This Day, That Year – June 15

This day in history we feature Madison Kocian. An American artistic gymnast was born on this day in 1997.

Trivia – Madison Kocian

Madison Taylor Kocian is one of four 2015 world champions and the 2016 Olympic silver medalist. She was part of the gold medal-winning team dubbed the “Final Five” at the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, and was a member of the first-place American teams at the 2014 and 2015 World Artistic Gymnastics Championships. She graduated from the University of California, Los Angeles in 2020, where she was a member of its NCAA women’s gymnastics team.

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Kocian made the U.S. Junior National Team in 2009, when she was 12. At the National Championships, she placed sixth in the all-around. Later that year, Kocian was selected to compete for Team USA at the Top Gym Junior competition in Charleroi, Belgium. In 2010, at age 13, Kocian placed fifth at the U.S. Classic in Chicago and qualified to compete at the U.S. National Championships in Hartford, Connecticut, where she won a bronze medal on the uneven bars. In 2011, Kocian competed in only two meets, the WOGA Classic and City of Jesolo Trophy, an international meet held in Venice, Italy. In Italy, she won the gold in the Junior Division, scoring 57.750. In 2012, Kocian missed the season due to an injury but earned a silver medal at the WOGA Classic. Kocian’s senior career started in 2013 at the Secret U.S Classic, held in Hoffman Estates, Illinois. Kocian was named to the Senior National Team once again and was selected to compete at the 2015 World Championships in Glasgow, Scotland. At these World Championships she anchored the USA on uneven bars toward its third consecutive team title, and qualified third to the uneven bars final. On July 10, 2016, Kocian was named to the U.S. team for the 2016 Olympics alongside Biles, Douglas, Raisman, and Laurie Hernandez. On August 7, Kocian competed in the women’s qualification round at the 2016 Summer Olympics. Kocian began attending the University of California, Los Angeles in fall 2016, and joined the UCLA Bruins gymnastics program. Her collegiate debut came on January 7, 2017, in a home dual meet against the University of Arkansas where she won three individual event titles and tallied an all-around score of 39.425 to win the all-around title. 2012 Olympic gold medalist Kyla Ross was also at the meet, where the two became the first Olympic gold medalists to compete as NCAA gymnasts. In February 2017, she scored a perfect 10.0 on the uneven bars in a dual meet against Stanford.

Source – Wikipedia