Pan American Games 2015

The 2011 Pan Am Team: Where Are They Now?

The 2011 Pan Am Team: Where Are They Now?

Jun 22, 2015 by Justine Kelly
The 2011 Pan Am Team: Where Are They Now?
The Pan American Games is a multi-sport competition held every four years in the year before the Olympics, featuring a variety of summer sports, including gymnastics (both artistic and rhythmic). This year, the competition will take place from July 10-26 in Toronto, Canada, with the Women’s Artistic Gymnastics portion taking place July 12-15.

In the past, USA has sent their top gymnasts to this competition. In 2007, three members of the future 2008 Olympic team competed - Nastia Liukin, Shawn Johnson and Samantha Peszek. Adding Ivana Hong into the mix, four of the Pan Am competitors also competed at the 2007 World Championships.

The USA changed their strategy a bit at the last Pan Am Games in 2011, held in Guadalajara, Mexico. In this year, the Pan Am Games fell straight after the World Championships, and so it would have been difficult to have the same gymnasts competing at both. The Pan Am team that year was made up of Shawn Johnson, Bridgette Caquatto, Jessie DeZiel, Brandie Jay, Grace McLaughlin, and Bridget Sloan. Together, this team captured the gold medal, however none of these gymnasts went on to the Olympics in 2012.

Let’s take a look at the competitors at the 2011 Pan Am Games, summarize how their competition went and where they went from there in the gymnastics world.



Shawn Johnson

Following surgery on her ACL, Johnson made a comeback to gymnastics during the latter half of 2010, and she was added back to the national team in early 2011. Although she was named as a non-traveling alternate for the Worlds team that year, it wasn’t until the Pan Am Games that she competed again for the first time. In the team final, Johnson competed on vault, bars and beam. Her double twisting Yurchenko on vault contributed a lot to the team score with a 14.925. Her beam score, a low 12.875 due to two falls during her routine, was dropped. She scored a respectable 14.40 on bars, which included her tough double twisting double layout dismount.

Johnson ended up announcing her retirement from gymnastics in early June 2012, just before the Olympic Trials.


Bridgette Caquatto

The Pan Am Games was Caquatto’s first international competition as a senior. She had a very successful competition, capturing the gold medal in the all-around as well as the gold medal on the uneven bars. Her best event in the team competition was on uneven bars, where she contributed the highest bars score for the USA with a 14.625. Caquatto posted her highest scores during the all-around competition, with bars again being her best event.

Caquatto joined the University of Florida’s gymnastics team as a freshman competitor in 2013, where she has continued to excel on bars, posting her career best of 9.95 six times. Caquatto will be a senior next year for the Gators.



Jessie DeZiel

DeZiel was named to the senior national team in 2011, and the Pan Am Games was her first international competition. DeZiel competed on vault, beam and floor for the team, and contributed the highest score from the entire team (and throughout the entire competition) on her vault - a 15.125 on her double twisting Yurchenko. Her scores on beam and floor were also the highest for the entire team - a 13.275 and 13.150, respectively.

DeZiel went on to compete for the University of Nebraska the following year, where she earned multiple awards and honors. Vault continued to be her best event, and she posted her career high of 9.975 four times. She closed out her career at Nebraska this past year with a regional vault title, First-Team All American in the all-around, and Second-Team All-American on vault.


Brandie Jay

Like DeZiel, Jay was also named to the senior national team in 2011, and the Pan Am Games was her first international competition. Jay competed on all four events in the team final, with all of her scores counting. Her best event was the vault, where she contributed a 14.925 on her double twisting Yurchenko. Jay also won the gold medal in the vault final and placed 6th in the all-around final.

In 2012, Jay continued competing in elite gymnastics, placing in 6th place at the Secret Classic, just behind Elizabeth Price. At Nationals, she placed 16th and so did not proceed on to the Olympic Trials. She started her freshman year at the University of Georgia in 2013, where she has been a consistent performer on vault, uneven bars and floor exercise.


Grace McLaughlin

McLaughlin’s first international competition was the Pan Am Games, having been named to the senior national team earlier that year. She competed all four events for the team final, however her bars and floor scores were dropped as the lowest scores. Her best event was vault, where she scored a 14.225 on her 1 ½ twisting Yurchenko.

McLaughlin, who trained at WOGA, went on to compete at the Secret Classic the next year, placing 11th in the all-around. She missed the Olympic Trials after placing 13th at Nationals, but continued to train elite into 2013, where she notably placed 8th on uneven bars at the Secret Classic. McLaughlin started her collegiate career at Florida this past year, where she competed on balance beam for the team.



Bridget Sloan

Despite various injuries here and there in the years following the 2008 Olympics, Sloan did not take much of a break from gymnastics, the highlight being her 2009 World Championship title. She had a surgery on her bicep in 2011, causing her to sit out for most of the season, so the Pan Am Games was her first return back since the previous year. Sloan competed on only uneven bars and floor exercise for the team, with both of her scores counting toward the team total.

Sloan’s next elite performance did not come until Nationals in 2012, when she placed in an impressive 10th place after two days of competition. Most significant was her bars scores - a 15.10 on Day 1 and 14.95 on Day 2. Although Sloan was selected to compete at the Olympic Trials, she unfortunately sustained an elbow injury during bars warm-up and had to withdraw.

The following year, Sloan started her collegiate career at the University of Florida, where she competes all-around. She captured her first NCAA all-around title as a freshman that year, in addition to leading the Gators to their first NCAA Championship title. 


Related:
USAG Announces Pan American Games Squad