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Perfect.

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Cristal Isa (Utah)

1/23/21 vs. Arizona (x)

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Jaylene Gilstrap (Utah)

1/23/21 vs. Arizona (x)

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Favourite moments of the 2021 NCAA gymnastics season:

Natalie Wojcik (UM) scores a perfect 10.0 on balance beam for the first time in her career.

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Luisa Blanco (Alabama)

1/22/21 vs. Auburn (x)

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Luisa Blanco (Alabama)

1/22/21 vs. Auburn (x)

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View this post on Instagram

A post shared by McKayla (@glowybymckayla)

“I grew up with a dream to be an Olympic gymnast, in a sport that’s all about beauty, and how you look. Surrounded by coaches that obsessed on food, and thought carrots had too much sugar. I vividly remember begging a gym mom for food, and eating a bagel she gave me locked in the bathroom, with the lights off to eat before morning practice.

My gym was a two hour drive my house, so during our summer camp I stayed at my coaches house. I was fed a pack of walnuts with honey in the morning, a small salad at lunch, and chicken for dinner. At 14, training 8 hours a day in the summer, I was fkn pissed and starving lol.

They would comment on my make up, hair, and skin… My hair was always too long, and my eyeshadow looked like a “raccoon”😂 She wasn’t wrong👏😂 but their main obsession was my body, and my teammates bodies. I watched them pick apart, and ridicule girls constantly. I was angry and disgusted with my coaches on a daily basis. I hated them, yet still obeyed them, feared them, and wanted their love, and praise.

I really wasn’t miserable until after Olympics, when my weight became a daily discussion. At 18, I was the oldest in the gym, but my body was being compared to 12 year olds. I hated how they looked at me, I felt disgusting. I would have panic attacks in the car, before walking into the gym. I just wanted to disappear. I loved gymnastics, but the environment was unbearable.

Let me also mention that they definitely were the nicest to me! I was the “spoiled” one for sure. I watched them treat other girls way worse, and I lived in fear of that being me. I saw girls get trained in ways that was purely to punish them, and make them cry, or get hurt. I’ve seen girls get thrown, ripped off equipment, or spotted aggressively. Crazy enough, on Simone Biles birthday, in 2015, I was in the gym, and saw a young teammate of mine getting “punished” again, and I just couldn’t stand to watch. I walked out, left the gym, and never came back.

I made my first cover of a gymnastics magazine at 14. **in 2nd picture above** My girl coach hung up the magazine on a bulletin board at my gym.She pointed to it and said “I want you to look like this forever.””

– McKayla Maroney

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Favourite moments of the 2021 NCAA gymnastics season:

Trinity Thomas (UF) scores 9.950 on beam, following errors in her previous two meets and a fall earlier in the line-up from a teammate.

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Dianne Durham: A Career That Mattered

A beautiful history of Dianne

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Rebeca Toledano (ESP) getting huge air on her releases at the 1999 International 3 on 3 Meet

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Bailey Lovett (Arkansas)

1/15/21 vs. LSU (x)

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The UCLA Gymnastics Introduction Video for 2021 Directed by Deanna Hong and Valentina Vee (pt.2)

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Liu Tingting

Front aerial - Split ring jump - Korbut

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The UCLA Gymnastics Introduction Video for 2021 Directed by Deanna Hong and Valentina Vee (pt.3)

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Bailey Lovett of Arkansas opening her floor routine with a beautiful double layout | Arkansas at LSU 1/8/‘21

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Trinity Thomas of Florida’s double layout on floor (at Missouri, Auburn and Georgia 2021)