April 2017
InsideGymnastics.com
contents
www.InsideGymnastics.com
April 2017
start list ON THE COVER Celebrating Life! The “Bratayley” Family Katie, Billy, Annie and Hayley Photography by Jill Fannon
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features 21 Winter Cup: On the Scene! 24 Cover Story: A Day with Bratayley! The inside scoop on one of the country’s biggest gymnastics YouTube sensations!
in every issue 10 Publisher’s Page 12 Picture Perfect:
Cirque™ One Night for One Drop
15 Inside Buzz 17 Chalking Up 19 People, Places and Faces 23 Opinion Line:
Shannon Says with Shannon Miller
31 Report:
Safety For Our Athletes, Safety For Our Sport
51 Industry Insider:
Spotlight on Todd Thornton’s Gymnastics Center
54 Final Dismount
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33 NCAA Championships Preview
Will the OU Men and Women repeat history? A look at the top eight teams heading into post-season!
37 Looking Back with Legend Nancy Thies Marshall 41 Maks-imum IMPACT
Former Ukrainian National Team member Maksym Kotenko is lighting up the stage as a star performer with Cirque du Soleil™.
advertorials 43 Bridgeway Summer Camps and Training Programs 46 Geared-Up for Camp! I N S I D E GY M N A ST I C S .CO M
trending
10 hot topics that have the gymnastics community buzzing!
First Rotation
inside buzz By Jessica Taylor Price
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Ragan and Yul Get Gold: Team USA alternate Ragan Smith and University of Oklahoma star Yul Moldauer each won gold at the AT&T American Cup, claiming one of the U.S.’s most coveted titles. Moldauer had a clean meet, while Smith rallied after a beam fall to seal the win.
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Dancing with Simone: Five-time Olympic medalist Simone Biles has joined the cast of the 24th season of Dancing with the Stars. Superwoman Biles will pair up with Russian-born Aussie and former Nastia Liukin partner Sasha Farber for the competition.
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Lloyd Smith
Mihai’s Move Down Under: Mihai Brestyan, coach of Olympic medalists Alicia Sacramone and Aly Raisman, has accepted a new position as head of the women’s national team in Australia. The beloved Romanianborn coach will be replacing Peggy Liddick, who has led the program for 20 years.
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Mykayla’s First Ten: U.S. Olympic team alternate and Utah’s breakout freshman Mykayla Skinner was awarded her first perfect ten, rocking a floor routine at a home meet against Stanford. Skinner’s routine is known for its jaw-dropping difficulty, including a doubletwisting double tucked somersault.
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Alternate-Turned-Champ: Russian Olympic team alternate Natalia Kapitonova swooped in to take all-around gold at the Russian Championships after her competitors, including four members of the Rio team, experienced errors. Aliya Mustafina supported her compatriots from the stands while showing off her baby bump.
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Kenzo Turns Heads: Olympic gold medalist Kenzo Shirai (JPN) wowed fans with his jam-packed floor routine at the Melbourne World Cup. The “Twist Prince” competed a triple-twisting double layout, a tripletwisting double tuck, and a quadruple twist, taking home the gold on floor, vault, and high bar.
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Her Royal Fanship: Olympic gold medalist Max Whitlock (GBR) was honored for his Rio success at Buckingham Palace, where he received the Member of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire (MBE) from the queen herself. According to Max, the queen is a gymnastics fan.
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US Juniors Shine at Gymnix: Reigning junior national champion Maile O’Keefe, 2016 Gymnix junior all-around champion Gabby Perea, and fellow junior up-andcomers Emma Malabuyo and Sunisa Lee started their quad off right by sweeping the gold medals at the International Gymnix competition in Montreal, Canada.
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The Next Generation: The February National Team training camp came to a close, with seven elites awarded international assignments, including new senior Morgan Hurd, who will make her senior international debut at the Stuttgart World Cup. Next stop: Jesolo!
History for Sale: Gymnastics legend Olga Korbut (RUS) parted ways with five of her Olympic medals, auctioning off two silvers and three golds from the 1972 and 1976 Games that made her an international star. The former Soviet now lives in Arizona and works as a private gymnastics instructor.
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Inside on the scene with hot shots of people, places and faces!
people places faces BILES IN THE BALLROOM! Olympic Champ Simone Biles is attempting to secure the Mirror Ball Trophy on Season 24 of DWTS! Biles’ Olympic teammate Laurie Hernandez, who recently won Season 23 with her partner Val Chmerkovskiy showed up on GMA to surprise Biles with glitter high tops.
