Kayla DiCello

Kayla DiCello (/diˈsɛloʊ/ or /diˈtʃɛloʊ/ di-SELL-o or di-CHELL-o)[2] (born January 25, 2004)[3] is an American artistic gymnast and part of the United States women's national gymnastics team. She is the 2019 Junior World Champion on vault and the 2019 U.S. Junior National Champion.

Kayla DiCello
DiCello at the 2019 Junior World Championships
Personal information
Full name	Kayla DiCello
Country represented	United States
Born	January 25, 2004
Hometown	Boyds, Maryland, USA
Discipline	Women's artistic gymnastics
Level	Senior International Elite
Years on national team	2018 – Present (US)
Club	Hills Gymnastics
College team	Florida Gators[1]
Head coach(es)	Kelli Hill
Medal record Representing the  United States FIG World Cup 2020 Milwaukee All-Around Junior World Championships 2019 Győr Vault 2019 Győr Team 2019 Győr Balance Beam Pacific Rim Championships (Junior) 2018 Medellín Team 2018 Medellín Vault 2018 Medellín Uneven Bars 2018 Medellín All-Around

Personal life

DiCello was born to Matt and Kecia DiCello in 2004, and has three siblings, two sisters named Karleigh and Kyra and a brother named Hunter. She began gymnastics when she was two.[3]

Gymnastics career

2016 - 2017

DiCello was a HOPES gymnast in 2016 and became junior elite in 2017 after qualifying at the Brestyan’s National Qualifier.[4]

2018

DiCello was officially added to the junior national team after she was named to the team to compete at the 2018 Pacific Rim Gymnastics Championships.[5] There she won gold in the team, vault, and uneven bars and silver in the all-around behind Jordan Bowers. She finished 4th on balance beam.[6] In early July, DiCello competed at the American Classic where she finished first in the all-around with a score of 55.400, posting the highest score of the competition amongst both juniors and seniors. She also finished first on vault and balance beam, second on floor, and third on uneven bars.[7] On July 28, DiCello competed at the 2018 U.S. Classic where she finished second behind Leanne Wong after falling off the balance beam.[8]

With her placements at these three competitions, DiCello entered the August 2018 U.S. National Championships in Boston as one of the favorites for the Junior national title along with Wong, Bowers, and Sunisa Lee. After two days of competition in which she tallied an impressive score of 111.200, DiCello won the silver medal in the all-around competition, once again behind Wong.[9] She performed well on both days of the competition and was the only junior gymnast to score in the top four on all four individual events: fourth on balance beam, third on uneven bars and floor exercise, and first on vault, where she stuck her double-twisting Yurchenko vault on the second day of competition to edge out Wong, the defending champion on the event.[10] After her performance, she was once again named to the national team.[11]

In November, DiCello announced that she had verbally committed to attend the University of Florida on a gymnastics scholarship.[12]

2019

DiCello at the 2019 Junior World Championships

DiCello competed at the WOGA Classic in early February. She won the Junior All-Around title with a score of 55.700, outscoring the senior field as well.[13] Later that month DiCello was named to the team to compete at the 2019 City of Jesolo Trophy.[14] While there she sustained a calf injury and was only able to compete on uneven bars.[15] During team finals, she helped the USA win silver behind Russia.[16]

DiCello at the 2019 Junior World Championships

In June DiCello competed at the Junior World Championship Trials. She placed second behind Skye Blakely and was named to the team to compete at the 2019 Junior World Championships alongside Blakely and Sydney Barros.[17] Together the team won bronze, finishing behind Russia and China. Individually she finished fourth in the all-around behind Russians Viktoria Listunova and Vladislava Urazova and Ou Yushan of China. She was the only competitor that qualified to all four event finals.[18] On the first day of event finals DiCello won gold on vault, finishing ahead of competitors Jennifer Gadirova of Great Britain and Urazova[19] and finished sixth on uneven bars.[20] On the second day of event finals she won bronze on balance beam behind Elena Gerasimova of Russia and Wei Xiaoyuan of China and placed seventh on floor exercise.[21]

In July DiCello competed at the U.S. Classic where uncharacteristic falls on the balance beam and floor exercise resulted in an eleventh place finish in the all-around. She won bronze on uneven bars behind Olivia Greaves and Sydney Morris and placed seventh on vault.[22]

In August DiCello competed at the U.S. National Championships. After the first day of competition she recorded a score of 56.000 and was in second behind Konnor McClain.[23] During the second day of competition scored a 56.700, giving her a total combined score of 112.700 which was enough to win the gold in the all-around by one tenth over silver medalist McClain. This score would have placed her third all-around in the senior competition. Additionally DiCello won gold on vault and floor exercise, bronze on uneven bars behind Olivia Greaves and McClain, and placed fourth on balance beam behind McClain, Ciena Alipio, and Skye Blakely. At this competition, DiCello increased her floor difficulty by debuting a full-twisting double layout, or Chusovitina as her first tumbling pass.

