A Biography of Shayla Worley

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Sun, 13 Jul 2008 14:04:00 +0000

Shayla Worley (born September 2, 1990 in Orlando, Florida) is an American gymnast. She was a member of the gold medal-winning American team at the 2007 World Artistic Gymnastics Championships. She has been training at Orlando Metro Gymnastics since she was a level 6 gymnast. She is coached by Jeff Wood and Christi Barineau.

Junior Career

Shayla competed level nine in 2001. She placed first all-around at the Florida State Championships. Her final meet of the season was the Level 9 Eastern Championships. This is the highest meet a level nine can advance to. She placed second all-around. Shayla finished off the junior Olympic levels by placing second all-around at the 2002 Level 10 Florida State Championships.

In 2002, Shayla became a junior national elite. This level is one below the elite level. Today, it is referred to as pre-elite. She won the all-around title at the American Challenge. Shayla also placed well at the U.S. Challenge.

She advanced to junior international elite in 2003. At the U.S. Classic, Shayla placed high enough to qualify to the U.S. National Championships. A few weeks later, she dazzled the crowd and the judges at the U.S. National Championships, where she finished fourth all-around. This also placed her the United States National Gymnastics Team.

Shayla continued on competing as a junior elite in 2004. She helped the U.S. win in a dual meet against Japan. At the American Classic, she finished fourth all-around. Shayla again qualified to the U.S. National Championships. A few weeks later, she was named to the Pacific Alliance Team. At the Pacific Alliance Championships she finished fourth all-around. She also competed at the U.S. Classic, where she placed second all-around. She finished second all-around. In the fall, she won the all-around at the USA versus Canada meet. She was named to the Junior Pan Am Games team. Unfortunately, she could not compete because of a back injury.

Shayla's final year as a junior was in 2005. She started off her season at the International Tri Meet. The U.S. won the competition. She also went on the European tour which included meets against lower ranked Great Britain and Switzerland. The U.S. won both. Her next competition was the U.S. Classic. A potential winner, she finished fourth all-around after falling on floor. The next month at U.S. Nationals, a fall on bars kept her down in the standings on day one. She battled back and tallied the highest all-around score on day two, eventually finishing third overall behind Natasha Kelley. In her final meet of the season, the Massilia Cup, Shayla only competed on bars. She finished second.

Senior Career

Shayla turned senior in 2006, and her first senior outing was the Tyson American Cup where she finished second all-around behind reigning national champion Nastia Liukin. Next competition was the Pacific Alliance Championships. Shayla finished second on bars, the highest placed American, and also helped the U.S. to the team title.

Injury prevented Shayla from taking part in further competition in 2006. As a national team member who had scored well in the first half of the year, she had hopes of being named to the U.S. team for the World Championships in Aarhus, Denmark, but it was not to be. Shayla pulled her hamstring just before the championships and was unable to finish out the season.

She was ready in time for the 2007 American Cup. A fall on her bars dismount meant she narrowly missed qualifying for finals: she would have done so easily without this error. Shayla was also selected to the Britain v. USA dual match held in Lisburn on St. Patrick's Day, 2007. There were no errors this time and in the absence of world numbers 1 and 2 Beth Tweddle and Nastia Liukin, she took the bars title. After the VISA Championships, in which she finished runner-up to Shawn Johnson, she was selected to represent the U.S. in the World Championships in Stuttgart, Germany.

At the World Championships, Worley and Team USA finished first overall, four points ahead of the nearest team. Worley herself qualified 8th overall for the all-around competition, but because of rules permitting only two competitors per country, she was discluded as Liukin and Johnson qualified ahead of her. Worley also finished in the top 8 on balance beam, but the 2 athlete rule again caused her elimination from the event final. During the team finals, Worley competed on bars and floor earning 15.575 and 14.675 respectively. The scores contributed to the U.S. total of 184.400, which earned the gold medal.

Personal Life

Shayla is a student at William R. Boone High School in Orlando, Florida. Outside of gymnastics, she has competed in speech oration contests, has modeled for Disney, Tupperware, and Lands' End, and has done commercials for Disney and Universal.

Shayla Worley. (2008, July 11). In Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved 14:08, July 13, 2008, from http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Shayla_Worley&oldid=224938487

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