Ashton Locklear

Ashton Locklear
— Gymnast —
Country represented	United States
Born	(1998-01-13) January 13, 1998 Lumberton, North Carolina
Residence	Hamlet, North Carolina
Discipline	Women's artistic gymnastics
Level	Senior International Elite
Years on national team	2014 -
Club	Everest Gymnastics
Head coach(es)	Qi Han, Yiwen Chen
Medal record Representing  United States World Championships 2014 Nanning Team Pacific Rim Championships 2016 Everett Team 2016 Everett Uneven Bars Pan American Championships 2014 Mississauga Team 2014 Mississauga Uneven Bars

Ashton Locklear (born January 13, 1998) is an 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 was the national champion on the uneven bars in 2014 and 2016. Ashton is recognized for her phenomenal routines on bars and used her skill to solidify a spot as an alternate for the 2016 Summer Olympics after a tough battle with fellow gymnast Madison Kocian at the 2016 Olympic Trials.

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.^[1]

Locklear was homeschooled until 11th grade.^[2] She is Native American, a member of the Lumbee Tribe.^[3]

Early career

At a young age, Locklear watched her older sister's gymnastics lessons and began imitating her.^[3] She also cited watching the 2000 Olympics on television as an inspiration to begin competing.^[3] She began her gymnastics career in trampolining, but later switched to artistic gymnastics.

Locklear's first championship was a state-level trampoline and tumbling title she earned at age 5. After that, she went to KPAC gym in Lake Norman (owned by Kristy Phillips) for a while.^[3] When she was 11, 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)^[1] and his wife, Yiwen Chen. Because of the distance between Huntersville and Locklear's hometown of Hamlet, her family maintains a second household near the gym.^[3]

Locklear suffered a stress fracture in her back in 2013, which limited her to conditioning for approximately four months and forced her to stop competing on the floor exercise and vault.^[1]

Senior career

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.^[4] 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.^[5] 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.^[6]

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.^[7] Locklear also won the gold medal on the uneven bars with a score of 14.975.^[8]

On September 17, Locklear was selected to compete at the 2014 World Championships in Nanning, China.^[9] She helped the team to a gold medal^[10] 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 a 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 balance beam with a total score of 26.700. A week after the competition, Locklear was named to the senior national team and was invited to the 2015 Worlds selection camp.^[11]

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.^[12] She later changed her Twitter biography, too.^[13][14] Almost a month later, on October 2, 2015, she confirmed on her personal Ask.fm account that she had decided to forgo NCAA eligibility.^[15]

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.^[16] Locklear was named to the 2016 U.S. National Team and qualified for the Olympic Trials in San Jose, California.^[17]

At the 2016 Olympic Trials, Locklear fell on the beam on 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.^[18]

Competitive history

Year	Event	Team	AA	VT	UB	BB	FX
2013	Nastia Liukin Cup		7
2014	U.S. Classic				01 !	4
	U.S. Championships				01 !	8
	Pan American Championships	01 !			01 !
	World Championships	01 !			4
2015	U.S. Championships				02 !	13
2016	City of Jesolo Trophy	01 !			01 !
	Pacific Rim Championships	01 !			01 !
	U.S. Classic				01 !	4
	U.S. Championships				01 !	8
	U.S. Olympic Trials				02 !	13
	U.S. Olympic Team					Alternate

Year	Competition Description	Location	Apparatus	Rank-Final	Score-Final	Rank-Qualifying	Score-Qualifying
2014	World Championships	Nanning	Team	01 !	179.280	1	235.038
			Uneven Bars	4	15.266	4	15.233

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
2014:  United States (USA), Alyssa Baumann, Simone Biles, Madison Desch, Madison Kocian, Ashton Locklear, Kyla Ross, 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