​ROTTERDAM, Netherlands — For 15 years, the U.S. women have been the team by which every other country in the world measures themselves.No more.China snapped the U.S. winning streak at the world gymnastics championships Wednesday, Oct. 21, edging the Americans by thismuch. Two-tenths of a point. That’s one mistake in one of 12 routines.This isn’t the time to wallow, though. The U.S. women’s silver medal officially qualified them for the 2028 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles, and those Games will be here before anyone knows it. As bad as watching someone else stand on a podium the Americans have owned since 2011, it will be way worse for it to happen on home soil.Watch Gymnastics World Championship Finals on Peacock!”It gives us a lot of motivation,” said Chellsie Memmel, the technical lead for the U.S. women’s team. “We know where we want to be. We know there’s still work to do. It’s the middle of the quad. We have the time, and I think it’s going to light a fire.”China ended the US women’s 15-year gymnastics title streakThe U.S. women have been the gold standard in gymnastics for the better part of two decades now. Yes, having Simone Biles helped greatly. But this is a program that has produced gold more effectively than the U.S. Mint, with Suni Lee, Aly Raisman, Gabby Douglas and McKayla Maroney all part of the run. Losing its touch before the first home Olympics since Atlanta in 1996 is not the way to go. “Knowing that we’re just a little bit short of being on the top of podium will definitely push us,” said Skye Blakely, the veteran of this worlds team. Balance beam exposed the US women’s biggest weakness against ChinaThis is not to take anything away from the Chinese. But the Americans outscored them on three of the four events in the team final, only to see the gold slip away on balance beam. Dulcy Caylor fell on her dismount and Blakely didn’t get her body all the way around on a skill, costing her almost a point in difficulty.China, meanwhile, scored a 43.366 on beam — higher than the U.S. women got on any other event. “They are very clearly ahead of us on balance beam,” Memmel said. “We knew we needed every tenth we could get.”The Americans made up some ground on floor exercise, getting spectacular performances from Caylor and Claire Pease, who was the U.S. women’s MVP with hits on all four events. But Reese Esponda needed to be perfect and she wasn’t, allowing Qiu Qiyuan’s peppy routine to serve as a coronation for China.”It speaks to their fight, it speaks to their heart,” Memmel said of the U.S. still having a chance to win after balance beam. “Can’t ask for anything more today.” What US women’s gymnastics must improve before LA28They can — they must — in the future. The Americans have the world beat on vault and floor and are holding their own on uneven bars. But they must add difficulty on balance beam or they’re again going to be searching for tenths of points elsewhere like change in the couch cushion.Cleaning up t