© John Cheng

NANNING, China, Oct. 4, 2014 – USA Gymnastics has announced the U.S. women’s line-up for the qualification round at the 2014 World Championships in Nanning, China. The U.S. women compete at 6 p.m. local time/6 a.m. ET on Oct. 4, the first of two women’s qualification days. Fans in the United States can watch live coverage on the USA Gymnastics YouTube channel.

The women’s squad features Alyssa Baumann of Plano, Texas/WOGA; Simone Biles of Spring, Texas/World Champions Centre; Madison Kocian of Dallas/WOGA; Ashton Locklear of Huntersville, N.C./Everest Gymnastics; Kyla Ross of Aliso Viejo, Calif./Gym-Max; and MyKayla Skinner of Gilbert, Ariz./Desert Lights. Madison Desch of Blue Springs, Mo./GAGE, is the alternate, and Jenny Liang of Gym-Max is the women’s head coach.

The women’s line-up for the qualification round is:

    Balance beam: Skinner, Kocian, Baumann, Biles, Ross
    Floor exercise: Kocian, Baumann, Ross, Skinner, Biles
    Vault: Kocian, Baumann, Ross, Skinner, Biles
    Uneven bars: Skinner, Biles, Ross, Kocian, Locklear

2014 World champions and medalists will be determined for both men and women in the team, all-around and individual events. The qualification round determines which countries and athletes advance to the team and individual event finals, respectively: team finals – top eight countries; all-around finals – top 24, maximum two per country; and individual event finals – top eight, maximum two per country, for each apparatus. In addition, the top 24 teams from Nanning will advance to the team competition at the 2015 World Championships in Glasgow, Scotland.

The field of more than 600 includes all of the reigning World champions from the 2013 Worlds except one: all-around – Kohei Uchimura (Japan) and Biles (USA); men’s individual events – Kenzo Shirai (Japan, floor exercise), Kohei Kameyama (Japan, pommel horse), Arthur Zanetti (Brazil, still rings), Yang Hak Seon (Korea, vault), Lin Chaopan (China, parallel bars, tied with Uchimura), and Epke Zonderland (Netherlands, horizontal bar); and women’s individual events – Huang Huidan (China, uneven bars), Aliya Mustafina (balance beam) and Biles (floor). McKayla Maroney of Long Beach, Calif./All-Olympia Gymnastics, was the 2013 World vault champion and is recovering from knee surgery early this year. No team competition was held in 2013.

Ways to follow the action
Here’s a quick overview of the ways to watch and follow the U.S. Team’s performances at the 2014 World Championships in Nanning, China. The time difference between Nanning and New York City is 12 hours; when it is noon in Nanning, it is midnight in New York. For more information on the World Championships, please go to usagymworlds.com.

  • Live webcasts. USAGymWorlds.com will have live webcasts (U.S. viewers only) of selected qualification sessions, including those that feature U.S. athletes. The coverage will also be archived for on-demand viewing. The schedule is below.

    • Oct. 4
      9-10:45 p.m. ET – Women’s Qualifying, Sub. 1 (Russia)
    • Oct. 5
      6-7:45 a.m. ET – Women’s Qualifying, Sub. 5 (USA)
      11 p.m. – 12:45 a.m. ET – Women’s Qualifying, Sub. 8 (China)
    • Oct. 6
      3:30-5:15 a.m. ET – Women’s Qualifying, Sub. 10 (Romania, Great Britain)

     

  • UniversalSports.com will have live webcasts of the team, all-around and individual event finals from Nanning, which will also be available at usagymworlds.com. For U.S. Eastern Daylight Savings time, the live webcasts are scheduled for: Oct. 7 –men’s team final, 7 a.m.; Oct. 8 – women’s team final, 7 a.m.; Oct. 9 – men’s all-around, 7 a.m.; Oct. 10 – women’s all-around, 7 a.m.; Oct. 11-12 – individual event finals, 1 a.m.

  • Cable TV. Universal Sports Network will air each finals session of the 2014 World Championships daily from 8-10 p.m. ET on Oct. 7-12. In addition, UniversalSports.com will provide LIVE streaming of the final six sessions. The network’s broadcast team includes Olympic gold medalists Bart Conner and Amanda Borden. Live webstreams of the finals sessions will also be available at usagymworlds.com.

  • NBC. NBC will broadcast coverage of the Worlds on Oct. 11 at 2 p.m. and Oct. 12 at 3 p.m. ET, hosted by NBC Sports Group’s gymnastics team of Al Trautwig, Tim Daggett, 1984 Olympic team gold medalist, and Nastia Liukin, 2008 Olympic all-around champion.

  • usagymworlds.com. USA Gymnastics will provide enhanced coverage from Nanning, including results, photos, interviews and the webcast. Fans can also follow the action on Facebook, facebook.com/USAGymnastics, and Twitter, @usagym, #FIGWorlds2014ART or #USAGymWorlds.

  • Live scoring. The International Gymnastics Federation provides live scoring from its World Championships. For more information and access, go to fig-gymnastics.com.