in Champlin, Elle Mueller of Ham Lake and Lexi Zeiss of Omaha, also are members of the U.S. women’s senior national team and could be in contention for the 2024 Olympic team.
“I am so excited and proud that Minneapolis has been selected to host the Olympic trials,” Lee said in a news release. “Watching the Olympians who came before was such an inspiration when I was growing up, and it means so much to know that the young athletes of Minnesota will have a chance to watch and be inspired by the best gymnasts in America. I can’t wait for the Olympic trials to be in my backyard.”
Rochelle Olson contributed to this report.
A 65-year-old pedestrian was struck and killed by a pickup truck near Christmas Lake Friday afternoon as she was walking through a crosswalk, the Minnesota State Patrol said.
The woman was crossing Highway 7 around 1 p.m. when she was hit by a 2019 Ford F-150 turning left from Christmas Lake Road onto the highway headed east, the State Patrol said in its report. The intersection is just east of Excelsior, between Saint Albans Bay and Christmas Lake west of Minneapolis.
The Hennepin County Sheriff’s Office, Minnetonka police, and other agencies responded to the fatal collision. The State Patrol has not released the identity of the pedestrian.
The driver has not been arrested. Agencies are still investigating the collision, State Patrol Lt. Michael Lee said. Alcohol was not involved in the crash, the State Patrol said.
Former trooper Shane Roper, 32, had his last day Tuesday, State Patrol Lt. Michael Lee said. Roper’s attorney did not immediately return a request for comment Friday evening.
In July, Roper was charged with criminal vehicular homicide and manslaughter. He was also charged with criminal vehicle operation related to five other people who were seriously injured in the incident.
The criminal complaint states that Roper had been pursuing someone “suspected of committing a petty traffic offense” as he exited Hwy. 52 onto 12th Street SW. As he neared the intersection with Apache Drive, he reportedly turned his lights off and continued to accelerate with a fully engaged throttle.
Roper was traveling at 83 mph with his lights and siren off as he approached the intersection, a Rochester police investigation found. The trooper’s squad car slammed into the passenger side of a car occupied by Olivia Flores, which was heading west and turning into the mall.
Flores died from the blunt force injuries. She was an Owatonna High School cheerleader and set to graduate June 7. There were two other people in the car with Flores.
Olmsted County Attorney Mark Ostrem said in a statement following the charges that Roper violated his duty in “a gross fashion.”
Roper told investigators he was not paying attention to his speed at the time of the crash, and that he believed his lights were still activated when he exited the highway.
Steven Frane Bailey, 56, of St. Louis Park was arrested in connection with the incident and charged with two counts of criminal vehicular homicide and nine counts of criminal vehicular operation. His blood alcohol content measured at 0.325% after officers administered a preliminary breath test at HCMC, according to charges filed in Hennepin County District Court.
In his first court appearance Wednesday, Bailey told a judge his use of alcohol is not a problem. He has an extensive history of drunken driving convictions, starting in 1985 in Wisconsin. Additional convictions followed in Wabasha County in 1993 and Hennepin County in 1998, according to court records. Two more convictions followed in 2014 and 2015.
A Hennepin County judge set his bail at $500,000 with several conditions, including that Bailey take a substance use disorder assessment, that he abstain from drinking alcohol, avoid Park Tavern and stay away from the victims and his family.
His next court appearance is tentatively scheduled for Oct. 1.
Staff writers Paul Walsh and Jeff Day contributed to this report.
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