MyKayla Skinner's gymnastics career ended on a high note on Sunday as she captured the silver medal in the women's vault competition of the Tokyo Olympics. Skinner delivered the performance of her life in front of an ecstatic Simone Biles, posting an average score of 14.916 points to win the first Olympic medal of her career.
Rebeca Andrade took home the victory with a score of 15.083 points, becoming the first Brazilian athlete to win a gold medal in women's gymnastics. Andrade, who had undergone three operations for a torn anterior cruciate ligament on her right knee in the past six years, managed to pull off the gargantuan feat even without a Brazilian team in women's gymnastics.
Skinner's difficult road to the silver medal
Skinner can relate to the hardships Andrade faced in her road to a medal finish. Just a week ago, Skinner thought her Olympic stint would end in bitter disappointment after a gut-wrenching finish in qualifying. She participated in all four events during the preliminaries and even finished fourth overall on vault.
Unfortunately for Skinner, she failed to qualify for the finals given that she was the third-highest ranking American in the field behind Biles and Jade Carey. Rules state that countries can only field two athletes at most in a single event. Skinner already bade farewell to her supporters in an emotional Instagram post, saying the sport of gymnastics wasn't kind to her, but she's still grateful that she could be an example to others to never give up on their dreams.
It was just the latest debacle to Skinner's Olympic career that started five years earlier in Rio. Skinner narrowly missed out on making the team back in 2016, becoming just an alternate to the squad that won gold. After returning home from Brazil, Skinner won two NCAA titles for Utah, providing the impetus for yet another stab at the Olympics.
Her training for Tokyo did not go according to plan as the Olympics was moved to 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. That same disease almost sabotaged her campaign as she was hospitalized with pneumonia earlier this year, forcing Skinner to miss the gym for a month.
Skinner overcame those obstacles, qualifying for the Olympics in the June trials, but that came with a huge asterisk. Skinner would be part of the team bound for Tokyo, but she will not take part in the team final with her scores solely for individual purposes only. She did her best in the vault, but the rules prevented her from reaching the final.
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Skinner takes full advantage of second chance
Life works in mysterious ways, though, and Skinner's Olympic dream was given a second chance after Biles' sudden withdrawal due to mental health concerns. Skinner took full advantage of the opportunity given to her, posting a score of 15.033 on her opening Cheng.
Skinner then notched a 14.800 on an Amanar vault in her next attempt to post an average score of 14.916, which was good enough to beat six other gymnasts for the silver medal. Among her biggest fans in the venue was Biles, who celebrated the unlikely win of her fellow "Olympic Grandma" with sheer delight.
Skinner said before the competition that she wanted to win a medal for Biles. She delivered on that promise, winning a silver medal that on Sunday night felt like gold.
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