Riley Shannon McCusker (born July 9, 2001) is an American artistic gymnast and part of the United States women's national gymnastics team. She won the all around gold medal at the 2017 City of Jesolo Trophy and the all around bronze at the 2017 U.S. National Gymnastics Championships.
Video Riley McCusker
Personal life
McCusker was born to Tom and Jessica McCusker in 2001, and she has three siblings. McCusker began gymnastics in 2008. She is homeschooled.
Maps Riley McCusker
Junior career
2014: Level 10
McCusker moved up to Level 10 in 2014, at the age of 14 - Level 10 is the highest level of the USA Gymnastics JO Program. At the time she was training at Dynamic Gymnastics in Mohegan Lake, New York under the tutelage of Teodora Ungureanu. At the New York State Championships, she won the all-around title for the Junior A division, as well as titles on bars, beam and floor. Two weeks later she participated in the 2014 Region 6 Championships where she won the all-around and vault title for the Junior A division. She consequently qualified to the 2014 J.O. Nationals. At Nationals, held in Jackson, Mississippi, McCusker finished 30th in the all-around.
2015
McCusker was absent from competition throughout the entire 2015 season; she and her family moved from Connecticut to Brielle, New Jersey so that she was able to train at MG Elite Gymnastics in Morganville, New Jersey to receive better coaching as her former club did not have the resources. MG Elite had produced rising junior star Laurie Hernandez at the time.
2016: Junior elite
In January 2016, McCusker participated in the 2016 Parkettes Invitational in Allentown, Pennsylvania; she competed as a junior elite. She won the all-around title, in addition to all four other event titles. On February 4, 2016, she committed to the University of Florida and the Florida Gators gymnastics program. She received full Junior International Elite status in March when she passed the optionals stage with a 52.000 at the 2016 KPAC Cup.
McCusker participated in the 2016 American Classic in May at the Karolyi Ranch in Huntsville, Texas - she finished in a tie for fifth. On June 4, 2016, she participated in the 2016 U.S. Classic in Hartford, Connecticut where she finished ninth in the all-around, receiving qualification to Nationals.
At the 2016 U.S. National Gymnastics Championships in St. Louis, Missouri, she was second in the all-around after day one of competition with a 56.450. She managed to sustain the result on the second day, finishing second in the all-around with a combined total score of 112.000. She also won silver medals on bars, beam, and floor. Consequently, she was named to the U.S. Junior National Team.
Senior career
2017--present: Senior elite
In February 2017, McCusker was named as the wildcard athlete for the 2017 AT&T American Cup, an FIG event held on March 4 at the Prudential Center in Newark, New Jersey. McCusker represented the United States alongside 2016 Olympic alternate Ragan Smith. In her senior international debut, McCusker finished 5th overall with a 52.966, behind Kim Bui of Germany, Melanie De Jesus dos Santos of France, Asuka Teramoto of Japan, and Smith, after a fall off of the uneven bars and a scary fall in her dismount off the beam, landing on her neck.
McCusker then competed at the City of Jesolo Trophy in April, where she won the all-around gold medal and helped the US team win the team gold medal. After competing in Italy McCusker suffered both an ankle injury and a wrist injury and was forced to stop training for a few months. She competed at the 2017 U.S. Classic; due to her injury, she did not compete at her highest level and finished eighth on uneven bars, thirteenth on balance beam, and fourth on floor exercise.
In August, McCusker competed at the 2017 U.S. National Gymnastics Championships where she placed third in the All-Around behind Ragan Smith and Jordan Chiles. She was the uneven bars champion at this event and placed second on the balance beam, once again behind Smith.
Due to her results at the City of Jesolo and the nationals champions, McCusker was placed on the nominative roster for the World Championships, but in September, she was once again injured and had to withdraw from the Worlds Selection Camp and forfeit her chance to make the team that would compete at the 2017 World Artistic Gymnastics Championships.
Competitive history
Junior
Senior
References
External links
- Riley MCCUSKER at the International Federation of Gymnastics
- Riley McCusker at USA Gymnastics
Source of the article : Wikipedia
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