Ashton Locklear

Last updated

Ashton Locklear
Ashton Locklear USAGA survivors.jpg
Locklear in 2018
Personal information
Full nameAshton Taylor Locklear
Country representedFlag of the United States.svg  United States
Born (1998-01-13) January 13, 1998 (age 25)
Lumberton, North Carolina, U.S.
Hometown Hamlet, North Carolina, U.S.
Residence Spring, Texas, U.S.
Height5 ft 4 in (163 cm)
Discipline Women's artistic gymnastics
LevelSenior International Elite
Years on national team2014—18 (US)
ClubWorld Champions Centre
Head coach(es)Laurent Landi
Former coach(es)Qi Han Yiwen Chen Kristie Phillips
Sergei Romanov
Music Pa'Bailar (2012)
RetiredMay 16, 2019 [1]
Medal record
Representing Flag of the United States.svg  United States
World Championships
Gold medal icon (G initial).svg 2014 Nanning Team
Pacific Rim Championships
Gold medal icon (G initial).svg 2016 Everett Team
Gold medal icon (G initial).svg 2016 Everett Uneven Bars
Pan American Championships
Gold medal icon (G initial).svg 2014 Mississauga Team
Gold medal icon (G initial).svg 2014 Mississauga Uneven Bars

Ashton Taylor Locklear (born January 13, 1998) is a retired American artistic gymnast from North Carolina. She was a member of the gold medal-winning United States team at the 2014 World Artistic Gymnastics Championships, and is a two-time national champion on the uneven bars (2014, 2016). Locklear was an uneven bars specialist and was an alternate for the 2016 Summer Olympics U.S. gymnastics team, the Final Five.

Contents

Personal life

Locklear was born in Lumberton, North Carolina, to Carrie and Terry Locklear. She has an older sister, Angelia, who is also a gymnast. [2]

Locklear was homeschooled until 8th grade. [3] She is Native American and a member of the Lumbee Tribe. [4] She became Nike N7 ambassador in 2017. [5]

Gymnastics career

Pre-elite

At a young age, Locklear watched her older sister's gymnastics lessons and began imitating her. [4] She also cited watching the 2000 Olympics on television as an inspiration to begin competing. [4] She began her gymnastics career in trampolining, but later switched to artistic gymnastics. She began her study of gymnastics with Terry Barrett at Physical Awareness and Gymnastics, in Hamlet, NC.

Locklear's first championship was a state-level trampoline and tumbling title she earned at age five. After that she began training at KPAC (Kristie Phillips Athletic Center) in Lake Norman and was coached by Kristie Phillips for a while. [4] When she was eleven years old, she began training at Everest Gymnastics in Huntersville, North Carolina, with coaches Qi Han (a former member of the Chinese men's national team and a graduate of Beijing Sports University) [2] and his wife, Yiwen Chen. Because of the distance between Huntersville and Locklear's hometown of Hamlet, North Carolina her family maintains a second household near the gym. [4]

2013

Locklear competed at the Nastia Liukin Cup in 2013 where she placed seventh in the all-around and on balance beam, first on uneven bars, and ninth on floor exercise. [6] Later that year Locklear suffered a stress fracture in her back, which limited her to conditioning for approximately four months and forced her to stop competing on the floor exercise and vault. [2]

Senior

2014

Locklear's breakout performances came during the 2014 season. At the Secret U.S. Classic, she finished first on the uneven bars with a score of 15.700, beating Kyla Ross, the reigning world silver medalist on bars, by more than half a point. [7] In August, Locklear competed at the P&G Championships, where she became national champion on the uneven bars with scores of 15.850 on Day 1 and 15.200 on Day 2. [8] She also placed eighth on balance beam, scoring 14.550 on Day 1 and 13.550 on Day 2. She was named to the national team and to the U.S. team for the Pan American Championships in Mississauga, Ontario. [9]

In Mississauga, Locklear and her teammates (MyKayla Skinner, Maggie Nichols, Madison Desch, Amelia Hundley and Madison Kocian) won the team gold medal, beating silver medalist Brazil by more than six points. [10] Locklear also won gold on the uneven bars with a score of 14.975. [11]

On September 17, Locklear was selected to compete at the 2014 World Championships in Nanning, China. [12] She helped the team to a gold medal [13] and placed fourth in the uneven bars final with a score of 15.266.

2015

Early in 2015, Locklear sustained a shoulder injury and had to have surgery. Following intense physical therapy, she returned to elite competition and participated in the Secret U.S. Classic on July 25. She only competed exhibition routines, meaning she scored a 0 on both uneven bars and balance beam. She said that she would have her full difficulty back by the P&G Championships.

