Maggie Nichols (gymnast)

Maggie Nichols
— Gymnast ♀ —
Full name	Margaret Mary Nichols
Country represented	United States
Born	(1997-09-12) September 12, 1997 Little Canada, Minnesota
Discipline	Women's artistic gymnastics
Level	Senior International Elite
Years on national team	2013–present (US)
Club	Twin City Twisters
Gym	Roseville Gymnastics Center
College team	Oklahoma Sooners (2016–20)
Head coach(es)	Sarah Jantzi, Rich Stenger
Medal record Competitor for  United States World Championships 2015 Glasgow Team 2015 Glasgow Floor Exercise National Championships 2015 Indianapolis All-Around 2014 Pittsburgh Floor Exercise 2014 Pittsburgh Uneven Bars 2014 Pittsburgh All-Around

Margaret Mary "Maggie" Nichols (born September 12, 1997 in Little Canada, Minnesota) is an American artistic gymnast. She won four medals at the USA Gymnastics National Championships, and she was a member of the gold medal-winning team at the 2015 World Artistic Gymnastics Championships.

Senior career

2013

Nichols was added to the national team in March and was selected to represent the United States at the City of Jesolo Trophy and at the Germany-Romania-U.S.A. Friendly.^[1] At the City of Jesolo Trophy, she finished first with the team and sixth in the all-around. In the event finals, she won a silver on floor.

At the Secret U.S. Classic, Nichols finished sixth in the all-around, eleventh on bars, eighth on beam, and fifth on floor.^[2] At the National Championships, she placed fifth in the all-around^[3] and on the balance beam, sixth on uneven bars, and ninth on floor.^[4]

2014

At the 2014 City of Jesolo Trophy, Nichols finished first with the team and third in the all-around.^[5] At the Tokyo Cup, she finished third in the all-around.^[6] At the U.S. Classic, she placed third all-around and on floor, fifth on uneven bars, and seventh on balance beam.

In August, Nichols competed at the U.S. National Championships, where she placed third in the all-around behind Simone Biles and Kyla Ross, as well as on uneven bars and floor exercise. She placed fourth on balance beam. After the competition, Nichols was named to the national team.

In August and September, Nichols competed at the Pan American Championships in Mississauga, Canada, where she helped the American team place first. Individually, she placed third in the all-around competition with a score of 55.500.^[7] However, she dislocated her kneecap on floor exercise during the team final and consequentially withdrew from the U.S. women's World Championships selection training camp later in September.^[8]

2015

At the Jesolo Trophy, Nichols finished first with the team and seventh in the all-around.^[9]

On July 25, she competed at the Secret U.S. Classic and finished third in the all-around with a score of 60.000, behind 2 time World All-Around Champion Simone Biles and 2012 Olympic All-Around Champion Gabby Douglas. She debuted her Amanar vault and scored 15.800. On bars, she scored 14.950 and finished fifth behind Madison Kocian, Douglas, Bailie Key, and Biles. She tied for fifth on beam with Key, scoring 14.450. She tied with Key again, this time for third, on floor exercise with a score of 14.800.^[10]

On August 13 and 15, Nichols competed at the 2015 P&G Championships in Indianapolis, Indiana and placed second behind Biles and ahead of Aly Raisman with a 2-night score of 119.150.

On Night 1 she led for 3 rotations. She started on vault where her Amanar gave her a 15.800. On bars, she connected her Maloney-Pak-Van Leeuwen and performed her Jaeger release well. She stuck her double layout and scored a 14.950. On beam, she performed new skills such as a tucked Barani and a switch ring leap. She unveiled her full-in double tuck and, even though she was over-timed and had to take a 0.1 deduction, she scored a respectable 14.400 to keep herself ahead of Biles, who had an uncharacteristic fall on floor exercise while Nichols was performing on beam. Nichols ended on floor that included a double-double tuck, a tucked and piked full-in, and a double tuck. She scored a 14.550 and was in second behind Biles with a score of 59.700, 1.400 points behind Biles.

On Night 2, Nichols started on bars and had a small leg separation on her toe-on full pirouette but stuck her double layout dismount again and scored a 14.800. Her uneven bars total of 29.750 placed her 7th on the event. During warm-ups on beam she had a scary fall on her tucked full-in and didn't perform it on Night 2. Instead, she performed a double pike and scored a 14.650 despite the 0.3 decrease in start value (6.2 Night 1, 5.9 Night 2), totaling a score of 29.050, placing her 4th, tied with Nia Dennis and behind Biles, Alyssa Baumann, and Kyla Ross. On floor, she stumbled out of bounds on her double-double tuck mount and both feet went out, incurring a 0.3 deduction. She scored a low 14.150, making her total floor score 28.700, placing 5th on the event behind Raisman, Biles, Mykayla Skinner, and Key. She closed out her competition on vault where she had a hop on her Amanar and scored a 15.850 to finish second behind Biles and ahead of Raisman.

At the conclusion of the championships, Nichols was named to the Senior National Team once again along with an invitation to the 2015 Worlds Selection Camp.

At the 2015 World Artistic Gymnastics Championships, Nichols was selected to compete on vault, beam, and floor in the team preliminary. She was controversially pulled from competing on the uneven bars in the preliminary in favor of Brenna Dowell, who went on to fall twice and was subsequently pulled from the team final. Has Nichols competed on uneven bars in the team preliminary, she would likely have qualified for the all-around final along with Simone Biles and likely would have earned an all-around medal. In the team final, Nichols DID compete on all 4 apparatus and contributed solid scores on each apparatus, earning a total of 59.232, which would have earned the silver medal in the all-around had she qualified instead of Gabby Douglas. The US women went on to earn the team gold by a wide margin over China and the United Kingdom. Nichols qualified for the floor final, where she earned her first individual World Championships medal, a bronze, with a 15.000.

On November 11, 2015, Nichols signed the National Letter of Intent to the University of Oklahoma.^[11]

2016

On December 17, 2015, USA Gymnastics revealed that Nichols would represent the U.S. at the 2016 AT&T American Cup.^[12]

Personal life

It is thought Nichols is in a relationship with U.S. elite gymnast and future Nebraska Cornhuskers gymnast, Anton Stephenson.^[13]

Competitive history

References

World Champions in Artistic Gymnastics – Women's Team Competition     1934:  Czechoslovakia 1938:  Czechoslovakia 1950:  Sweden 1954:  Soviet Union 1958:  Soviet Union 1962:  Soviet Union 1966:  Czechoslovakia 1970:  Soviet Union 1974:  Soviet Union 1978:  Soviet Union 1979:  Romania 1981:  Soviet Union 1983:  Soviet Union 1985:  Soviet Union 1987:  Romania 1989:  Soviet Union 1991:  Soviet Union 1994:  Romania 1995:  Romania 1997:  Romania 1999:  Romania 2001:  Romania 2003:  United States 2006:  China 2007:  United States 2010:  Russia 2011:  United States 2014:  United States 2015:  United States 2015:  United States (USA), Simone Biles, Gabby Douglas, Brenna Dowell, Madison Kocian, Maggie Nichols, Aly Raisman