Maile O'Keefe

Maile O'Keefe (/maɪli/ MY-lee) (born February 26, 2002)[1] is an American artistic gymnast. She was a member of the U.S. National Team and is the 2016 and 2017 U.S. Junior National Champion. She currently competes for the University of Utah's NCAA gymnastics team.

Maile O'Keefe
Full name	Maile Suzanne O'Keefe
Country represented	United States
Born	February 26, 2002 Las Vegas, Nevada, U.S.
Residence	Salt Lake City, Utah
Discipline	Women's artistic gymnastics
Level	Junior Elite (2013–17) Senior Elite (2018) Level 10 (2019) NCAA (2019–Present)
Years on national team	2016 – 18 (US)
Club	Salcianu Academy
College team	Utah Red Rocks (2019–23)
Head coach(es)	Tammy and Sorin Salcianu
Retired	2019 (Elite)
Medal record Representing the  United States FIG World Cup 2018 Chicago All Around

Early life

O'Keefe was born on February 26, 2002 to Matthew and Tori Lynn O'Keefe in Las Vegas, Nevada. She has three siblings, Paige, Caitlin & Dylan.[1] She completed high school through Odyssey Charter School,[2] graduating a year early in 2019.[3]

Gymnastics career

2013

In 2013, O'Keefe, then eleven, was a level 9 gymnast. She attended a developmental camp at the Karolyi Ranch where she earned the opportunity to compete at an elite qualifier. At the qualifier, she performed at a high enough level where she was qualified to Junior Elite status, bypassing level 10 completely.[4]

2014–16

O'Keefe competed at various domestic meets. She finished 13th and 17th at the 2014 and 2015 National Championships respectively. She encountered breakthrough during the 2016 season, where she won the all-around title in the Junior division at the 2016 U.S. National Gymnastics Championships, in addition to the beam and floor titles too.[5]

2017

In March, O'Keefe competed at International Gymnix in Canada where she placed first in the all-around and finished top three on every event.[6] In April, she participated in the 2017 City of Jesolo Trophy. In Jesolo she finished second in the all-around behind Gabby Perea.[7] O'Keefe also won bronze medals in the uneven bars and balance beam finals, as well as a silver medal in the floor exercise final.[8] In June O'Keefe announced that she had verbally committed to attend the University of Utah on a gymnastics scholarship.[9] In August, she won the all-around at the 2017 U.S. National Gymnastics Championships.[10] She along with silver medalist Emma Malabuyo were selected to represent the USA at the 2017 International Junior Gymnastics Competition the following month in Japan.[11] There O'Keefe won gold in the all-around and on beam and silver on floor, vault, and uneven bars.[12]

2018

In February 2018, O'Keefe was named as the wildcard athlete for the 2018 American Cup.[13] In her senior international debut, O'Keefe finished third with a score of 54.365, behind fellow American Morgan Hurd and Mai Murakami of Japan.[14] In the spring O'Keefe underwent wrist surgery to fix a ganglion cyst. She spent the remainder of the year recovering.[15]

2019

In early 2019, O'Keefe announced that she had dropped back down to level 10. Her first meet was at the Brestyan’s Las Vegas Invitational in February.[16] After the meet she announced that she received early admission to the University of Utah and would be competing with their gymnastics program in the 2019–2020 season.[17]

NCAA

O'Keefe signed her National Letter of Intent with the University of Utah in March 2019. She joined Abby Paulson, Jillian Hoffman, and Jaedyn Rucker as the freshmen class of the 2019–2020 season.[18]

2019–2020 season

O'Keefe made her NCAA debut in a meet against the Kentucky Wildcats where she competed on vault, uneven bars, and balance beam to help Utah win 196.425 to 195.350.[19] She made her all-around debut at the inaugural Best of Utah meet against BYU, Southern Utah, and Utah State, where she helped Utah win and individually she placed third in the all-around.[20]

2020–2021 season

In a meet against defending national champions the Oklahoma Sooners, O'Keefe competed all four events. Although Utah lost, O'Keefe claimed the all-around and balance beam titles with scores of 39.550 and 9.95 respectively.[21] She was subsequently named as the Pac-12 gymnast of the week.[22] The following week in a meet against Arizona O'Keefe only competed on vault, uneven bars, and balance beam. She received the highest score, a 9.90, on the latter two events.[23]

On January 30, in a meet against Washington, O'Keefe earned her first perfect 10, achieving this score on the balance beam. Additionally she won the all-around with a score of 39.525.[24] As a result O'Keefe was named as the Pac-12 gymnast of the week for the second time this season.[25]

