TOKYO – On the second-greatest day
in Arizona gymnastics history, 25 years after the first, MyKayla Skinner won a
silver medal Sunday in Olympic women’s vaulting.
Skinner,
who found out for sure Saturday that she was replacing Simone
Biles in the eight-woman final, hit two solid vaults at Ariake
Gymnastics Centre to finish second behind Brazil’s Rebeca Andrade, the
all-around silver medalist.
She is
only the fifth American to medal on vault, a list including Biles, the gold
medalist in 2016.
A
quarter-century earlier, before 24-year-old Skinner was born, Arizonan Kerri Strug vaulted to fame at
the 1996 Atlanta Olympics on a badly injured ankle to help the U.S. clinch a
team gold medal.
TOKYO – On the
second-greatest day in Arizona gymnastics history, 25 years after the first,
MyKayla Skinner won a silver medal Sunday in Olympic women’s vaulting.
Skinner, who
found out for sure Saturday that she was replacing Simone
Biles in the eight-woman final, hit two solid vaults at Ariake
Gymnastics Centre to finish second behind Brazil’s Rebeca Andrade, the
all-around silver medalist.
She is only the
fifth American to medal on vault, a list including Biles, the gold medalist in
2016.
A quarter-century
earlier, before 24-year-old Skinner was born, Arizonan Kerri Strug vaulted to fame at
the 1996 Atlanta Olympics on a badly injured ankle to help the U.S. clinch a
team gold medal.
SIMONE OUT: Biles withdraws from floor
exercise final; status for balance beam unclear
But after team
finals, Biles, realizing she might not be able to continue, asked team
officials to text Skinner about staying in Japan if needed.
“It’s been kind
of hard to get my mindset back into the game,” Skinner said. “I was thinking
I’m done, I’m ready to move on. After prelims, it took me two days to be like,
'OK, I’m good, I’ve got this, I did my best.' ”
Vaulting first,
Skinner was solid on her Cheng and Amanar vaults, putting up an average of
14.916 for the rest of the field to try to beat.
Andrade,
competing third, did so at 15.083. But Carey, also from Arizona, tripped on the
run-up during her first vault and was unable to execute her Cheng vault, trying
instead to salvage a Yurchenko, scoring only 11.933.
“It was just a
fluke thing,” Skinner said. “As she was running, I saw her trip right before
the roundoff. She couldn’t continue the vault because she could have gotten
hurt.
“She was so
disappointed. We should have both been on the podium. I was trying to help her
stay positive, you have to forget about this. You have more finals, you’re
going to give it your all and place. She totally can. She made me cry because
that’s so horrible to have to go through something like that when you’ve made
it this far. I know she’s very devastated right now.”
Carey will
compete again Monday in the floor exercise final, where she could potentially
try to make gymnastics history by becoming the first woman to complete a
triple-double layout at an Olympics or World Championships.
With Carey no
longer in the medal mix, Skinner still had to wait out the final four vaulters
to be assured of winning her first major international medal since the 2014
World Championships (first team, third vault).
“That was
horrible,” Skinner said. “It was pretty hard sitting there watching every
person go. But it was a pretty fair game tonight, so it was hard but I got
through it and got the silver medal.”
South Korea’s Yeo
Seojeong came closest to Skinner at 14.733 and won bronze. Carey finished
eighth (12.416), far off her qualifying performance (15.166).
Biles was on hand
to cheer for Skinner and Carey, both of whom qualified for the Olympics as
individuals and were not part of the U.S. silver medal-winning team.
“I’m not used to
seeing her in the stands,” Skinner said. “It was seriously cool to see her love
and support and cheering us on. I knew she was going to be the loudest one in
there. She’s been so awesome the last couple of days. I’m like how are you so
strong? I’d be in my room bawling every night.”
But Skinner had
substantial issues of her own to overcome during the one-year Olympic delay.
She sat out of training in the fall due to an overuse injury, then COVID and
pneumonia put her in the hospital around Christmas.
Even before that,
she left elite gymnastics after 2016 to attend college for three years at Utah
before returning for another run at the Olympics she missed out on as a Rio
alternate.
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