On August 13 and 15, Locklear competed on uneven bars and balance beam at the 2015 P&G Championships. On night 1, despite a lower start value (removed inbar stalders and used toe-on skills), she scored a 15.400 for the second highest bar score of the night. On beam, she fell on her back handspring–layout stepout series and scored a 12.950. On night 2, she scored a 15.400 on bars again and 13.750 on beam. She placed second on bars behind 2014 Worlds teammate Kocian and ahead of Bailie Key with a total score of 30.850. She placed 13th on beam with a total score of 26.700. A week after the competition, Locklear was named to the senior national team and invited to the 2015 Worlds selection camp. [14]

Locklear initially committed to the University of Florida, but on September 10, 2015, the information was changed on her USA Gymnastics athlete profile to "undecided", prompting speculation that she had uncommitted. [15] She later changed her Twitter biography, too. [16] [17] Almost a month later, on October 2, 2015, she confirmed on her personal Ask.fm account that she had decided to forgo NCAA eligibility. [18]

2016

Ashton began her 2016 season at the City of Jesolo Trophy in Jesolo, Italy. She helped the U.S. team win the gold medal and qualified in first place to the uneven bars final. In the final, Locklear took the gold medal with a score of 15.250.

In April, at the 2016 Pacific Rim Gymnastics Championships, Locklear helped the U.S. win the team competition. She also qualified to the uneven bars final and took the gold medal with a score of 15.625.

In June 2016, Locklear competed at the U.S. Secret Classic, where she won the gold medal on uneven bars ahead of the reigning world champion, Kocian, with a score of 15.850, and placed fourth on beam with a score of 14.750.

Later in June, Locklear competed at the P&G Championships in St. Louis, where she posted huge scores on both days on uneven bars: 15.600 on Day 1 and 15.700 on Day 2 for a two-day total of 31.300, edging out Kocian by a combined margin of 0.150 to reclaim the national title. Locklear also performed on balance beam on both days of competition, scoring 14.450 and 14.150 to take eighth place, 0.050 behind Kocian. [19] Locklear was named to the 2016 U.S. National Team and qualified for the Olympic Trials in San Jose, California. [20]

At the 2016 Olympic Trials, Locklear fell on the beam at night one but finished with a score 15.700 on bars night 2. Locklear was chosen as an alternate alongside MyKayla Skinner and Ragan Smith. [21]

2017

Ashton began the 2017 season at the City of Jesolo Trophy in Jesolo, Italy, winning the team gold medal with the U.S. team and the bronze medal on the uneven bars, behind Russia's Elena Eremina and fellow U.S. teammate Riley McCusker.

In late July, Locklear competed at the U.S. Secret Classic, performing on just balance beam. She tied for eighth in that event with Kalyany Steele.

In August, Locklear competed at the P&G Championships in Anaheim, California. Despite competing evidently-downgraded routines on the uneven bars, she placed second on that event, 0.250 of a point behind the event winner Riley McCusker. She also placed tenth on the balance beam. [22]

In September Locklear was selected to represent the United States at the 2017 Artistic Gymnastics World Championships in Montreal alongside Ragan Smith, Morgan Hurd, and Jade Carey. [23] [24] During qualifications Locklear competed on uneven bars and balance beam. She qualified to the uneven bars finals in 7th place with a score of 14.566. [25] During the uneven bars finals, she had an unexpected early mistake resulting in 8th-place finish. [26] Later Locklear clarified that during the uneven bars final she had re-injured her shoulder, resulting in a subpar performance. [27]

2018

After undergoing shoulder surgery in the fall, Locklear relocated to Spring, Texas to train alongside Simone Biles at World Champions Centre. [28] In the summer she underwent knee surgery and spent the remainder of the year recovering. [29] In July, Locklear confirmed via Instagram that she too was sexually abused by Larry Nassar. [30]

2019

In an interview with French gymnast Juliette Bossu, Locklear announced that she would make her comeback in February at the WOGA Classic [31] and would compete not only on uneven bars and balance beam, but on floor exercise as well, an event she had not competed on since 2013. [32] At the WOGA Classic, Locklear scored 12.350 on uneven bars after falling twice and 12.550 on balance beam. [33] Later that month Locklear competed at the World Champion's National Qualifier where she placed first on uneven bars with a score of 13.450 and tied for fourth on balance beam with a score of 12.600. Her scores did not qualify her to compete at the American or U.S. Classic. [34]

On May 16 Locklear officially announced her retirement from the sport via Twitter. [1]

