Madison Kocian

At 26 years old, Madison Kocian has this physical status:

Madison Taylor Kocian (born June 15, 1997) is an American artistic gymnast.

She is one of four world champions and a 2016 Olympic silver medalist on the uneven bars.

She was a member of the first-place American teams in Rio de Janeiro's 2014 and 2015 World Artistic Gymnastics Championships, being a member of the gold medal-winning team nicknamed the "Final Five" at the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro.

She has been attending the University of California, Los Angeles, where she is a member of the NCAA women's gymnastics team as of 2016.

Personal life

Kocian was born and raised in Dallas, Texas. Thomas and Cindy Kocian, her parents, introduced her to gymnastics at a young age. Kocian's parents started taking her gymnastics training at age 5 in Plano, Texas. WOGA is owned by Valeri Liukin and was the gym where Olympic All Around champions Carly Patterson and Nastia Liukin trained. Patterson and Liukin were among Kocian's early inspirations, particularly Liukin, who Kocian has likened to an older sister. Kocian has just one younger brother. She was raised Catholic.

Kocian attended Spring Creek Academy in Plano, Texas, the same school that Patterson and Liukin attended. She graduated from high school in 2015. In the fall of 2016, she committed to UCLA, Los Angeles (UCLA) and competed for UCLA women's gymnastics.

On August 16, 2018, Kocian emerged as a survivor of Larry Nassar's sexual assault alongside UCLA teammate Kyla Ross.

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Junior career

Kocian was born in the United States. In 2009, she was a member of the Junior National Team, when she was 12 years old. She finished sixth in the all-around at the National Championships. Kocian was chosen to represent Team USA in Charleroi, Belgium, later this year. She received a bronze medal in the all-around competition, as well as a silver on the balance beam.

Kocian placed fifth at the U.S. National Championships in Chicago in 2010 and qualified to compete in the national Championships in Hartford, Connecticut, where she earned a bronze medal on uneven bars.

In 2011, Kocian competed in just two matches, the WOGA Classic and City of Jesolo Trophy, an international meet held in Venice, Italy. She won the gold in the Junior Division in Italy, scoring 57.750 points. Kocian missed the 2012 season due to an injury but he did win a silver medal at the WOGA Classic.

Senior career

Kocian's senior career began in 2013 at the Secret U.S Classic in Hoffman Estates, Illinois, where she finished 7th all-around and earned a silver on the bars, scoring 14.450. Kocian started off solid on the uneven bars and balance beam, but she was forced to leave the sport after her third attempt on the floor, missing the vault rotation as well as Day Two. She wasn't selected for the World Championship team, but the National Team was still selected.

She began her 2014 season by competing in the WOGA Classic, an International match hosted by her club.

At the 2014 Secret U.S. Classic, Kocian appeared in two events, bars and beam, placing second on bars and 12th overall.

She competed on balance beam and uneven bars at nationals. On bars, she received the silver. On beam, she ranked 5th.

Kocian competed at the Pan American Championships in Mississauga, Ontario, Canada, in August and September. She was instrumental in the United States' first-place team's team placing first in the team competition. She came in second place on the uneven bars in the event's finals, scoring 14.825.

Kocian was selected to compete at the 2014 World Championships in Nanning, China, on September 17. She competed in qualifications and finished in 14th place with a score of 56.66, but did not make it to the all-around final due to the two-per-country rule and Simone Biles, Kyla Ross, and Mykayla Skinner's high scores. She competed in the bars' team final and earned a 14.900 points to the US team's gold-medal team.

Kocian competed at the Secret U.S. Classic on July 25 and finished first on uneven bars, against Olympic all-around champion and uneven bars finalist Gabby Douglas and Bailie Key. She also scored a 13.850 on balance beam, despite a shaky routine with several wobbles.

Kocian competed in the 2015 P&G Championships, where she broke her ankle for the first time since 2013. She came in sixth place in the all-around with a two-night total of 115.950, behind Simone Biles, Maggie Nichols, Aly Raisman, Bailie Key, and Gabby Douglas. She put herself ahead of her WOGA coworker Alyssa Baumann and 2014 Worlds colleague Mykayla Skinner by 0.250 points.

Kocian launched on beam where she crashed on her Arabian and had a shaky routine and got a 13.100. On the ground, she had a poor landing on her double Arabian, but she had a shaky landing, but she had a double pike. She had a 13.800 start value at 5.6 percent. She landed her double-twisting Yurchenko on the vault and scored a 14.650. She had beautiful lines and execution on bars, her best performance, which culminated in her scoring of 15.500, the highest bar score of the night, with a Komova II-Pak Salto-Chow 1/2 connection and landed her tucked full in for a score of 15.500. She finished the night in 11th place with a total all-around score of 57.050.

