MCSMaria's Artistic Gymnastics Blog

Nationals are almost here! As USA Gymnastics so blatantly put it, it's like Christmastime for gymnastics fans. Two years out from the Olympics and the competition is just getting more fierce. This year, the world championships will have a team competition so there will be more places to compete for. So who is in and who is out? Who will prosper and who will falter? The Seniors:

Elite season is full force in the US, with the upcoming Secret Classic and the P&G Championships. USA Gymnastics has released the roster for the athletes competing at the upcoming Secret Classic, which  serves as the final qualifier for the P&G National Championships (Aug. 21-24), which will determine the national team and serve as a qualifying step to USA's worlds team.

Young Norah Flately is the beam prodigy for 2016. The little beam phenom is already one of the best beam workers in the US, even if she's only a junior.

Elizabeth "Ebee" Price is continuing her awesome year with another win at the Pacific Rim Championships. Make that two wins. In addition to taking home the all-around title, she and Team USA took the team gold medal

A partial clip of Norah Flately's gold medal winning beam routine from Jesolo has surfaced.

After dealing with an injury that kept her out of the American Cup (and gym switching adventures), 2013 World Champion is competing for the first time this year at the Pacific Rim Championships.

The latest news coming from the City of Jesolo Trophy is young Bailie Key once again was the triumphant leader.

Following the conclusion of last week's training camp, USA Gymnastics has named the teams going to the City of Jesolo Trophy this weekend.

Okay, I'm back with a new junior to watch after taking a break to focus on Worlds. This junior to be watched is Norah Flatley of Chow's. Age: 13 Date of Birth: March 10, 2000 Club: Chow's Gymnastics and Dance Residence: Cummings, Iowa, United States Norah Flatley is the perfect age for Rio. Born in the year 2000, she will be 16 in 2016, the year of the Rio olympics. Norah was recently featured on the Gymnastike series "Beyond the Routine" where Chow's gym was featured. The eight grader was born in sunny San Diego, California but lived in Wisconsin before she moved to Iowa with her family to train with the legendary Liang Chow, who took Shawn Johnson and Gabby Douglas and molded them into Olympic champions. Before her elite debut, Norah had been quietly making waves as a level 10 in the Junior Olympic program, winning two national titles on balance beam in 2010 & 2011.

 The juniors are taking over the world one back-handspring layout step out at a time and Bailie Key is their leader. Bailie won the all-around title with a total of 118.55 after a stellar performance on the balance beam. Bailie, who trains at Texas Dreams under 1991 World Champion, Kim Zmeskal, also won the junior division of the Secret Classic a couple weeks earlier.