Competitive history

YearEventTeamAA VT UB BB FX
2013Nastia Liukin Cup7
2014 U.S. ClassicGold medal icon.svg4
U.S. Championships Gold medal icon.svg8
Pan American ChampionshipsGold medal icon.svgGold medal icon.svg
World Championships Gold medal icon.svg4
2015 U.S. ChampionshipsSilver medal icon.svg13
2016 City of Jesolo Trophy Gold medal icon.svgGold medal icon.svg
Pacific Rim Championships Gold medal icon.svgGold medal icon.svg
U.S. ClassicGold medal icon.svg4
U.S. ChampionshipsGold medal icon.svg8
U.S. Olympic Trials Silver medal icon.svg13
Olympic Games [lower-alpha 1]
2017 City of Jesolo Trophy Gold medal icon.svgBronze medal icon.svg
U.S. Classic 8
P&G National Championships Silver medal icon.svg10
World Championships 8
2018 did not compete
2019 WOGA Classic 66
WCC National QualifierGold medal icon.svg4
  1. ↑ Locklear was an alternate for Team USA
YearCompetition DescriptionLocationApparatusRank-FinalScore-FinalRank-QualifyingScore-Qualifying
2014World ChampionshipsNanningTeamGold medal icon.svg179.2801235.038
Uneven Bars415.266415.233

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">World Olympic Gymnastics Academy</span> Gymnastics

The World Olympic Gymnastics Academy (WOGA) is a two-facility gymnastics club located in Frisco and Plano.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kyla Ross</span> American artistic gymnast

Kyla Briana Ross is a retired American artistic gymnast and current assistant coach for the Arkansas Razorbacks gymnastics team. She is the first female gymnast to win NCAA, World, and Olympic championship titles.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Gabby Douglas</span> 2012 Olympic gymnastics all-around champion

Gabrielle Christina Victoria Douglas is an American artistic gymnast. She is the 2012 Olympic all-around champion and the 2015 World all-around silver medalist. She was a member of the gold-winning teams at both the 2012 and the 2016 Summer Olympics, dubbed the "Fierce Five" and the "Final Five" by the media, respectively. She was also a member of the gold-winning American teams at the 2011 and the 2015 World Championships.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Katelyn Ohashi</span> American artistic gymnast

Katelyn Michelle Ohashi is an American former artistic gymnast who competed for the University of California, Los Angeles. She is a six-time All-American and was a four-time member of USA Gymnastics' Junior National Team, the 2011 junior national champion and the winner of the 2013 American Cup. She trended globally on various social media networks in January 2019 for her perfect 10 score at the 2019 Collegiate Challenge, the fourth perfect 10 floor routine of her career. Ohashi incorporated current, popular dance elements into her floor routines.

Brenna Dowell is a former American artistic gymnast. She was a member of the gold medal-winning U.S. team at the 2015 World Artistic Gymnastics Championships. A prevalent gymnast on the National scene throughout the 2010s, Dowell has combined elite and collegiate gymnastics; she deferred her sophomore season with the Oklahoma Sooners in order to make a bid for the 2016 Summer Olympics team.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Madison Kocian</span> American artistic gymnast

Madison Taylor Kocian is a retired American artistic gymnast. On the uneven bars, she is one of four 2015 world champions and the 2016 Olympic silver medalist. She was part of the gold medal-winning team dubbed the "Final Five" at the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, and was a member of the first-place American teams at the 2014 and 2015 World Artistic Gymnastics Championships. She graduated from the University of California, Los Angeles in 2020, where she was a member of its NCAA women's gymnastics team.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Laurie Hernandez</span> American artistic gymnast

Lauren Zoe Hernandez is an American artistic gymnast. During her debut year as a senior gymnast, she competed as a member of the U.S. women's gymnastics team dubbed the "Final Five" at the 2016 Summer Olympics; Ultimately, the U.S. won gold in the team event. In the individual events, Hernandez earned the silver medal on the balance beam. She returned to training in late 2018 and expressed interest in making a comeback to earn a spot on the U.S. women's gymnastic team for the Tokyo Olympics in 2021, but she did not qualify for the Olympic Gymnastics Trials.

Jordan Lucella Elizabeth Chiles is an American artistic gymnast. She represented the United States at the 2020 Summer Olympics and won a silver medal in the team event. She was a member of the team that won gold at the 2022 World Championships. Individually, she is the 2022 World vault silver medalist and floor silver medalist. She has been a member of the United States women's national gymnastics team since 2013.