Kocian began on night 2 on the floor, where she had better landings on her tumbling passes for a score of 14.250, putting her overall score to 28.050, placing 8th on the event. On vault, she produced a well-executed double-twisting Yurchenko and scored a 14.800. She resumed her arduous habits in jail with strong ties and stowed her tuck-full in dismount for a score of 15.600. With a total of 31.100, she came first on the tournament, ahead of 2014 national uneven bars champion and 2014 Worlds teammate Ashton Locklear and Key. She pulled out her Arabian on beam because she was on the wrong equipment on Night 1 and tweaked her ankle. To keep her start rate steady, she made a few connections. She received a 14.250 rating. With a total of 27.350, she came 12th in the event.

Kocian was named to the Senior National Team once more and was chosen to represent Glasgow, Scotland, at the 2015 World Championships. She anchored the United States on uneven bars towards its third straight national championship and placed third in the uneven bars final at the World Championships.

She scored 15.366 in the uneven bars final, placing her in a historic four-way tie for the gold medal with Russians Viktoria Komova and Daria Spiridonova, as well as China's Fan Yilin. Shannon Miller (1978), Shannon Miller (1993), Courtney Kuhl (2003), Chellsie Memmel and Vise (2003), and Nastia Liukin (2005) as the American world champions on uneven bars. She also became the third uneven bars world champion from her gym, WOGA, by joining Vise and Liukin.

Kocian competed on the balance beam and uneven bars at the WOGA Classic in February and finished first on both events with scores of 15.550 and 15.700, respectively. As part of the WOGA team, she came in first.

In March, Kocian, along with fellow National Team members Simone Biles, Gabby Douglas, Maggie Nichols, and Aly Raisman attended the Team USA Media Summit in Los Angeles, an opportunity for the media to talk and interact with athletes who will compete at the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro. Kocian was on crutches and carrying a cast and revealed to reporters that she suffered a fractured tibia that would likely put her out of contention for the 2016 City of Jesolo Trophy and the 2016 Pacific Rim Championships teams. She recovered in time for the 2016 Olympic Team Trials and the P&G Gymnastics Championships in the United States.

Kocian was named to the United States team for the 2016 Olympics alongside Biles, Douglas, Raisman, and Laurie Hernandez on July 10, 2016.

2016 Rio de Janeiro Olympics

Kocian qualified in the women's qualification round at the 2016 Summer Olympics on August 7, 2016 – no. 7. She appeared in all events in podium preparation, but only on the uneven bars, scoring a 15.833. Her result was the highest on record at the time, and she earned her first place in the individual uneven bars final. The team also qualified the United States for the team's first appearance in the team's final. Kocian returned to the team final on August 9, competing on the uneven bars, anchoring team USA on the occasion. She earned the team's second consecutive team gold at an Olympic games by a 15.933 (tying for the highest mark in any event). This was the first time a US team won two consecutive team golds in a row.

Kocian claimed a silver medal in the uneven bars event final on August 14, scoring 15.833 and placing second behind Aliya Mustafina of Russia and Germany's bronze medalist Sophie Scheder. This is the first American Olympic medal on uneven bars since Nastia Liukin in 2008. In addition, she is the third gymnast from WOGA to become an Olympic champion after 2004 and 2008 Olympic all around champions Carly Patterson and Nastia Liukin.

College career

Kocian began training at the University of California, Los Angeles, in fall 2016 and joined the UCLA Bruins gymnastics team. She made her collegiate debut on January 7, 2017, defeating the University of Arkansas, where she won three individual event titles and a personal record of 39.425 to win the all-around title. Kyla Ross, the 2012 Olympic gold medalist, was also at the meet, where the two became the first Olympic gold medalists to compete as NCAA gymnasts. In a dual meet against Stanford in February 2017, she scored a perfect 10.0 on the uneven bars.

In the All-Around and second-team awards on Floor Exercises on March 27, 2017, Kocian earned first-team All-American recognition in the All-Around and second-team divisions. She helped UCLA finish fourth in the Super Six at the 2017 NCAA National Championship, where she finished 7th in the All-Around.

Kocian underwent surgery on August 21, 2017 to repair her torn labrum, an injury she hadn't suffered with since the 2016 Olympic Trials. She returned to NCAA action on January 20, 2018, defeating Arizona in a dual meet for the sole balance beam. She returned floor exercises to her repertoire on February 25 in a dual meet against Oregon State, and on uneven bars for the first time since her injury at the NCAA Regional Championship on April 7.

With three routines, she helped UCLA place first in the semi-finals at the 2018 NCAA National Championships. She was on the balance beam in the Super Six finals, but UCLA won their first NCAA Gymnastics championship since 2010.

In a meet against Arizona State on January 21, Kocian earned her second straight 10 on uneven bars. She has received many coveted awards throughout the season, including Pac-12 First Team recognition on uneven bars, and was selected to the Pac-12 All-Academic team with a 3.81 GPA.

With shoulder pain, Kocian was unable to function for the first few weeks of the 2020 season. Kocian returned to action at the BYU, Utah State tri-meet, where she competed on both bars and floor.

In March Kocian was named the Pac-12 Conference scholar-athlete of the year for the sport of gymnastics. Kocian was named UCLA scholar-athlete of the year after the school year, as well as cross country athlete Millen Trujillo. In addition, Darnay Holmes was named as a recipient of the Bruins' Tom Hansen Medal.

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