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WHITLOCK MOST EXCELLENT! Rio gold medalist Max Whitlock (GBR) was honored for his triumphs in Rio, receiving the Member of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire (MBE) from The Queen herself!
GMA, ABC, Erik Kabik/ErikKabik.com, Getty Images
GORGEOUS GABBY! Gabby Douglas was gorgeous and confident on her way to the Vanity Fair party following the Oscars! Gabby recently teamed up with Beauty Bakerie on a project set to launch in early spring.
ONE NIGHT FOR ONE DROP Inside Gymnastics was on the scene as some of the biggest names in entertainment came together to support the fifth annual One Night for One Drop imagined by Cirque du Soleil®, raising funds and awareness to benefit critical water issues worldwide. The star-studded event included super-charged performances and energetic appearances from The Tenors, William Shatner, Redfoo and Grace VanderWaal (pictured here). Other notable names in attendance included Cirque du Soleil® founder Guy Laliberté; beloved TV personality and judge on So You Think You Can Dance Nigel Lythgoe.
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I N S I D E GY M N A ST I C S .CO M
Meet the YouTube-sensation gymnastics family known as the Bratayleys! By Christy Sandmaier with Jill Fannon Photography by Jill Fannon
#IT’SMEETDAY!
For gymnastics families across the country, December through spring means crazy days. Earlier-than-normal mornings after team sleepovers, carpools, road trips, hair and makeup retouches in cavernous convention room hallways and oh, by the way, a gymnastics meet sandwiched between trips to the concession stand for nachos and hopefully, trips to the award stand for medals. Days start before the sun is up and end well after dark. Some weekends, jam-packed gym schedules boast not one meet, but two. Such was the case the Sunday Inside Gymnastics spent with the Bratayley family. A meet on Saturday, a late meet Sunday and even later dinner, our photo shoot and an abundance of relaxation and fun was all in a weekend’s work for this family that has amassed nearly 4 million YouTube subscribers, as well as 1.7 million followers on Instagram and 115K on Twitter. The family – which includes mom Katie, dad Billy and daughters Annie and Hayley – has chosen not to reveal their real name for the most part, for privacy purposes. The name “Bratayley” (a combo of “brat” and “Hayley”) came from a nickname for Hayley, who originally started the family’s channel. More about that in a moment.
#SUNDAYFUNDAY
The first thing you really feel when meeting the Bratayleys is love and super-charged family energy and fun. Almost like walking into a hug and feeling right at home. We learned pretty quickly that if you’re going to spend a day in the life of the Brataleys, you’d better be ready for anything. Sunday family time included trampoline time and Billy double bouncing the girls high in the sky for fun. After trampolining it up in the backyard, Annie and Hayley changed into leos (they’ve got their own GK designs) and Hayley also donned an outfit she recently wore out at a red carpet event. In the middle of all it, Annie put dishes away - splits across the countertop and all - while Hayley goofed around in a laundry basket. True to their gymnastics obsession, the girls hung from the main stairwell banister, flipped in the air via Dad in the living room, Annie contorted herself into an ottoman and a little later, ventured upstairs for some super funny team-throwing exercises. Did we we mention there was a gymnastics meet later that day?
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THE BRATAYLEY YOUTUBE CHANNEL “Welcome to the Family, Welcome to the place, Where big adventures, Come in small packages. Watch one video, and you’ll be hooked.” I N S I D E GY M N A ST I C S .CO M
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looking back with NANCY THIES MARSHALL
By Amanda Wijangco
With UCLA Bruins Kyla Ross and Madison Kocian making history and headlines as the first Olympic gold medalists to compete in the NCAA, and the elite to college field stronger than ever with Maggie Nichols, MyKayla Skinner and Kennedy Baker just to name a few, we thought it was the perfect time to revisit history and a gymnastics legend who helped pave the NCAA way for these awesome athletes. Former Illini and Olympic gymnast Nancy Thies Marshall chatted with Inside Gymnastics on the current state of gymnastics, her own journey - elite to college - and giving back to her U of I community.
