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SHAYLA WORLEY
Official website: www.shaylaworley.com
Shayla Worley (born September 2, 1990 in Orlando, Florida) is an American gymnast and a World
Champion. Her most prominent accomplishment is winning a team gold medal at the 2007 World Championships, where she
finished seventh All-Around in the preliminaries.
She has been training at Orlando Metro Gymnastics since she was a Level 6. She is coached by Jeff Wood and Christi Barineau.
Shayla competed Level 9 in 2001. She placed first all-around at the Florida State Championships. Her final meet of the season
was the Level 9 Eastern Championships. This is the highest meet a Level 9 can advance to. She placed second all-around.
Shayla finished off the junior Olympic levels by placing second all-around at the 2002 Level 10 Florida State Championships.
In 2002, Shayla became a junior national elite. This level is one below the elite level. Today, it is referred to as
pre-elite. She won the all-around title at the American Challenge. Shayla also placed well at the U.S. Challenge.
She advanced to junior international elite in 2003. At the U.S. Classic, Shayla placed high enough to qualify to the
U.S. National Championships. A few weeks later, she dazzled the crowd and the judges at the US National Championships.
She finished fourth all-around. This also placed her the US National Gymnastics Team.
Shayla continued on competing as an elite in 2004. She helped the USA win in a dual meet against Japan. At the American
Classic, she finished fourth all-around. Shayla qualified to the U.S. National Championships. A few weeks later, she was named
to the Pacific Alliance Team. At the Pacific Alliance Championships she finished fourth all-around. She also competed at the
U.S. Classic, where she placed second all-around. She finished second all-around. In the fall, she won the all-around at the
USA versus Canada meet. She was named to the Junior Pan Am Games team. Unfortunately, she could not compete because of a
back injury.
Shayla's final year as a junior was in 2005. She started off her season at the International Tri Meet. The USA won
the competition. She also went on the European tour which included meets against lower ranked Great Britain and Switzerland.
The USA won both. Her next competition was the US Classic. A potential winner, she finished fourth all-around after falling
on floor. The next month at US Nationals, a fall on bars kept her down in the standings on day one. She battled back and
tallied the highest all-around score on day two, eventually finishing third overall behind Natasha Kelley. In her final
meet of the season, the Massilia Cup, Shayla only competed on bars. She finished second.
Shayla turned senior in 2006, and her first senior outing was the Tyson American Cup where she finished second all-around
behind reigning national champion Nastia Liukin. Her next competition was the Pacific
Alliance Championships. Shayla finished second on bars, the highest placed American, and also helped the US to the team title.
Injury prevented Shayla 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 US team for the World Championships in Aarhus, but
it was not to be. There was no further competition in 2006 as Shayla rehabbed her injury.
However, she was ready in time for the 2007 American Cup. A fall on her bars dismount meant she narrowly missed
qualifying for finals; she would have done so easily without this error. Shayla was also selected to the Britain vs. USA dual
match held in Lisburn on St. Patrick's Day 2007. There were no errors this time and in the absence of world numbers
1 and 2 Beth Tweddle and Nastia Liukin,
she took the bars title. After the VISA Championships, in which she finished runner-up to
Shawn Johnson, she was selected to represent the USA in the World Championships
in Stuttgart, Germany.
At the World Championships, Worley and Team USA finished first overall, four points ahead of the nearest team.
Worley herself qualified 8th overall for the all-around competition, but because of rules permitting only two competitors
per country, she was discluded as Liukin and Johnson qualified ahead of her. Worley also finished in the top 8 on balance
beam, but the two-athlete rule again caused her elimination from the event final. During the team finals, Worley competed
on bars and floor earning 15.575 and 14.675 respectively. The scores contributed to the U.S. total of 184.400, which
earned the gold medal.
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