Gymnastics: Mikulak vying at U. S. trials

Corona del Mar High product Sam Mikulak, a four-time U.S. all-around gymnastics champion and 2012 Olympian, will attempt to earn a spot on the 2016 Team USA that will compete in the Olympics in Brazil at the U.S. Olympic Trials, Thursday and Saturday at St. Louis University.

The longtime Newport Coast resident, who has been living and training at the U.S. Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs, won his fourth straight U.S. overall title earlier this month in Hartford, Conn.

Mikulak produced 181.5 combined points in prelims and finals in Hartford, besting runner-up Chris Brooks (179.85) and third-place finisher Jacob Dalton (179). He clinched the crown on the final event by finishing eighth in the vault.

Mikulak, who missed the 2015 World Championships after suffering Achilles and ankle injuries following his triumph at the 2015 U.S. Championships, finished second in the pommel horse and the parallel bars in Hartford. He was fourth in the high bar and sixth in the rings to become the first to win four straight U.S. all-around titles since Blaine Wilson completed the feat in 2000.

Mikulak, who was a three-time NCAA all-around champion and a two-time NCAA team title winner at Michigan, will attempt to earn one of five spots on the Olympic team that will compete in Rio de Janeiro from Aug. 6 to 21. There are 18 competitors in the field at U.S. Trials.

“There was a lot of motivation leading into [the U.S. Championships],” Mikulak said after earning his fourth straight crown, “to really prove myself and show that I’m ready. I want the world to watch.”

Mikulak earned the all-around crown at the Winter Cup Challenge in Las Vegas earlier this year. He also won the all-around title at the 2015 Pan American Games and earned the U.S. pommel horse gold medal to go with his all-around title in 2014.

At the 2012 Olympics in London, he competed in the vault final.

— Barry Faulkner

— Barry Faulkner