Career perfect 10.0

Season	Date	Event	Meet
2021	January 30, 2021	Balance Beam	Utah vs Washington

Competitive history

Junior

Year	Event	Team	AA	VT	UB	BB	FX
2013	American Classic		9	8	8
2014	American Classic		6
	U.S. Classic		6			6
	P&G National Championships		13	19	14	16	13
2015	American Classic		7		4
	P&G National Championships		17	19	16	10	13
2016	American Classic		8			4
	U.S. Classic		6	6		4	4
	P&G National Championships				6
2017	Gymnix International
	City of Jesolo Trophy
	U.S. Classic				4
	P&G National Championships
	Junior Japan International

Senior

Year	Event	Team	AA	VT	UB	BB	FX
2018	American Cup

NCAA

Year	Event	Team	AA	VT	UB	BB	FX
2020	PAC-12 Championships	Canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic in the USA [26][27]
	NCAA Championships

Beyond Gymnastics [1]

Maile O'Keefe's favorite movies are Grease and Sandlot. Her favorite TV shows include Police Drama, Cake Boss & Food Network Shows. Her favorite food includes Fettucine Alfredo with Chicken & Caesar Salad. She also enjoys pop music, swimming, decorating cakes and nail art.

References

1. "USA Gymnastics | Maile O'Keefe". usagym.org. Retrieved 2018-02-13.
2. "Student Spotlight – Maile O'Keefe". Odyssey Online Learning. September 22, 2017.
3. "Utah Utes Profile: Maile O'Keefe". Utah Utes.
4. "Get to Know Young U.S. Junior Maile O'Keefe". The Gymternet. August 19, 2014.
5. "Maile O'Keefe wins junior national title". Excelle Sports. June 28, 2016.
6. "2017 International Gymnix Results". The Gymternet. March 10, 2017.
7. "US Women Sweep 10th Jesolo Trophy". International Gymnast Magazine. April 1, 2017.
8. "Finale Qualification" (PDF). USA Gymnastics. April 2, 2017.
9. "Maile O'Keefe Commits To The University Of Utah, 2020-2021". FloGymnastics. June 18, 2017.
10. "MyUSAGym". myusagym.com.
11. "Emma Malabuyo, Maile O'Keefe To Represent USA At International Junior Japan". FloGymnastics. August 20, 2017.
12. "O'Keefe, Malabuyo strike gold in Japan". USA Gymnastics. September 18, 2017.
13. "Bower, O'Keefe added to American Cup roster". USA Gymnastics. February 6, 2018.
14. "American Cup, Morgan Hurd push gymnastics forward amid sexual abuse scandal". USA Today. March 3, 2018.
15. "Simone Biles Pleased With Performance on First Day of U.S. National Championships". Sports Illustrated. August 18, 2018.
16. @chalkwarrior (February 6, 2019). "Maile O'Keefe will be competing level 10 at the Brestyan's Las Vegas Invitational" (Tweet) – via Twitter.
17. "Interview: Maile O'Keefe - 2019 Brestyan's Las Vegas Invite". FloGymnastics. February 8, 2019.
18. "USA National Team Gymnast Maile O'Keefe Signs with Utes". Utah Utes. March 4, 2019.
19. "No. 5 Ute Gymnasts Knock Off No. 12 Kentucky 196.425-195.350 To Open Season". Utah Utes. January 3, 2020.
20. "Utah freshman Maile O'Keefe 'closing in on a complete, amazing meet'". Deseret News. January 13, 2020.
21. "'We saw where we stack up and we have work to do': Utah falls short in measuring stick meet against Oklahoma". Deseret News. January 17, 2021.
22. "Pac-12 announces first women's gymnastics weekly honors of 2021 season". Pac-12 Conference. January 21, 2021.
23. "No. 6 Utah Gymnastics Begins Pac-12 Play With Dominating Win Over Arizona". KSL Sports. January 23, 2021.
24. "A perfect 10 and the second-best score by any team this season? Yeah, everything went right for Utah in win over Washington". Deseret News. January 31, 2021.
25. "Maile O'Keefe named Pac-12 Gymnast of the Week". Pac-12 Conference. February 2, 2021.
26. "Pac-12 statement on men's basketball tournament, Pac-12 sport competitions and Pac-12 championship events". Pac-12 Conference. March 11, 2020.
27. "NCAA cancels remaining winter and spring championships due to coronavirus concerns". NCAA. March 13, 2020.