2017 City of Jesolo Trophy

Four U.S. Gymnasts To Make International Debuts At Jesolo 2017

Four U.S. Gymnasts To Make International Debuts At Jesolo 2017

Check out the four gymnasts who will make their international debuts this weekend at the City of Jesolo Trophy meet in Italy.

Mar 29, 2017 by Lauren Green
Four U.S. Gymnasts To Make International Debuts At Jesolo 2017
The 2017 City of Jesolo Trophy kicks off Saturday, April 1, in Jesolo, Italy, and is being streamed live on FloGymnastics. The U.S. women are bringing a total of 12 athletes--seven seniors and five juniors--to the competition. Of the seniors, only Ashton Locklear has experience on the senior international stage before this season, and Team USA will be looking to her to be a leader.

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Riley McCusker and Morgan Hurd made their senior debuts earlier this spring. McCusker had a rough outing at the American Cup earlier in the month, while Hurd brought home bronze on March 18 at the Stuttgart World Cup.

Trinity Thomas and Victoria Nguyen are both making their senior international debuts. Thomas was a member of last year's junior squad at Jesolo, while Nguyen made her junior international debut at Jesolo in 2015. Nguyen missed the national championships last year, but she's shown great potential in the past, particularly on balance beam.

On the junior side, Maile O'Keefe, Emma Malabuyo and Gabby Perea competed earlier in the month at International Gymnix in Montreal, where all three brought home individual and team hardware.

Four athletes will make their international debuts in Italy: Abby Paulson and Alyona Shchennikova on the senior side and Adeline Kenlin and Olivia Dunne on the junior side.

Shchennikova finished 17th at last year's junior nationals but shows good potential on all four events. The biggest area that she can improve on would be the small details--pointing her toes, making sure she hits her splits at 180, and hitting her handstands. But she does have plenty of potential. Her floor routine in particular has great skills, including a big double front tuck to open her exercise.

(Video courtesy of USA Gymnastics)

She isn't the first Shchennikova to spend time on the national team--her older sister, Polina, now a freshman at Michigan, spent two years on the junior national team. Alyona Shchennikova will do something that her big sister did not do--represent the U.S. women on the senior stage.

Aside from Locklear, Paulson is the only other member of the senior squad who competed at the senior level last year. She trains at Twin City Twisters, the same gym that produced Maggie Nichols. Paulson finished 19th in the all-around at her first senior nationals.

Paulson has a beautiful style on floor exercise and shows great flexibility in her leaps and jumps. She doesn't have huge difficulty, but her opening triple twist was great on day two at her first senior nationals. She closed with a gorgeous, high double tuck.

(​Video courtesy of USA Gymnastics)

She will be interesting to watch at Jesolo, because unlike most of her teammates, she does have that whole year of experience on the senior stage even if she didn't necessarily have the international experience.

Kenlin makes her international debut after tying for fourth on the uneven bars at last year's junior nationals. She has beautiful lines and good form on bars that will just keep getting better with experience. We took a visit last fall to her gym, Iowa GymNest, and got an inside look at some of her impressive new skills.

(Video courtesy of USA Gymnastics)

Dunne is also making her international debut on the junior scene. She is fantastic on floor exercise and opened her routine last year with a huge double layout in her first pass and a piked full-in in her second pass. She has good positions on all of her landings as well.

(Video courtesy of USA Gymnastics)  

Dunne was the youngest competitor training as a junior elite back in 2014 when she was just 11. She's shown poise to compete against athletes much older than her early on as a junior.

Stay tuned to see these gymnasts take center stage in Jesolo! EVENT HUB

How To Watch

Video coverage from the 2017 City of Jesolo Trophy will be available to all FloPRO members. FloPRO members also have access to our other live events and archived videos, original FloFilm documentaries, and technique and training videos.

ON TV: Now available on Roku and Apple TV 4
STREAMING: Available on FloGymnastics.com
Must be a FloPRO subscriber: $19.97 monthly or $147 yearly. A yearly FloPRO subscription provides access to ALL FloSports sites. SIGN UP HERE.

Archived Competition Footage

During the week and weekend, archived videos will be stored in a video library for FloPRO subscribers to watch for the duration of their subscription. Note: archived videos of floor routines will not have audio due to music rights.

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