Shayla Worley (born September 2, 1990) is an American artistic gymnast. She was a member of the gold-medal-winning American team at the 2007 World Artistic Gymnastics Championships. She trained for most of her athletic career at Orlando Metro Gymnastics, where she was coached by Jeff Wood and Christi Barineau. From 2009 to 2013, she competed at the University of Georgia, the 10-time NCAA champion in gymnastics.
Worley competed at Level 9 in 2001, placing first in the all-around competition at the Florida State Championships. Her final meet of the season was the Level 9 Eastern Championships, the highest meet to which a Level 9 gymnast can advance, where she placed second all-around. She finished off the Junior Olympic levels by placing second all-around at the 2002 Level 10 Florida State Championships.
In 2002, Worley became a junior national elite, now referred to as pre-elite. She won the all-around title at the American Challenge and also placed well at the U.S. Challenge.
She advanced to junior international elite in 2003. At the U.S. Classic, she placed high enough to qualify to the U.S. National Championships, where she finished fourth all-around. This earned her a spot on the United States national team.
In 2004, Worley helped the U.S. win a dual meet against Japan, and at the American Classic, she finished fourth all-around and again qualified to the U.S. National Championships. A few weeks later, she finished fourth all-around at the Pacific Alliance Championships. She also competed at the U.S. Classic, where she placed second all-around. In the fall, she won the all-around at the U.S. vs. Japan meet and was named to the Junior Pan American Games team, but could not compete because of a back injury.
Worley's final year as a junior was 2005. She started off her season at the International Tri Meet, which the United States won. She also went on a European tour that 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. At the national championships one month later, a fall on bars kept her down in the standings on Day 1. She battled back and tallied the highest all-around score on Day 2, finishing third overall behind Natasha Kelley. In her final meet of the season, the Massilia Cup, Worley only competed on bars, where she finished second.
Senior career
Worley turned senior in 2006. Her first senior outing was the American Cup, where she finished second all-around behind Nastia Liukin.[1] Next, she competed at the Pacific Alliance Championships, where she helped the U.S. win the team title and finished second on bars, making her the highest-placed American.
A hamstring injury prevented Worley 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 her injury kept her from competing.
Worley was ready in time for the 2007 American Cup, but a fall on her uneven bars dismount meant she narrowly missed qualifying for finals. She was also selected to compete in the Britain vs. U.S. dual match in Lisburn, Northern Ireland, on St. Patrick's Day. She made no major errors this time, and in the absence of the world's top two bars competitors, Britain's Beth Tweddle and American teammate Liukin, she took the bars title and finished second all-around. At the U.S. Classic, she only competed on bars and beam. She placed second on beam, but one of her grips ripped in the middle of her bar routine, causing her to place out of the top three. At the Visa Championships, she was the runner-up to Shawn Johnson[2] and was also second on uneven bars. She was selected to represent the U.S. at the World Championships in Stuttgart, Germany.
At the World Championships, the U.S. team finished first overall in team qualifying, about four points ahead of the second-place team, China.[3] Worley qualified eighth for the all-around competition, but Liukin and Johnson placed ahead of her, and because of rules permitting only two competitors per country, she was excluded from the final. She was also excluded from the balance beam final because of the two-athlete-per-country rule. During the team finals, she competed on bars and floor, scoring 15.575 and 14.675, respectively. The scores contributed to the U.S. total of 184.400, which earned the gold medal.
In 2008, Worley competed at the American Cup and finished third on vault and bars. She then traveled to Boston, Massachusetts, for the Visa National Championships, but had to pull out after aggravating a herniated disc in training the month before. She successfully petitioned to compete in the Olympic Trials, where she placed 14th all-around without competing on floor exercise. She was then invited to the final training camp in Texas, but ultimately was not chosen as an Olympic team member because of a broken leg.[4] Soon after, she retired from elite gymnastics.
At the end of 2008, after retiring from elite gymnastics, Worley committed to NCAA-level gymnastics with the University of Georgia Gymdogs.[6] She double majored in marketing and advertising.[7]
Worley is also involved with the Cards for Hospitalized Kids foundation.[8]
Jump backward with ½ turn (180°) handspring to land on two feet
E
Related Research Articles
Jana Lyn Bieger is an American former gymnast of German descent. She was raised in the U.S. and is a citizen, and competed only for the U.S. At the 2006 World Artistic Gymnastics Championships, she won three silver medals. Bieger was an alternate on the 2008 Olympic team.
