Maggie Nichols (gymnast)

Maggie Nichols
— Gymnast ♀ —
Full name	Margaret Mary Nichols
Nickname(s)	Maggie
Country represented	United States
Born	(1997-09-12) September 12, 1997 Little Canada, Minnesota
Height	5' 4"
Discipline	Women's artistic gymnastics
Level	Senior International Elite
Years on national team	2013-2016 (US)
Club	Twin City Twisters
College team	Oklahoma Sooners (2016–20)
Head coach(es)	Sarah Jantzi, Rich Stenger
Retired	July 13, 2016
Medal record Representing  United States World Championships 2015 Glasgow Team 2015 Glasgow Floor Exercise Pan American Championships 2014 Mississauga Team 2014 Mississauga All-Around American Cup 2016 Newark All-Around

Margaret Mary "Maggie" Nichols (born September 12, 1997 in Little Canada, Minnesota) is a retired ^[1] American artistic gymnast. She was a member of the gold medal-winning team at the 2015 World Artistic Gymnastics Championships and also earned at bronze medal on the Floor Exercise at those Championships. Before a knee injury in early 2016, Nichols was also a contender for the 2016 U.S. women's Olympic gymnastics team. She is now a freshman at the University of Oklahoma, where she signed her National Letter of Intent to attend in late 2015.

Senior career

2013

Nichols was added to the national team in March and was selected to represent the United States at the City of Jesolo Trophy and at the Germany-Romania-U.S.A. Friendly.^[2] At the City of Jesolo Trophy, she finished first with the team and sixth in the all-around. In the event finals, she won a silver on floor.

At the Secret U.S. Classic, Nichols finished sixth in the all-around, eleventh on bars, eighth on beam, and fifth on floor.^[3] At the National Championships, she placed fifth in the all-around^[4] and on the balance beam, sixth on uneven bars, and ninth on floor.^[5]

2014

At the 2014 City of Jesolo Trophy, Nichols finished first with the team and third in the all-around.^[6] At the Tokyo Cup, she finished third in the all-around.^[7] At the U.S. Classic, she placed third all-around and on floor, fifth on uneven bars, and seventh on balance beam.

In August, Nichols competed at the U.S. National Championships, where she placed third in the all-around behind Simone Biles and Kyla Ross, as well as on uneven bars and floor exercise. She placed fourth on balance beam. After the competition, Nichols was named to the national team.

In August and September, Nichols competed at the Pan American Championships in Mississauga, Canada, where she helped the American team place first. Individually, she placed third in the all-around competition with a score of 55.500.^[8] However, she dislocated her kneecap on floor exercise during the team final and consequentially withdrew from the U.S. women's World Championships selection training camp later in September.^[9]

2015

At the Jesolo Trophy, Nichols finished first with the team and seventh in the all-around.^[10]

On July 25, Nichols competed at the Secret U.S. Classic and finished third in the all-around, behind two-time reigning World All-Around Champion Simone Biles and 2012 Olympic All-Around Champion Gabby Douglas. She debuted her Amanar vault and scored 15.80. She finished fifth on bars with a score of 14.95, as well as finishing fifth on beam with a score of 14.45. She ended her night on floor where she scored a 14.80, and finished third on the event with a total all-around score of 60.000.^[11]

On August 13 and 15, Nichols competed at the 2015 P&G Championships in Indianapolis, Indiana.

During night one at the 2015 P&G Championships, Nichols led the competition for the first three rotations. She began on vault, scoring a 15.80 with an Amanar. On bars, she performed a good routine and stuck her dismount, scoring a 14.95. On the balance beam, she debuted several new skills in her routine, performing a tucked barani, a switch ring, and dismounting with a full twisting double tuck. Nichols' routine went overtime, and as a result incurred a one-tenth deduction and scored a 14.40. Nichols ended her first night of competition the floor exercise with a routine that included a double-twisting-double-tuck, both a tucked and piked full-in, and a double tuck dismount. She scored a 14.55, bringing her all around total for the night to 59.700, 1.400 points behind Biles.

On night two, Nichols began on bars with a solid routine scoring a 14.8. During the warm up before beam, she fell on her full twisting double back dismount and decided to change her dismount. Instead, she performed a double pike and scored a 14.65, higher than her score on night one despite losing three-tenths in start value. On floor, she stumbled out of bounds on her double-double mount and both of her feet went out which incurred a three-tenth deduction, and she scored a relatively low 14.15. She closed out her competition on the vault where she scored a 15.85 to finish in second place with a two-night total of 119.150.

At the conclusion of the championships, Nichols was named to the Senior National Team once again along with an invitation to the 2015 Worlds Selection Camp.

