I don’t think anyone had any doubts about Team USA showing up in Jesolo ready to absolutely annihilate the competition. That’s what happens when you bring three Olympic gold medalists, the two-time World all-around champion, the new senior who won pretty much every competition she entered for the majority of her junior career, and two other international medalists.

But even though we knew it coming in, it was still a bit jarring to see the final team score and then the all-around rankings, with the top five U.S. gymnasts all posting a 58.7 or better. Of the ten seniors competing, nine finished in the top 10, including two who had uncharacteristic (and bizarre) falls on floor.

Jesolo is basically an earlier and smaller version of U.S. national championships in a way, giving fans – and more importantly, Martha Karolyi – an objective look at the potential of her athletes going into the elite season. Before the selection camp, Karolyi stressed how important this meet would be for those looking to make the Worlds team, though I don’t know if it narrowed her decision any.

How could it when everyone performed so well? Even those who had falls are capable of much higher all-around scores. Kyla Ross, who lost herself in the air a bit punching out of her double arabian into what was meant to be a stag but ended up propelling her forward and straight off the mat, had a great day otherwise, and was on pace for about a 59.0 until that pesky 11.5 (in addition to the fall out of bounds, she also missed her leap connection, bringing her loss in start value to somewhere around a full point when all was said and done).

The big news is obviously the return of Aly Raisman and Gabby Douglas. The double gold Olympic medalists of 2012 hadn’t competed since the last day of apparatus finals in London, where Douglas fell on beam after a long week of insane highs (including all-around gold, in case you happened to forget) and Raisman picked up beam bronze and floor gold. They are both on track to do huge things in this sport once again, placing third and fourth with scores of 59.1 and 58.9, respectively.

I never doubted Raisman in her comeback and said from the beginning I trusted Mihai Brestyan implicitly after what he did with Alicia Sacramone between 2008 and 2010. That was incredible, but Raisman’s is on a whole other level, almost completely back to her full difficulty, and though she looked mostly strong in her execution, there is still tremendous room for improvement (especially on beam, where she had a few minor bobbles and missed a couple of connections). She looks better than ever on bars, and on floor, she hit her epic opening pass from 2012 – the 1.5 through to double arabian to punch layout. She is incredible.

I have to admit I had my doubts about Douglas. Not in her ability, but with the way things were going – three gym changes in a year from Chow’s to Waller’s back to Chow’s and then finally to Buckeye, where she seems to have a found a great home – I had reasonable cause for concern. She also grew quite a bit since 2012, going from about 4’11” to about 5’3″ or so; that kind of growth means skills are much harder to get back, especially combined with months out of the gym. And when she pulled from the 2014 elite season after saying it was her goal to return for nationals, I can’t blame those who thought she wasn’t fully invested in her return.

But she looked fantastic in a video produced by USA Gymnastics a few weeks back, reportedly had an awesome showing at camp in February, and confirmed with her performance today that her comeback is no joke. She is clean and polished in all of her work, especially beam, where it’s hard to believe how easily she goes through her routine. and like Raisman, what she did today is just a preview of what she’s capable of.

It’s funny how similar they are, both in their all-around scores (just two tenths apart) and in the fact that they’re both great on three events with just one ‘iffy’ event at the moment – bars for Raisman, though as I said, her form here has improved immensely, and floor for Douglas, who looks great but just doesn’t have the difficulty (she’s currently at about a 5.5, though overall it’s a much better routine than what she did in 2012).

The two had pretty similar post-Olympic experiences, going on the Kellogg’s tour with their teammates, having fun with opportunities outside of the gym (Raisman most notably on “Dancing with the Stars” and Douglas in a series of commercials and appearances), and then at about the same time, making the decision to get back to training. The decision to come back early this year is definitely no mistake after watching last quad’s comebacks – Alicia Sacramone returned two years before the Olympics but peaked too soon, showing her best work about a year earlier than she would have liked, and then Nastia Liukin came back much too late, making her first appearance at Classics just three months before the Games and ultimately not being ready in time.

Yes, the pre-Olympic year meet at Jesolo is perfect timing. It’s a relatively low-pressure meet; though it’s on international soil and streamed live, the competition is weak, and the 5000 or so viewers who tuned in on YouTube don’t compare to the millions who watch U.S. nationals on NBC. If they make mistakes, it doesn’t mean much, but if they do well it’s a nice boost of confidence going into the remainder of the season.

It was also an interesting look at whether history can repeat itself. At this same meet in 2011, Raisman earned bronze while Douglas placed just off the podium in fourth place; four years later, they did it again, with the only difference being that this time around, their all-around scores were about two points higher. If Raisman and Douglas were able to grow as much as they did between Jesolo in 2011 and the lead-up to the Olympic Games a year, later, imagine what they can do this time around when their jumping off point is even higher.