Chellsie Marie Memmel is an American artistic gymnast. She is the 2005 world all-around champion and the 2003 world champion on the uneven bars. She was a member of the United States women's gymnastics team at the 2008 Olympics in Beijing, China.
Anastasia "Nastia" Valeryevna Liukin OLY is an American former artistic gymnast. She is the 2008 Olympic all-around champion, a five-time Olympic medalist, the 2005 and 2007 World champion on the balance beam, and the 2005 World champion on the uneven bars. She is also a four-time all-around U.S. national champion, winning twice as a junior and twice as a senior. With nine World Championships medals, seven of them individual, Liukin is tied with Shannon Miller for the third-highest tally of World Championship medals among U.S. gymnasts. Liukin also tied Miller's record as the American gymnast having won the most medals in a single non-boycotted Olympic Games. In October 2011, Liukin announced that she was returning to gymnastics with the hopes of making a second Olympic team. Liukin did not make the 2012 Olympic team and retired from the sport on July 2, 2012.
Natasha Kelley is a former American artistic gymnast. Kelley was a member of the silver-medal-winning U.S. team at the 2006 World Championships, along with Chellsie Memmel, Alicia Sacramone, Jana Bieger, Nastia Liukin, and Ashley Priess.
Rebecca Marie Bross is an American former artistic gymnast and six-time World Championship medalist.
Jordyn Marie Wieber is an American former artistic gymnast and current gymnastics coach. Since April 2019, she has been the head coach of the Arkansas Razorbacks gymnastics team.
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.
Elizabeth "Ebee" Nicole Price is a retired American artistic gymnast. Price was an alternate for the 2012 Summer Olympics Gymnastics team, the 2014 American Cup Champion, and the 2013-2014 Artistic Gymnastics World Cup All Around Series Winner. She was a member of the U.S. Junior National Gymnastics Team from 2010 to 2012 and the US Senior National Team from 2012 to 2014. She retired from international elite gymnastics in April 2014.
Madison Taylor Kocian is an American retired artistic gymnast. On the uneven bars, she is one of four 2015 World co-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 she 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 women's gymnastics team. She helped the UCLA Bruins win the 2018 NCAA Championships.
Kennedy Baker is a retired American collegiate and artistic gymnast. She competed as an elite gymnast from 2009 through 2013 and has since retired. She had competed in collegiate gymnastics for the Florida Gators.
Sydney Ashlyn Johnson-Scharpf is an American artistic gymnast and daughter of Brandy Johnson, a member of the 1988 USA Olympic Team.
Alexandra Claire McMurtry is an American former artistic gymnast. She is the 2013 Nastia Liukin Cup champion and the 2017 NCAA Champion. She competed in NCAA gymnastics for the Florida Gators and was the 10th person in NCAA history to record a Gym Slam.
Lauren Kellie Beers Stanton is a retired American artistic gymnast. She was a member of the Alabama Crimson Tide gymnastics from the 2013 season until the 2016 season.
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 was a member of the Florida Gators women's gymnastics team. One of the most successful NCAA gymnasts in history, Thomas finished her collegiate career with a record-tying 28 perfect-10 scores and a record-breaking five Gym Slams.
Emily Paige Gaskins is an American artistic gymnast. An elite gymnast since 2013, Gaskins was a member of the U.S. Junior National team for three years until 2016. She also made the Senior National Team in 2016.
Olivia Greaves is an American artistic gymnast and was a member of the United States women's national artistic gymnastics team (2018–2022).
Kiya Johnson is an American artistic gymnast. She currently competes for the LSU Tigers gymnastics team.
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.
Lillian Lippeatt is an American artistic gymnast. She became a United States national team member in 2019 and made her international debut at the 2019 Gymnix International.
Sloane Blakely is an American collegiate artistic gymnast and was a member of the United States women's national gymnastics team. She is currently competing for the Florida Gators in NCAA gymnastics. She is the older sister of gymnast Skye Blakely.
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.
United States 
