U.S. Women’s National Team camp
The final U.S. Women’s National Team camp for 2014 concluded this month at the USA Gymnastics National Team Training Center in Huntsville, Texas. The five-day camp began Friday, Nov. 21.
National Team Coordinator Martha Karolyi, who has lead Team USA to a successful 79 medals at the World Championships and Olympic Games since 2001, led the camp with the rest of her national team staff. She said, “I was very pleased with the progress achieved since the last camp. It was a very productive camp with athletes working on new skill acquisition and reconstructing routines from the 2015 season.” Athletes that were in attendance at this camp are in the process of increasing difficulty by trying to attain and perfect new skills, and reconstructing routines for maximum score possibility.
Five members of the 2014 World Championships gold medal winning team (Alyssa Baumann of Plano, Texas/WOGA; Simone Biles of Spring, Texas/World Champions Centre; Madison Desch of Blue Springs, Mo./GAGE; Ashton Locklear of Huntersville, N.C./Everest Gymnastics; and Kyla Ross of Aliso Viejo, Calif./Gym-Max) participated in their first camp since giving Team USA its first back-to-back World team titles.
Along with Ross, 2012 Olympic gold medalists Gabrielle Douglas of Virginia Beach, Va./Buckeye Gymnastics, and Aly Raisman of Needham, Mass./Brestyan's, are also at the camp.
Following the conclusion of the camp, the International Elite Committee voted to add Douglas, Raisman, Rachel Gowey of Urbandale, Ill./Chow’s Gymnastics and Dance, and Victoria Nguyen of West Des Moines, Ill./Chow’s Gymnastics and Dance, to the National Team. Gowey finished third on balance beam and fourth in the all-around at the 2014 Secret U.S. Classic. Nguyen tied for third on floor exercise and finished eighth in the all-around at the 2014 P&G Gymnastics Championships earlier this year.
One of the first big competition that this girls will participate in is the AT&T American Cup (which will be held in Arlington, TX in March 2015). This competition will give them the opportunity to debut new routines with higher difficult and set the bar for the 2015 Elite Season.
Here is a list of all the athletes that participated in the final Team USA Camp of 2014.
Alyssa Baumann, WOGA
Simone Biles, World Champions Center
Jordan Chiles, Naydenov
Nia Dennis, Buckeye
Madison Desch, GAGE Christina Desidero, Parkettes
Gabby Douglas, Buckeye
Norah Flatley, Chow's Gymnastics
Jazmyn Foberg, MG Elite
Ashley Foss, North Stars Gym
Margzetta Frazier, Parkettes
Rachel Gowey, Chow's Gymnastics
Felicia Hano, Gym-Max
Lauren Hernandez, MG Elite
Amelia Hundley, Cincinnati Gymnastics
Sydney Johnson-Scharpf, Brandy Johnson's
Bailie Key, Texas Dreams
Ashton Locklear, Everest Gymnastics
Laney Madsen, Gym Max
Abigail Matthews, Cincinnati
Maggie Musselman, Hill's Gymnastics
Victoria Nguyen, Chow's Gymnastics
Marissa Oakley, Phenom
Grace Quinn, Texas Dreams
Aly Raisman, Brestyan's
Lexy Ramler, Kidsport
Kyla Ross, Gym-Max
Emily Schild, Everest Gymnastics
Polina Shchennikova, TIGAR
Megan Skaggs, Gymnastics Academy of Atlanta
Ragan Smith, Texas Dreams
Alexis Vaszquez, Chow's Gymnastics
Sabrina Vega, GAGE