TOKYO – On the second-greatest day in Arizona gymnastics history, 25 years after the first, MyKayla Skinner won a silver medal Sunday in Olympic women’s vaulting.
Skinner, who found out for sure Saturday that she was replacing Simone Biles in the eight-woman final, hit two solid vaults at Ariake Gymnastics Centre to finish second behind Brazil’s Rebeca Andrade, the all-around silver medalist.
She is only the fifth American to medal on vault, a list including Biles, the gold medalist in 2016.
A quarter-century earlier, before 24-year-old Skinner was born, Arizonan Kerri Strug vaulted to fame at the 1996 Atlanta Olympics on a badly injured ankle to help the U.S. clinch a team gold medal.
Biles dropped out of the team and all-around finals and now has withdrawn from at least three events finals because of mental-health reasons as she deals with the "twisties." That put Skinner into the vault final one week after she finished fourth in qualifying but was left out because of a rule limiting one country to two finalists. Biles and Jade Carey were first and second in qualifying.
“I was going to get on a plane to go home,” Skinner said. “I wasn’t expecting any of this to happen.”
SIMONE OUT:Biles withdraws from floor exercise final; status for balance beam unclear
But after team finals, Biles, realizing she might not be able to continue, asked team officials to text Skinner about staying in Japan if needed.
“It’s been kind of hard to get my mindset back into the game,” Skinner said. “I was thinking I’m done, I’m ready to move on. After prelims, it took me two days to be like, 'OK, I’m good, I’ve got this, I did my best.' ”
Vaulting first, Skinner was solid on her Cheng and Amanar vaults, putting up an average of 14.916 for the rest of the field to try to beat.
Andrade, competing third, did so at 15.083. But Carey, also from Arizona, tripped on the run-up during her first vault and was unable to execute her Cheng vault, trying instead to salvage a Yurchenko, scoring only 11.933.
Visibly shaken, Carey still managed to complete an Amana vault that would have scored 14.900 if not for a two-point deduction for being in the same family of vaults as the Yurchenko.
“It was just a fluke thing,” Skinner said. “As she was running, I saw her trip right before the roundoff. She couldn’t continue the vault because she could have gotten hurt.
“She was so disappointed. We should have both been on the podium. I was trying to help her stay positive, you have to forget about this. You have more finals, you’re going to give it your all and place. She totally can. She made me cry because that’s so horrible to have to go through something like that when you’ve made it this far. I know she’s very devastated right now.”
Carey will compete again Monday in the floor exercise final, where she could potentially try to make gymnastics history by becoming the first woman to complete a triple-double layout at an Olympics or World Championships.
With Carey no longer in the medal mix, Skinner still had to wait out the final four vaulters to be assured of winning her first major international medal since the 2014 World Championships (first team, third vault).
“That was horrible,” Skinner said. “It was pretty hard sitting there watching every person go. But it was a pretty fair game tonight, so it was hard but I got through it and got the silver medal.”
South Korea’s Yeo Seojeong came closest to Skinner at 14.733 and won bronze. Carey finished eighth (12.416), far off her qualifying performance (15.166).
Biles was on hand to cheer for Skinner and Carey, both of whom qualified for the Olympics as individuals and were not part of the U.S. silver medal-winning team.
“I’m not used to seeing her in the stands,” Skinner said. “It was seriously cool to see her love and support and cheering us on. I knew she was going to be the loudest one in there. She’s been so awesome the last couple of days. I’m like how are you so strong? I’d be in my room bawling every night.”
But Skinner had substantial issues of her own to overcome during the one-year Olympic delay. She sat out of training in the fall due to an overuse injury, then COVID and pneumonia put her in the hospital around Christmas.
Even before that, she left elite gymnastics after 2016 to attend college for three years at Utah before returning for another run at the Olympics she missed out on as a Rio alternate.
“To make this comeback and be kind of one in a million to make this, it’s so cool to show age is just a number and that anything is possible if you work hard and dream for it. I’m so honored I never gave up.”
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