Alyssa Lyn Baumann is a retired American artistic gymnast, and has competed for the United States at international events as well as for University of Florida team. Baumann is the 2014 and 2015 United States silver medalist on the balance beam. She was a member of the 2014 World Championship team that won gold.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ragan Smith</span> American artistic gymnast

Ragan Elizabeth Smith is an American collegiate gymnast. She is a five-time member of the US National Team (2014–2019). She is the 2017 United States national all-around champion and was an alternate for the 2016 Olympic team.

Morgan Elizabeth Hurd is an American artistic gymnast and a five-time member of the United States women's national team (2016–21). She is the 2017 World all-around champion and balance beam silver medalist and the 2018 World all-around bronze medalist and floor exercise silver medalist. She has won four medals at the USA Gymnastics National Championships during her senior career and is a two-time American Cup champion. She was a member of the gold-medal winning American teams at the 2018 World Championships and the 2019 Pan American Games.

The 2016 United States women's national gymnastics team season refers to the competitions that the United States women's national gymnastics team will participate in during the 2016 artistic gymnastics season. The 2015 World Team champions, the U.S. team go into 2016 as the favorites to become 2016 Olympic Champions; hoping to defend their 2012 Olympic title.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Loan His</span> French artistic gymnast

Loan Válerie His is a retired French artistic gymnast. She represented France at the 2016 Summer Olympics and helped the French team finish eleventh. She won a bronze medal with the French team at the 2016 European Championships. She also competed at the 2015 World Championships.

Emma Lauren Malabuyo is a Filipino-American artistic gymnast who represents the Philippines in international competition. She is a five-time member of the U.S. National Team and was an alternate for the 2020 Olympic team. She is currently competing for the UCLA Bruins gymnastics team.

Trinity Lemyra Thomas is an American artistic gymnast and a four-time National Team member (2016–20). She was a member of the gold medal-winning team at the 2018 Pan American Gymnastics Championships, where she also won silver medals in the individual all-around and on the uneven bars, as well as the bronze medalist on balance beam and floor exercise at the 2017 national championships. She is also currently a member of the Florida Gators women's gymnastics team.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Final Five (gymnastics)</span> 2016 US Olympic gymnastics team

The Final Five was the United States women's team in artistic gymnastics that won the team event at the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro. It was the United States' third gold medal in the event and second outside the United States. The five members of the team were Simone Biles, Gabby Douglas, Laurie Hernandez, Madison Kocian, and Aly Raisman, with MyKayla Skinner, Ragan Smith, and Ashton Locklear serving as the three alternates. After the team event, Biles won a gold medal in the individual all-around event, the vault, and on floor exercise and won a bronze on the balance beam, while Raisman won silver medals in the individual all-around, and on the floor exercise, where she was the defending champion, Hernandez won silver on the balance beam, and Kocian won a silver in the uneven bars. The previous team to medal in every event, including the team and individual all-around, was the Unified Team at the 1992 Games; the only previous U.S. team to do so was at the 1984 Games.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kayla DiCello</span> American artistic gymnast

Kayla Kecia DiCello is an American artistic gymnast. She is the 2021 World all-around bronze medalist. On the junior level, she is the 2019 Junior World vault champion and the 2019 U.S. Junior national all-around champion. She was an alternate for the 2020 Olympic team.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Shilese Jones</span> American artistic gymnast

Shilese Jones is an American artistic gymnast. She was a member of the teams that won gold at the 2022 World Championships and the 2018 Pan American Championships. Individually she is the 2022 World all-around silver medalist, as well as the 2022 World uneven bars silver medalist.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Konnor McClain</span> American artistic gymnast

Konnor McClain is an American artistic gymnast and a member of the United States women's national gymnastics team. She is the 2022 U.S National Champion and was the 2019 City of Jesolo Trophy and the 2019 U.S. Classic Junior All-Around Champion.

Madray Emmanuelle Johnson is an American artistic gymnast. She is the 2021 Junior Pan American Games champion on uneven bars and balance beam and is the 2022 U.S. junior national champion.

