KSL OLYMPICS
MyKayla Skinner Earns Silver In Vault At Olympic Games
SALT LAKE CITY, Utah – MyKayla Skinner is an Olympic silver medalist.
The former University of Utah star placed second in the vault competition on Sunday, capping her redemption story at the Tokyo Olympics.
A storybook ending. 👏@TeamUSA's @mykaylaskinner wins SILVER on vault at the #TokyoOlympics! 🥈 pic.twitter.com/2k2IaZ9zHN
— #TokyoOlympics (@NBCOlympics) August 1, 2021
Skinner Flies High On Vault
Skinner came out with her most difficult vault first, and posted a score of 15.033. On her second vault, she scored a 14.8, good for an average vault score of 14.916.
Team USA teammate Jade Carey fell short, shuffling her feet on her approach to her first vault, which scored 11.9. Carey finished 8th.
Unorthodox Path To The Podium
The way Skinner landed in the event final was anything but easy. After qualifying as an individual for Team USA during the Olympic trials, she fell short of qualifying for the all-around competition, and was on the outside of the vault event as well, after Simone Biles and Jade Carey finished ahead of her.
She wrote on Instagram, “Heartbroken is an understatement, but I am proud of myself for getting here after everything I’ve been through. I would have loved for my scores to count for the team and I would have loved to compete in event finals but I still did some of my best gymnastics here as an Olympian and that’s something no one can take away from me.”
She added, “This is closing the book on my gymnastics career, and my only regrets were things outside my control. So no regrets.”
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However, with Biles’ announcement earlier this week that she was withdrawing from the vault, the door was opened for Skinner to compete for a medal.
Click here for KSL Sports’ full coverage of the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.
