Showcasing some of the trademark energy seen throughout college gymnastics, Skinner revved up the crowd before heading to floor exercise for her final routine. Her score of 14.133 was good for fifth on the event, after tying for 10th at nationals. When the crowd at the Dome at America’s Center really knew it was on, though, was in the third rotation, as Skinner showed one of her best routines ever on balance beam, complete with a stuck landing on the dismount. The tone set, Skinner moved to the uneven bars, where she managed her weakest event without any major mistakes. Only Biles and Jade Carey scored higher on the event. Then she went for the even more difficult Cheng, a Yurchenko half on and 1.5-spinning layout off, and stuck the landing. Starting with the all-important vault, Skinner set the tone with an Amanar, hitting the difficult Yurchenko 2.5-twisting back layout with just a small step to post a monster score of 15.133. On Friday, though, Skinner put it all together. Three weeks ago she actually dropped one spot to ninth at this year’s national championships in Fort Worth, Texas, though again she maintained her high positioning on the event that matters most, scoring the second-best vault. At her return to elite nationals in 2018 she finished eighth in the all-around, though stronger on her two key events: third on vault and fifth on floor. The results up until now have been good but perhaps not quite at the Olympic level. At her gym, Desert Lights Gymnastics, she’s cut back on her hours, focusing more on quality than quantity. In November 2019, she married longtime boyfriend Jonas Harmer. “I feel like my gymnastics has been better than ever,” she said.Īfter putting a lot of pressure on herself during the first go-round in elite, Skinner has a newfound balance in her life and training over the past two years. This is a position Skinner’s embracing, telling media ahead of the Olympic trials that “being older, it’s just been awesome.” Olympic women’s gymnastics team since Annia Hatch in 2004. team for Tokyo, she’d be the first married member of the U.S. Now 24 years old, Skinner is the second oldest of the 18 women who qualified for trials - only Biles, born nine months earlier, has her beat. Then the Olympics she was coming back for were pursed back a year to 2021 due to COVID-19. Skinner was 22 when she decided to return to the elite level, an age popular narratives would tell you is too old to compete for a spot at the Olympics in women’s gymnastics. Not only was that her best score since coming back by nearly a point, it also put her in the coveted fourth position in the all-around standings, just behind the the trio presumed by most to be the three “sure things” for the four-person Olympic team: Simone Biles, Suni Lee and Jordan Chiles. With a performance of a lifetime, Skinner nailed all four of her routines to score 56.598. Olympic Team Trials for Gymnastics in St. With the Olympic Games finally beginning next month in Tokyo, the native of Gilbert, Arizona, made her strongest case yet on Friday in the first of two nights of competition at the U.S. “While I love college gymnastics,” she explained in a statement at the time, “I’d like to try and compete for my country.” Then, in April 2019, she put her anticipated senior season on hold. She had done the elite gymnastics thing, getting as far as the Rio Games in 2016 as one of Team USA’s alternates, then transitioned seamlessly to the collegiate level at the University of Utah, where in her first three seasons with the Red Rocks she won a pair of NCAA titles and became one of the sport’s most popular athletes. Olympic Team Trials - Gymnastics on Jin St.
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