Who makes the U.S. women’s gymnastics team for world championships?

Over the previous decade, the U.S. women’s gymnastics team was the hardest roster to make in the sport. It may still be. But those who earn spots at this year’s world championships will have seized an opportunity.

Not only are Olympic all-around champions Simone Biles and Suni Lee on indefinite breaks from elite competition, but Konnor McClain, crowned U.S. all-around champion two months ago, is also absent for the rest of 2022, out with a back injury.

Eleven other women compete at a selection camp streaming on USA Gymnastics’ subscription service on Friday (7 p.m. ET) and Saturday (5:50 p.m.). The all-around winner on the first day qualifies automatically for the six-woman traveling team. A committee selects the rest on Saturday night. One will at some point be designated an alternate.

“The beauty of this women’s team is that they might not have a Simone that is in a different stratosphere from the world, but they’ve got a high floor,” said NBC Sports’ John Roethlisberger, a three-time Olympian.

The conversation starts with Shilese Jones, who had the all-around title until falling on her last skill at the two-day national championships in August.

Jones thought she was done with elite gymnastics after placing 10th at last year’s Olympic Trials. She changed her mind after talks with loved ones, including her father, who later died in December after a long kidney disease battle. Sylvester Jones Jr. drove his daughter to and from practices on days he had dialysis.

Jones wrote that it was her dad’s “dream to see me on the Olympic stage one day.” The 20-year-old deferred enrollment to the University of Florida, planning to wait until after the 2024 Paris Olympics.

If Jones is a near-lock to make the team, then Jade Carey and