Of course, last quad they didn’t have a monster named Simone Biles to contend with.

At this point and for the foreseeable future, Biles is literally unbeatable. In addition to winning the all-around with a 62.1 – a full 2.6 point margin over second place – she also qualified in first place into every single event final, including bars, her ‘weakest’ event. It’s all about her execution right now. Her difficulty on bars and beam matches that of the others – five others on bars had equal or higher difficulty, and while she and Raisman were at the top on beam with a 6.4 each, six other gymnasts were within three tenths of that. On these two events, it was all about how rock solid and clean she is on top of all that difficulty, showing just how well she can handle it. That combination is rare to find, and the fact that she can do it on all four events is what makes her the best in the world.

Then you get to her floor. This is where she is impossibly good. She can work a 6.7 start value like it’s a compulsory routine, and for the second time this year she’s managed to get to levels you don’t think are humanly possible. At the American Cup, she earned a 16.0 and today, she managed to go 15.95 with a 9.25 execution score, and that was with a few hops on landings (the brand of floor used in Italy was a bit bouncier than most of the gymnasts were used to). It’s unbelievable, and she could very well finish up her weekend going home with every single available gold medal.

Almost lost in the excitement of the Olympic comebacks and Biles’ huge performance was the silver medal earned by Bailie Key in her very first senior competition. After capturing title after title throughout 2010 right up to the Pacific Rim junior gold last spring, an elbow injury took her out of the U.S. domestic meets and her growth spurt led to lackluster performances at the ranch both in February and March.

Even this week, she looked a little out of sorts in her training footage, not looking quite as clean on her DTY as we’re used to while showing work on beam and floor also completely below her typically perfectly-executed standards. But above all else, Key is a competitor. A few poor routines in training can still result in gold, because she’s so mentally solid, she’s quick to forget the past and focus on kicking butt.

A 59.5 was her final score at Jesolo, capped off by a huge 15.0 on floor, where her tumbling looked absolutely lovely. Before floor, it was difficult to say how she’d do…she was fifth going into the final rotation, and based on how her tumbling had looked all week, it didn’t seem like she’d be able to pull it off. But then that razor-edge focus kicked in, she looked better than ever, and she pulled up four tenths ahead of Aly to seal the deal.

There’s definitely work to do. Her beam isn’t very steady, and both her layout and wolf turn were way off. I actually wouldn’t mind seeing the layout get replaced, if only because this should be a stellar event for her, and while it’s not bad, she’s just definitely not hear her potential. I was most impressed with her bars, actually; she’s always been clean there but now she’s actually starting to show a true prowess.

She has a little ways to go before she can go head to head with Biles, but this was a good starting off point. It shows that she made it through her awkward, and usually bumpy, transition without any major issues, and should give her the confidence to face the upcoming season without any concern.

Alyssa Baumann in fifth place had an excellent day, especially on beam, her best event, where she earned a 15.0 to qualify into the event final behind Biles. Even bars, typically weak for her, went well. Her difficulty isn’t much, but she seems to have put a lot of work in her execution over the past several months, making her a legitimate all-around threat going into this season.

Otherwise, I was impressed with Maggie Nichols‘ bars (and while it was a shame she got tripped up on a leap on floor after an otherwise good day, I think she still would have ranked right behind Baumann anyway, not bad considering she’s been out for six months with a knee injury. I was also blown away at Megan Skaggs‘ ability to hold her own at her international debut; there was no one outstanding event (though her DTY did look lovely) but she was clean and solid all day, and managed to place eighth, above veterans like Ross and Madison Desch.

Desch has so much potential on bars, and I hope she makes it a focus. Her releases are awesome, and with a little bit of clean-up, she could have a heck of a routine. I also loved Emily Schild on this event; she had some falls on beam and floor, but she’s missed about 18 months of competition due to injury, so she was possibly just a bit rusty.

Finally, poor, poor Ross. I mentioned her mishap on floor, which was truly a shock after the day she had. She looked like she got a bit more bounce than she was used to, a shame after hitting so well in training, and it kind of made her lose focus for the rest of her routine. But prior to this, she had the most beautiful DTY of the day and was beautiful on bars and beam, making the bars final a tenth behind Biles and finishing third on beam with a 14.9.

Overall, I think the amount of depth this team has is terrifying. No other team in the world can come close to how tremendous these athletes are, and if you think the deficit between the U.S. and other teams at last year’s Worlds was a lot, this year will be insane.

Had the top five all-arounders today alone competed in a three-up, three-count format, they would have bested Team USA’s 2014 gold medal team final performance by over three points. There’s just so much depth, girls with Olympic finals-worthy routines are going to be left at home; Karolyi has very difficult decisions to make and I don’t envy her position.

This team’s potential for this year and beyond is limitless. Jesolo was just a preview.

Article by Lauren Hopkins