At the 2015 World Artistic Gymnastics Championships, Nichols was selected to compete on vault, beam, and floor in the team preliminary. During the team final, Nichols competed on all four events, contributing an all around total of 59.232 toward the U.S. women's gold medal finish. Nichols also qualified for the floor event final, where she earned a bronze medal.

On November 11, 2015, Nichols signed the National Letter of Intent to the University of Oklahoma.^[12]

2016

On December 17, 2015, USA Gymnastics revealed that Nichols would represent the U.S. at the 2016 AT&T American Cup.^[13]

On March 5, Nichols competed at the 2016 AT&T American Cup. She placed second in the All-Around behind 2012 Olympic All-Around Champion and American teammate Gabby Douglas. Nichols scored a 59.699 to earn the silver medal. Following the competition U.S National Team Co-Ordinator, Martha Karolyi stated that "Maggie showed again that I can rely on her".^[14] This competition cemented Nichols as a contender for the 2016 Olympic team.

A month later, in April, Nichols sustained a 'slight' knee injury that forced her to withdraw from the 2016 Pacific Rim Gymnastics Championships in Seattle, Washington throughout April 8–10; she was replaced by Ragan Smith.^[15] Nichols underwent arthroscopic knee surgery for a meniscus tear from an Amanar vault landing during training. In April 2016, she was in rehabilitation and is expected to return to training within six weeks.^[16]

In June, Nichols returned to competition at the 2016 P&G Gymnastics Championships. She only competed on 2 events, the uneven bars and balance beam, finishing 13th and 10th respectively. She was then chosen to compete at the 2016 Olympic Trials in July, where she finished 6th in the all-around, 5th on vault, 9th on uneven bars, 8th on balance beam, and 4th on floor. Nichols was ultimately not chosen for the Olympic Team or as an alternate athlete.

A few days after the conclusion of Olympic Trials on July 13, 2016, Nichols announced her retirement from elite gymnastics via Instagram and interview,^[17] and stated she was taking time to rest before focusing on her return to competition at the collegiate level with University of Oklahoma in August.

Personal life

Nichols attended Roseville Area High School, graduating in 2016. She has signed to the University of Oklahoma gymnastics team on a full athletic scholarship and will attend in the Fall of 2016.^[18]

Competitive history

Year	Event	Team	AA	VT	UB	BB	FX
2011	Nastia Liukin Cup		20
	Junior Olympic National Championships		02 !	02 !	01 !	01 !	03 !
	Elite Qualifier		01 !	01 !	02 !	03 !	5
	American Classic		8	03 !		02 !
2012	American Classic		03 !	03 !	4	02 !	7
	Secret U.S. Classic (Junior)			7
	Visa National Championships (Junior)		11	10	14	10	11
2013	City of Jesolo Trophy	01 !	6				02 !
	GER-ROU-USA Friendly	01 !
	Secret U.S. Classic		6		11	8	5
	P&G Gymnastics Championships		5		6	5	9
2014	City of Jesolo Trophy	01 !	03 !
	Tokyo World Cup		03 !
	Secret U.S. Classic		03 !		5	7	03 !
	P&G Gymnastics Championships		03 !		03 !	4	03 !
	Pan American Championships	01 !	03 !
2015	City of Jesolo Trophy	01 !	7
	Secret U.S. Classic		03 !		5	5	03 !
	P&G Gymnastics Championships		02 !		7	4	5
	World Championships	01 !					03 !
2016	American Cup		02 !
	P&G Gymnastics Championships				13	10
	Olympic Trials		6	5	9	8	4

References

World Champions in Artistic Gymnastics – Women's Team Competition
1934:  Czechoslovakia 1938:  Czechoslovakia 1950:  Sweden 1954:  Soviet Union 1958:  Soviet Union 1962:  Soviet Union 1966:  Czechoslovakia 1970:  Soviet Union 1974:  Soviet Union 1978:  Soviet Union 1979:  Romania 1981:  Soviet Union 1983:  Soviet Union 1985:  Soviet Union 1987:  Romania 1989:  Soviet Union 1991:  Soviet Union 1994:  Romania 1995:  Romania 1997:  Romania 1999:  Romania 2001:  Romania 2003:  United States 2006:  China 2007:  United States 2010:  Russia 2011:  United States 2014:  United States 2015:  United States
2015:  United States (USA), Simone Biles, Gabby Douglas, Brenna Dowell, Madison Kocian, Maggie Nichols, Aly Raisman, MyKayla Skinner

Pan American Champions in Artistic Gymnastics – Women's Team Competition
1997:  Brazil 2001:  United States 2005:  United States 2010:  United States 2014:  United States
2014:  United States (USA), Madison Desch, Amelia Hundley, Madison Kocian, Ashton Locklear, Maggie Nichols, MyKayla Skinner