MyKayla Skinner

MyKayla Skinner
— Gymnast —
Full name	Mykayla Brooke Skinner
Nickname(s)	Mikki[1]
Country represented	United States
Born	(1996-12-09) December 9, 1996 Gilbert, Arizona, United States
Height	5 ft 0 in (1.52 m)
Discipline	Women's artistic gymnastics
Level	Senior International Elite
Years on national team	2011-present
Gym	Desert Lights Gymnastics
College team	Utah Red Rocks (2016–20)
Head coach(es)	Lisa Spini
Assistant coach(es)	Bruce McGhee
Music	Cry Me a River by Sven Duijff (2014) Beatroot by Bond (2013) La Cumparsita by Bulevard Tango Club (2011-12)
Medal record Competitor for  United States World Championships 2014 Nanning Team 2014 Nanning Vault American Cup 2015 Arlington All-Around National Championships 2014 Pittsburgh Vault 2014 Pittsburgh Floor Exercise 2015 Indianapolis Vault 2012 St. Louis Vault 2015 Indianapolis Floor Exercise

MyKayla "Mikki" Brooke Skinner (born December 9, 1996) is an American artistic gymnast. She competed at the 2014 World Championships where she contributed to the U.S. team's gold medal, also winning an individual bronze medal on vault and placing fourth in the floor exercise. She is known for high difficulty in vaults (having performed both Amanar and Cheng vaults in past competitions though she did not do the Amanar at the World Championships) and floor.

Personal life

Skinner was born on December 9, 1996 in Mesa, Arizona to Cris and Kym Skinner. She has three older siblings, Jeremy, Chelsea and Katie, two of whom are former gymnasts themselves.^[2]

She currently trains with the coaches of Desert Lights Gymnastics in Chandler, AZ. Her personal coach is the head coach of the club, Lisa Spini.^[3] She attended Higley High School in 2011 as a freshman and has been home schooled since 2012.^[3][4] In November 2014, Skinner committed to join the University of Utah program as a collegiate gymnast beginning in 2015, later deferring this to 2016 to pursue a place on the USA team for the 2016 summer Olympics.^[5]

She lives in Gilbert, Arizona and insists that her role model is 2008 Olympian Shawn Johnson.^[6]

Junior career

Skinner was the junior individual all-around champion of the 2011 American Classic.^[7][8]

She was named to the Junior US National Team after finishing tenth in the all-around and second on vault at the National Championships.^[9][10][11]

Senior career

2012

Skinner became a member of the U.S. senior national team in 2012.^[4] She was a member of the winning U.S. squad at the Jesolo competition in March. In June, she finished 15th all around at the U.S. Nationals and third on vault.^[12][13] She had hoped to make the 2012 US Women's Olympic Team but was not selected to compete at the Olympic Trials.^[2][14][15]

2013

Skinner competed at the Fiesta Bowl in early 2013, winning every individual event except for the floor exercise where she tied for eighth place.^[16] At the 2013 P&G Championships she placed third on vault and floor. She finished sixth in the all-around.

2014

Skinner was a member of the winning U.S. squad at the City of Jesolo competition in March, where she won the gold on vault and floor exercise and placed fourth in the all-around.

In August and September, Skinner competed at the Pan American Championships in Mississauga, Canada. She helped the American team place first in the team competition. Individually, she placed first in the all-around competition with a score of 56.850.^[17] In the event finals, she placed first on vault scoring 15.037, seventh on balance beam scoring 13.475, and first on floor scoring 14.750.^[18]

World Championships

Skinner was selected to compete at the 2014 World Championships in Nanning, China.^[19] She won a gold medal with the U.S. in the team competition (contributing a score of 14.666 on the floor)^[20] and won a bronze medal in vault, with a score of 15.366.^[21] In the floor exercise event finals, she scored a 14.700, and narrowly missed a bronze medal, losing out to Aliya Mustafina who had a score of 14.733.^[22][23]

University of Utah

In November 2014, Skinner signed a National Letter of Intent for the University of Utah and the Utah Red Rocks program.^[24] Skinner was recruited along with ^[25] Shannon McNatt, MaKenna Merrell, and Erika Muhaw as Utah looked to fill gaps left by the graduation of four of its seniors, including Georgia Dabritz and Tory Wilson. Utah coach Greg Marsden said that Skinner was "one of the top gymnasts in the world" with "the potential to get even better as a result of her passion for the sport. She loves to flip and twist."^[26]

As highlighted by The New York Times, with an average attendance of close to 14,500, "Utah gymnastics has the highest average attendance in women's college sports nearly every year ... It vaults past professional women's sports, too, like the W.N.B.A., where top teams hope to draw 10,000."^[27]

2015

Skinner competed at the 2015 AT&T American Cup, held in Arlington, TX on March 7, 2015.^[28] Skinner placed second to Simone Biles in that event with a score of 57.832.

