A Super Brief Preview of the Juniors at P&G Championships

Here’s a brief, last minute preview of the junior competition of the P&G Championships. There’s still quite a large field of juniors (see the roster), but it’s still less than the what felt like hundreds of them at Classics.

Here’s a few names to follow –

Emma Malabuyo – Emma won the junior all-around title at Classics, and she also had the highest all-around total of anyone at the competition, juniors and seniors. So basically, she just owns everybody and she’s the queen no questions asked. She’s super clean, has beautiful toe point.




Maile O’Keefe – as the reigning junior national champ, she’s going to be looking to keep that title. On beam, she has an impressive side aerial to two layout step-outs on beam.




Gabby Perea – bars ninja from Legacy Elite. Is so fabulous on bars that she won the junior bars title at Classics with only a layout dismount. Because she’s awesome and since the content of her routine is so packed, she didn’t need to do a ridiculously hard dismount, since she is coming back from injury.




Jay Jay Marshall – little Jay Jay came out on the day of the US Classic and was like "here I am!" She showed up with Aliya Mustafina’s floor music from 2013 and had huge tumbling: a double double and notably, a Dos Santos that has been compared to Kennedy Baker’s. Oh yeah and at one point, she was training an Amanar at 11 (or 12, I can’t remember).




Annie Beard – another fabulous floor worker, whom like Sydney Johnson Scharpf and Laurie Hernandez, actually performs and puts on a show.




Leanne Wong – part of the second coming of GAGE and Al Fong, but no black gloves. She’s a really pretty gymnast, having those long GAGE lines, extension and toe point.