2020

In January it was announced that DiCello would make her senior debut at the American Cup, taking place on March 7.[24] She finished in second place behind compatriot Morgan Hurd, with a score of 55.132 in the all-around.[25] She posted the second highest score on vault behind Great Britain’s Jennifer Gadirova and the third highest on floor behind Gadirova and Hurd.

Selected competitive skills

Apparatus	Name	Description	Difficulty	Performed
Vault	Baitova	Yurchenko entry, laid out salto backwards with two twists	5.4	2020
Uneven Bars	Piked Jaeger	Reverse grip swing to piked salto forwards to catch high bar	E	2020
Balance Beam	Mitchell	1080° (3/1) turn in tuck stand on one leg	E	2020
Floor Exercise	Mitchell	1080° (3/1) turn in tuck stand on one leg	E	2020
	Chusovitina	Full-twisting (1/1) double laid out salto backwards	H	2020

1. ^ Valid for the 2017-2020 Code of Points

Competitive history

Junior

Year	Event	Team	AA	VT	UB	BB	FX
2016	Hopes Championships		4	6
2017	Brestyan’s National Qualifier
	International Gymnix		5		6
	American Classic		5	12	16	4	4
	U.S. Classic		26	19	29	21	15
	P&G National Championships		13	12	7	28	10
2018	WOGA Classic
	International Gymnix		4		6		8
	Pacific Rim Championships					4
	American Classic
	U.S. Classic					28
	U.S. National Championships					4
2019	WOGA Classic
	City of Jesolo Trophy
	Jr. World Championships Trials
	Junior World Championships		4		6		7
	U.S. Classic		11	7		34	21
	U.S. National Championships					4

Senior

Year	Event	Team	AA	VT	UB	BB	FX
2020	American Cup

References

1. "Kayla DiCello on Instagram: "I am so excited to announce that I have a verbally committed to the University of Florida on a full athletic scholarship! Thank you to my…"". Instagram.
2. "US gymnasts focus on culture changes, goals for Olympic year". WTHR. January 24, 2020.
3. "Kayla DiCello". USA Gymnastics.
4. "20 U.S. Gymnasts Qualify to Classics". The Gymternet. February 16, 2017.
5. "USA Gymnastics names women's 2018 Pac Rim, Junior Pan Am Championships Teams". USA Gymnastics. April 10, 2018.
6. "USA brings home 29 medals from men's, women's individual event finals". USA Gymnastics. April 29, 2018.
7. "Jones, DiCello win all-around titles at 2018 American Classic today". USA Gymnastics. July 8, 2018.
8. "Biles, Wong win all-around titles at 2018 GK U.S. Classic". USA Gymnastics. July 28, 2018.
9. "2018 U.S. Championships Results, Recaps, Photos, Videos". USA Gymnastics. Retrieved 2018-09-02.
10. USA Gymnastics (2018-08-19), Kayla Di Cello - Vault – 2018 U.S. Gymnastics Championships – Junior Women Day 2, retrieved 2018-09-02
11. "USA Gymnastics | Women's Artistic Gymnastics National Team". usagym.org. Retrieved 2018-09-02.
12. "Around the Gymternet: Your ears you keep and I'll tell you why". The Gymternet. November 19, 2018.
13. @chalkwarrior (February 10, 2019). "Official 2019 #WOGAClassic elite session final results" (Tweet) – via Twitter.
14. "USA Gymnastics announces women's spring international team assignments". USA Gymnastics. February 24, 2019.
15. @FloGymnastics (March 2, 2019). "ICYMI: DiCello has a calf injury" (Tweet) – via Twitter.
16. "2019 City of Jesolo Trophy Live Blog – The Juniors". The Gymternet. March 2, 2019.
17. "USA Gymnastics names women's Junior World Championships Team". USA Gymnastics. June 14, 2019.
18. "U.S. women win team bronze at 2019 Junior World Championships". USA Gymnastics. June 28, 2019.
19. "DiCello wins vault gold at 2019 Junior World Championships". USA Gymnastics. June 29, 2019.
20. Lawrence, Blythe (June 29, 2019). "Kayla DiCello spins double-twisting Yurchenko into Junior World gold". USA Gymnastics.
21. "DiCello brings home beam bronze at 2019 Junior World Championships". USA Gymnastics. June 30, 2019.
22. "Biles, McClain win all-around titles at 2019 GK U.S. Classic". USA Gymnastics. July 20, 2019.
23. "Biles leads women's all-around at mid-point of 2019 U.S. Championships". USA Gymnastics. July 9, 2019.
24. "World, Olympic champions headline field for 2020 American Cup". USA Gymnastics. January 23, 2020.
25. "Hurd, Mikulak win American Cup titles". USA Gymnastics. March 7, 2020.

External links