Nancy Thies Marshall’s name and photograph still grace the north wall of Huff Hall, displaying her achievements as an All-American and Olympian. At Illinois, Marshall helped lead the Illini to two consecutive Big Ten titles in 1976 and 1977 and earned All-American status on uneven bars in 1976. She retired from competition after two years wearing the orange and blue because her body “wasn’t going to hold up.” Even after four decades, Marshall is the lone Olympic female gymnast to have attended Illinois, and she is proud of it - especially with the recent success the Illini women’s gymnastics program has had. 2016 marked the 13th consecutive season Illinois has advanced to NCAA Regionals and the ninth consecutive year Illinois has been represented at the NCAA Championships. With a record number of Olympians and Olympic medalists competing for teams all across the country, NCAA gymnastics is booming. A trend started so many years ago, one that Marshall put on the map. Before U of I, there was Munich and a lot of elite gymnastics. When Marshall competed at the 1972 Munich Olympic Games, the U.S. women’s gymnastics program was not a powerhouse like it is today. So when she made history as the first woman to do a standing back tuck on balance beam, only a single familiar voice easily stood out during her performance in Olympic Hall. “We were quietly doing our routines and getting fairly decent scores and moving up in the rankings, but there weren’t a lot of eyes on us,” Marshall said. “But my Mom’s were. I remember hearing her voice across the arena, screaming ‘Woohoo!’” She describes that moment as “a fun memory” and her “somewhat claim to fame.” But that was 44 years ago, 11 Olympic cycles ago. Now, when Marshall
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years and at the beginning of 1976, she knew she “I sort of smile and shake my head and think, ‘Well, had to make go ahead and think that’s what it was like,’” she said. a decision “It’s a totally different sport now. The changes have between made it just an amazing sport to watch.” One of college and those changes is the scoring system. When Marshall elite gymnastics and chose to continue her career at was competing, the elite level used the famous 10.0 the University of Illinois. “Title IX had been passed, scoring system. In 2006, the current scoring system so it was the beginning of opportunities for women for elite gymnastics was introduced involving two in sports and college,” she said of the time. “I was elements: difficulty and execution. one of the first (women) to receive a scholarship at the University of Illinois. It wasn’t a full scholarship “It makes it harder for the viewer to engage because they didn’t give those scholarships to with what’s happening other than watching the women, but that really did draw me to the U of I and leaderboard,” Marshall said of the current scoring away from another Olympic bid.” system. “Back when you had a 10.0 scoring system, everybody knew what a 9.8 meant. Everybody The scholarship may have drawn her to collegiate knew what a 9.0 meant. Now people don’t know the gymnastics, but something else drew her to Illinois differences. I think it’s harder to have an appeal to specifically. Marshall grew up in Urbana, where the the everyman.” University of Illinois is located, and her great-greatgreat-great grandfather was part of a founding After 10 years of the current scoring system, family of the city. “[Illinois] means more to me than Marshall and gymnastics fans alike have noticed just my alma mater. It’s very much where my roots the effect it has had. She said the sport of artistic are,” she said. “I didn’t want to compete on the gymnastics is clearly more technical and difficulty Olympic level (anymore) or try to sustain that, so has obviously increased while artistry has being able to bring that to the University of Illinois, decreased. “Everyone will be ooh-ing and ahh-ing I felt like, for me, was a chance to give back to a over the stunts and tricks everybody’s doing, the community that had invested so much in me.” elements, and yet they’ll finish this amazing routine, and as much as I can appreciate the difficulty of “I have a lot of pride in the stuff that I did for the what they’ve done, it does leave me wanting more, national team,” she said. “But there’s an equal wanting more expression, more beauty,” she said. amount of pleasure that I have knowing that Illinois has a strong women’s program and hoping that it just Marshall may have been the youngest member of gets stronger because I feel like that program, I got the 1972 Olympic gymnastics team, but nowadays, to lay the foundation for, and I have a great sense of she is drawn to more mature competitors. “I’m satisfaction for that.” drawn to their story because it is so hard to go more Amanda Wijangco is a senior at the University of Illinois at than one (Olympic cycle),” she said. “When I was Urbana-Champaign expected to graduate in May 2017 with a competing, there were a few that made it through B.S. in news-editorial journalism and a SportMedia certificate. two, but it was such a rarity. Making the Olympics She has worked for multiple gymnastics media outlets and the first time is kind of like an adventure.” hopes to promote the sport of gymnastics through her work Marshall, however, did not go for a second Games. She was a member of the U.S. national team for four
as a journalist. Photo Credit: Nancy Thies Marshall and the University of Illinois
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McCUSKER
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Describing herself as playing “a sassy ballerina,” Riley McCusker (USA) strikes a pose during her floor routine performed to music from “The Nightmare Before Christmas” at the AT&T American Cup. McCusker had a challenging meet, but showed great promise for the future! Photo by Lloyd Smith
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