References

  1. 1 2 @ashton_locklear (May 16, 2019). "Ashton Locklear Announces Retirement" (Tweet) – via Twitter.
  2. 1 2 3 Lakso, Seth (September 6, 2014). "Local gymnast Ashton Locklear has Olympic-sized dreams". Charlotte Observer. Archived from the original on October 17, 2014. Retrieved October 14, 2014.
  3. ↑ "Archived copy". Archived from the original on October 26, 2014. Retrieved October 15, 2014.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  4. 1 2 3 4 5 Stinson, Shawn (October 13, 2014). "Locklear dreams of Olympic glory". Robesonian.com. Archived from the original on October 18, 2014. Retrieved October 14, 2014.
  5. ↑ xxxxx. "U.S. Ashton Locklear Signs With Nike N7 In Support Of Native Americans". WOGymnastika. Retrieved September 5, 2017.
  6. ↑ "2013 Nastia Liukin Cup Meet Results" (PDF). USA Gymnastics . March 1, 2013. Archived from the original (PDF) on December 21, 2018. Retrieved January 23, 2019.
  7. ↑ "Biles, Chiles Take Secret U.S. Classic All-Around Titles". USA Gymnastics. August 2, 2014. Archived from the original on December 28, 2018. Retrieved August 12, 2014.
  8. ↑ "Archived copy" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on August 26, 2014. Retrieved October 15, 2014.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  9. ↑ "USA Gymnastics Names U.S. Senior Women's National Team, Senior Pan Am Championships Team". USA Gymnastics. August 24, 2014. Retrieved October 14, 2014.
  10. ↑ "USA Wins Women's Team Gold At Senior Pan American Championships". USA Gymnastics. August 30, 2014. Retrieved October 14, 2014.[ permanent dead link ]
  11. ↑ "Skinner Wins Floor Exercise Gold At 2014 Senior Pan Am Championships". USA Gymnastics. September 1, 2014. Archived from the original on December 28, 2018. Retrieved October 14, 2014.
  12. ↑ "USA Gymnastics Announces U.S. Women's Team For 2014 World Championships". USA Gymnastics. September 17, 2014. Archived from the original on September 24, 2014. Retrieved September 18, 2014.
  13. ↑ "Team USA Women's Gymnasts Golden At World Championships". Teamusa.org. Retrieved July 15, 2017.
  14. ↑ "2015 P&G Championships – Women Day 2" Archived September 8, 2015, at the Wayback Machine . usagym.org. August 15, 2015. Retrieved August 15, 2015.
  15. ↑ "USA Gymnastics | Ashton Locklear". Archived from the original on September 9, 2015. Retrieved September 11, 2015.
  16. ↑ "ashton locklear (@ashton_locklear)". Twitter. June 18, 2017. Retrieved July 15, 2017.
  17. ↑ "TripleTwist on Twitter: "It appears Locklear has uncommitted from Florida. "Future Gator" was removed from all her social media bios & USAG lists her as "undecided"."". Twitter . Retrieved July 15, 2017.
  18. ↑ "Are you still going to do college gymnastics? | ask.fm/ashtonlocklear_2016". Ask.fm. October 2, 2015. Retrieved July 15, 2017.
  19. ↑ "Archived copy" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on August 15, 2016. Retrieved July 6, 2016.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  20. ↑ "USA Gymnastics | USA Gymnastics announces 2016 U.S. Women's Senior National Team". Archived from the original on July 1, 2016. Retrieved July 6, 2016.
  21. ↑ "U.S. Olympic Women's Gymnastics Team Named". Teamusa.org. Retrieved July 12, 2016.
  22. ↑ "Smith wins women's all-around crown at 2017 P&G Championships". USA Gymnastics . August 20, 2017. Archived from the original on February 9, 2021. Retrieved August 21, 2017.
  23. ↑ "Meet The 2017 U.S. Women's World Championships Team". FloGymnastics. September 20, 2017.
  24. ↑ "USA Gymnastics names U.S. Women's Team for 2017 World Championships". USA Gymnastics . September 20, 2017. Archived from the original on June 28, 2018. Retrieved September 21, 2017.
  25. ↑ "Pedigree shines through nerves as U.S. women poised for World Championships success". USA Gymnastics . October 4, 2017. Archived from the original on June 30, 2018. Retrieved October 5, 2017.
  26. ↑ "Result" (PDF). October 12, 2017. Archived from the original (PDF) on October 13, 2017. Retrieved October 12, 2017.
  27. ↑ @ashton_locklear (November 10, 2017). "Locklear shoulder injury at Worlds" (Tweet) – via Twitter.
  28. ↑ "Olympic star Simone Biles better than ever". Houston Chronicle . April 7, 2018.
  29. ↑ "Ashton Locklear Had a Knee Surgery". Gymnovosti. June 8, 2018.
  30. ↑ "Gymnast Ashton Locklear Reveals Larry Nassar Abuse in Instagram Post". Sports Illustrated . July 25, 2018.
  31. ↑ "Locklear to Return at WOGA Classic". The Gymternet. February 8, 2019.
  32. ↑ "Ashton Locklear : " Dr Larry Nassar has been one of my greatest hurdles to overcome "". Gym and News. January 22, 2019.
  33. ↑ "2019 WOGA Classic Results". The Gymternet. February 12, 2019.
  34. ↑ "2019 World Champion's National Qualifier Results". The Gymternet. February 17, 2019.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.