Future Utah Gymnast MyKayla Skinner is an Alternate for U.S. Women's Gymnastics Team at 2016 Rio Olympics

After another strong night at the U.S. Olympic Trials where she again finished fourth in the all-around, MyKayla Skinner narrowly missed making the U.S. Olympic gymnastics team. She will be an alternate for the team at the 2016 Summer Olympic Games in Rio De Janeiro, Brazil. On the team are defending world champion Simone Biles, defending Olympic all-around gold medalist Gabby Douglas, Aly Raisman a member of the 2012 U.S. gymnastics gold medal winning team, Laurie Hernandez, and defending world champion on the uneven bars Madison Kocian. There could be a multitude of different reasons why other gymnasts were chosen over her even though she scored better than several of them. The coaches may have favored the Olympic experience that Douglas and Raisman have (Raisman posted a higher all-around score than Skinner while Douglas's score was lower). It could be that the events that are her specialties (vault and floor) were less of a concern for the coaches, and they instead wanted gymnasts who were specialists on uneven bars (as evidenced by the selection of Kocian) and/or balance beam. None of this though takes away from how talented of a gymnast Skinner is nor what she was able to accomplish at the U.S. Olympic Trials.

Despite not claiming one of the five spots on the gymnastics team, Skinner performed well at the U.S. Olympic Trials. She performs one of the most difficult routines of any gymnast in the world. She posted the second highest score on vault on both days, behind only Biles. Skinner is one of the top eight gymnasts in the United States, and Red Rocks fans should be really excited to see her compete for Utah for the next four years.