Henderson gymnast, 15, wins consecutive junior titles
Henderson gymnast Maile O’Keefe, 15, took first place for the second straight year at the P&G Gymnastics Championships in Anaheim, California, in August. Selena Harris, 13, also of Henderson, finished 17th among 30 competitors.
O’Keefe, a junior member of the USA Gymnastics women’s national team who trains at Salcianu Elite Academy of Gymnastics, had two of the five highest scores in international gymnastics in 2017, according to P&G’s website.
Gymnasts ages 11-15 can qualify for junior elite status by scoring high enough at regional or national meets; they can become senior elite after turning 16 through a similar scoring process.
O’Keefe became a junior elite at 11 and has participated in four straight P&G championships. She plans to compete in the senior division next year, and coach Tammy Salcianu wants to help O’Keefe achieve her goal of competing in the 2020 Olympics in Tokyo.
O’Keefe traveled to Japan for the International Junior Gymnastics Competition, held from Sept. 17-19, with two other members of the U.S. junior national team. She uses meets like this as training for the Olympics, she said, to help her acclimate to the time change after a lengthy flight. In 2017, O’Keefe also has competed in Jesolo, Italy, and Montreal.
Harris, who trains at Gymcats, qualified for the P&G event “on a whim,” coach Cassie Rice said.
Harris was sidelined most of June with a back injury. She decided last-minute to participate in a qualifier in late July.
“She was the last kid to squeak into that meet and make it to P&Gs, so we were just hoping at P&Gs she wouldn’t be dead last,” Rice said. “So we were thrilled with the finish in the middle there.”
For Harris, who qualified for junior elite status in February, the experience was a new one.
“Everything was just higher and bigger and way brighter than some of the meets that we go to,” Harris said. “I was happy I made it; I was just surprised because I’ve been hurt for a while and I wasn’t training so hard.”
Rice said she had concerns that the “elite world” may have been too much for Harris, initially.
“We just thought, under the pressure, when you’re in that elite world, it’s a whole new game and a lot of kids just can’t handle it,” Rice said. “For her to come in the middle of the pack at P&Gs was quite shocking to us.”
Although O’Keefe and Harris train at gyms about 3 miles from each other, they hadn’t met before this year. During the P&G event, O’Keefe invited Harris to join her among a group of friends, Harris said.
O’Keefe, Harris said, has been an inspiration for her.
“I would see her, and she was really good. I wanted to be like her,” Harris said. “I’d watch her on YouTube and I was like, ‘Mom, I want to compete like her.’ She was probably the biggest one, next to Gabby Douglas and the rest of them because she lived here.”
Harris plans to push herself harder in the coming year, she said, using O’Keefe as motivation.
“I promised myself I would work a little harder if I want to be big like Maile …” Harris said. “I just want to be the best me I can be.”
Contact Diego Mendoza-Moyers at dmendozamoyers@reviewjournal.comor call 702-383-0496. Follow @dmendozamoyers on Twitter.
