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Mykayla Skinner

MyKayla Brooke Skinner Harmer (born December 9, 1996) is an American former artistic gymnast. She was the 2020 Olympic vault silver medalist and was an alternate for the 2016 Olympic team.

Achievements

Skinner 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. She won 11 total medals at the USA National Championships during her senior career. She also competed for the University of Utah's gymnastics team and was a two-time NCAA champion.

The Summer 2021 Olympics

At the Olympic Games Skinner performed the all-around during qualifications, hitting all four of her routines. Despite finishing in eleventh place in the all-around and fourth place on the vault, she did not qualify to either final due to two-per-country limitations. Americans Simone Biles, Sunisa Lee, and Jade Carey finished ahead of her in the all-around, and Biles and Carey did so again on vault.

Skinner took Biles' place in the vault final when Biles dropped out. Skinner finished second, winning the silver medal with an average score for her Cheng and Amanar vaults of 14.916. Afterward, she said, "After having COVID, I seriously didn't know I would be able to go back into the gym, so just being able to overcome that and to keep pushing for my goals and dreams to make it to the Olympics has been such an honor. And now to even be go in for [the] vault [final] and to win a silver medal, that's icing on the cake for me."

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College Career

Skinner enrolled at the University of Utah in 2016 as a member of its NCAA women's gymnastics team and competed in the all-around. During her freshman season Skinner won 43 total events. She was the PAC-12 champion in the individual all-around and on vault and floor exercise. At the NCAA Championships, Skinner finished second in the individual all-around with a score of 39.6125, behind Alex McMurtry of Florida. She was a national champion on floor exercise with a 9.9625 alongside Ashleigh Gnat of LSU and was also fifth on vault and eighth on balance beam. The following day, she led Utah to fifth place in the team competition finals. She is one of the only gymnasts in NCAA history to do a Silivas, which is a Double Twisting Double Back.

In the 2018 season Skinner hit all 54 of her routines without a fall. At the PAC-12 Championships, she helped Utah finish in second place. Individually Skinner tied for first in the all-around with Kyla Ross of UCLA and tied for first on floor exercise with Katelyn Ohashi of UCLA and Elizabeth Price of Stanford.[29] At the 2018 NCAA Women's Gymnastics Championship Skinner won silver in the all-around and tied for first on vault with Brenna Dowell of Oklahoma and Alex McMurtry of Florida.

At the PAC-12 Championships Skinner scored her third career perfect 10 on floor exercise. She finished second in the all-around and in the team finals and won gold on floor and vault. During the regional finals, Skinner fell on her uneven bars routine, ending her 161 routine streak without a fall, but setting a new record. At the NCAA Championships Skinner placed seventh in the all-around after a subpar beam routine. She recorded the second highest vault and floor exercise scores but placed fifth due to four gymnasts tying for the title. Utah ended up finishing fourth in their semifinal and did not advance to the finals

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