In April 2015, Skinner announced that she would defer enrolling at Utah by a year to concentrate on making the 2016 Olympic team.^[29]

U.S. Secret Classic

On July 25, at the U.S. Secret Classic, competing on a recently-injured ankle, Skinner finished 7th in the all-around with a score of 55.500, behind 2-time World All-Around Champion Simone Biles, 2012 Olympic All-Around Champion Gabby Douglas, Maggie Nichols, Bailie Key, Aly Raisman, and 2014 Worlds teammate Alyssa Baumann. On beam, she had a fall on her back-handspring tuck full series. She had a stable routine the rest of the way and scored a 12.800, placing 12th on the event. On floor exercise, one of her best events, she threw in her Moors (double twisting double layout) and her Silivas (double twisting double tuck), but she watered down her last 2 tumbling passes to protect her ankle from further injury. She only did a layout 3/2 through to a layout 2/1 instead of a layout 5/2, which lowered her start value. She lowered her start value even more when she removed her full-twisting double tuck and only did a double tuck. She fell on her double tuck and scored a low 13.500 from a 6.3 start value, placing 9th on the event. She scored a 15.100 on her Cheng vault and a 14.800 on her double-twisting Yurchenko, for an average of 14.950 and placed second to Biles. She ended on bars with a more difficult routine and scored a respectable 14.100, placing her 10th.^[30]

P&G Championships

On August 13 & 15, Skinner competed at the 2015 P&G Championships in Indianapolis, Indiana where she tied for 7th in the All-Around with 2014 Worlds Teammate Alyssa Baumann with a 2-night total of 115.700. She and Baumann placed behind Simone Biles, Maggie Nichols, Aly Raisman, Bailie Key, Gabby Douglas, and Madison Kocian.

Skinner started Night 1 on vault where she scored a 15.150 on her Cheng Fei vault and a 14.800 on her double-twisting Yurchenko for an average of 14.975. On uneven bars she had form issues on her transitions and was short on handstands and scored a 13.650. On beam, she nailed her back-handspring tuck full series and had a small hop on her double tuck dismount, scoring a 14.350. On floor, she performed all her difficult tumbling including her double-double layout, double-double tuck, layout 3/2 through to a layout 5/2, and a tucked full-in. The judges only credited her a low 6.2 and scored a 14.350. At the end of Night 1, she had a total of 57.500 and was ranked 8th overall.

On Night 2, Skinner started on uneven bars and had similar form and handstand issues as she did on Night 1. She scored a 13.700 and had a total of 27.350, placing 16th on the event. On beam she had a small wobble on her signature back-handspring tuck full series but had better connections to increase her start value to a 6.0. She scored a 14.350 again as she did on Night 1 and totaled a 28.700, placing her 7th on the event tied with Raisman. On floor, she had a better routine and was credited a 6.5 start value for a score of 14.800. Her total of 29.150 placed her 3rd on the event (tied with Key) behind Raisman and Biles. On vault, she scored a 15.350 on her Cheng Fei vault and a 14.950 on her double-twisting Yurchenko. She averaged a 15.150 and had a total of 30.125, placing 2nd on vault behind Biles.

World Championships

Skinner was named to the Senior National Team once again and was invited to the 2015 Worlds Selection Camp in September, followed by a further camp in early October.

On October 8, she was named as an alternate to the USA team for the 2015 World Artistic Gymnastics Championships, along with Simone Biles, Gabrielle Douglas, Brenna Dowell, Madison Kocian, Maggie Nichols, and Aly Raisman. The World Championships were held in Glasgow, Scotland from October 23 to November 1.

Competitive history

References

External links

• Floor exercise training at the April 2012 National Team Training Camp: Skinner shows two performances of a double-twisting double tuck (an "H" move, hardest level). Observing Skinner's passes from matside are world champion Jordyn Wieber and her coach John Geddert, along with Liang Chow (coach of Shawn Johnson and Gabby Douglas), as well as Skinner's coach.
• First FX double double layout performed by a woman: Video of Skinner performing the move during training (while filmed by Arizona Channel 12) as well as in competition at the Fiesta Bowl Invitational.

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