MyKayla Skinner
MyKayla Brooke Skinner Harmer 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 on floor exercise. She has won ten total medals at the USA Gymnastics National Championships during her senior career. Skinner is known for her high level of difficulty on vault and floor. She attended the University of Utah, where she was a member of its NCAA women's gymnastics team.
Personal life
Skinner was born on December 9, 1996 in Gilbert, Arizona to Cris and Kym Skinner. She has three older siblings, Jeremy, Chelsea and Katie, two of whom are former gymnasts themselves. Skinner is a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.She trained with the coaches of Desert Lights Gymnastics in Chandler, Arizona. Her personal coach was the head coach of the club, Lisa Spini. She attended Higley High School in 2011 as a freshman and was home schooled starting in 2012. In November 2014, Skinner committed to join the University of Utah program as a collegiate gymnast beginning in 2015, deferring this to 2016 to pursue a place on the USA team for the 2016 Summer Olympics.
She lives in Gilbert, Arizona and says that her role model is Olympic gold medalist Shawn Johnson.
On October 16, 2019 Skinner announced on Instagram that she was engaged to her longtime boyfriend, Jonas Harmer. They were married the following month on November 14.
Gymnastics career
Junior
Skinner was the junior individual all-around champion of the 2011 American Classic.She was named to the Junior US National Team after finishing tenth in the all-around and second on vault at the National Championships.
Senior
2012
Skinner became a member of the U.S. senior national team in 2012. She was a member of the winning U.S. squad at the City of Jesolo Trophy in March.In June, she finished 15th all around at the U.S. Nationals and third on vault. She had hoped to make the 2012 US Women's Olympic Team but was not selected to compete at the Olympic Trials.
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.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 Trophy 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. 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.
Skinner was selected to compete at the 2014 World Championships in Nanning, China. She won a gold medal with the U.S. in the team competition, contributing a score of 15.775 on vault and 14.666 on the floor. In the event finals, Skinner won a bronze medal in the vault, with a score of 15.366, and placed fourth in the floor exercise final, scoring a 14.700, losing out on a second bronze medal to Aliya Mustafina who had a score of 14.733.
2015
Skinner competed at the 2015 AT&T American Cup, held in Arlington, Texas, on March 7, 2015. She placed second to Simone Biles in that event with a score of 57.832.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. 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 and her Silivas, but she watered down her last two tumbling passes to protect her ankle from further injury. 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. She ended on bars with a more difficult routine and scored a respectable 14.100, placing her 10th.
On August 13 and 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 two-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 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 Moors, her Silivas, a 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 behind Raisman and Biles. On vault, she scored a 15.350 on her Cheng 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.
Skinner was named to the Senior National Team once again and was invited to the 2015 Worlds Selection Camp in September, followed by another camp in early October. On October 8, she was named as an alternate to the USA team for the 2015 World Artistic Gymnastics Championships, and she did not compete or participate in qualifications.
2016
At the 2016 U.S. National Championships, Skinner finished 10th in the all-around and won a silver medal on vault and a bronze medal on floor exercise. She finished her senior career with nine total medals at the U.S. National Championships.Skinner then competed at the U.S. Olympic Trials, where she finished fourth in the all-around. On July 10, Skinner was named as an alternate to the 2016 Olympic team alongside Ashton Locklear and Ragan Smith.
Collegiate
In November 2014, Skinner signed a National Letter of Intent for the University of Utah and the Utah Red Rocks program. Skinner was recruited along with 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." In April 2015, Skinner announced that she would defer enrolling at Utah by a year to concentrate on making the 2016 Olympic team.2016–2017
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 the co-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.2017–2018
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 alongside Kyla Ross of UCLA and tied for first on floor exercise alongside Katelyn Ohashi of UCLA and Elizabeth Price of Stanford. At the 2018 NCAA Women's Gymnastics Championship Skinner won silver in the all-around behind Maggie Nichols of Oklahoma and finished first on vault alongside Brenna Dowell of Oklahoma and Alex McMurtry of Florida.2018–2019
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 but 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 Four on the Floor.Elite comeback
2019
On April 25, 2019, Skinner officially confirmed her intention to return to elite gymnastics to make a run at the 2020 Olympics. She was invited to attend the June national team training camp, which was her first training camp since coming back to the elite level.In July 2019, Skinner made her return to elite competition at the GK US Classic. She performed on vault, beam, and floor. On vault, she scored a 14.900 for her Amanar, the second highest single vault score behind Simone Biles and tied with Jade Carey. On beam and floor, she placed eleventh and fourteenth, respectively.
At the 2019 U.S. National Championships, Skinner competed all four events on the first day of competition and ended the night in ninth place, tied with Grace McCallum. On the second day of competition, she fell off the balance beam and placed eighth in the all-around and won bronze on vault behind Simone Biles and Jade Carey. As a result she was added to the national team.
In September Skinner competed at the US World Championships trials where she placed fourth in the all-around behind Simone Biles, Sunisa Lee, and Kara Eaker. The following day she competed on bars and beam, posting the fourth highest beam score behind Biles, Eaker, and Morgan Hurd. Due to her performance, she was named to the worlds team to travel to the 2019 World Championships in Stuttgart alongside Biles, Lee, Eaker, Jade Carey, and Grace McCallum. She was named as alternate subsequently after podium training, with the US women then qualifying in first to the team final and securing the gold medal.
2020
In March Skinner was selected to compete at the International Gymnix meet in Montreal alongside Emily Lee, Lilly Lippeatt, and Faith Torrez. While there she helped the USA win team gold and individually she placed second in the all-around behind Lee. Moreover, Skinner won the vault, uneven bars and floor titles in the event finals, despite her Cheng being downgraded to a Khorkina.On March 26, 2020, following the postponement of the 2020 Olympics due to the Covid-19 pandemic, Skinner posted on Instagram that she is "still training for the Olympics but taking things one day at time!"