Shayla Worley (born September 2, 1990 in Orlando,
Florida) is an American gymnast and a World
Champion. Her most prominent accomplishment is
winning a team gold medal at the 2007 World
Championships, where she finished seventh All-Around
in the preliminaries.
She has been training at Orlando Metro Gymnastics
since she was a level 6. She is coached by Jeff Wood
and Christi Barineau. Shayla competed level nine in
2001. She placed first all-around at the Florida
State Championships. Her final meet of the season
was the Level 9 Eastern Championships. This is the
highest meet a level nine can advance to. She placed
second all-around. Shayla finished off the junior
Olympic levels by placing second all-around at the
2002 Level 10 Florida State Championships.
In 2002, Shayla became a junior national elite. This
level is one below the elite level. Today, it is
referred to as pre-elite. She won the all-around
title at the American Challenge. Shayla also placed
well at the U.S. Challenge.
She advanced to junior international elite in 2003.
At the U.S. Classic, Shayla placed high enough to
qualify to the U.S. National Championships. A few
weeks later, she dazzled the crowd and the judges at
the US National Championships. She finished fourth
all-around. This also placed her the United States
National Gymnastics Team.
Shayla continued on competing as an elite in 2004.
She helped the USA win in a dual meet against Japan.
At the American Classic, she finished fourth
all-around. Shayla qualified to the U.S. National
Championships. A few weeks later, she was named to
the Pacific Alliance Team. At the Pacific Alliance
Championships she finished fourth all-around. She
also competed at the U.S. Classic, where she placed
second all-around. She finished second all-around.
In the fall, she won the all-around at the USA
versus Canada meet. She was named to the Junior Pan
Am Games team. Unfortunately, she could not compete
because of a back injury.
Shayla's final year as a junior was in 2005. She
started off her season at the International Tri
Meet. The USA won the competition. She also went on
the European tour which included meets against lower
ranked Great Britain and Switzerland. The USA won
both. Her next competition was the US Classic. A
potential winner, she finished fourth all-around
after falling on floor. The next month at US
Nationals, a fall on bars kept her down in the
standings on day one. She battled back and tallied
the highest all-around score on day two, eventually
finishing third overall behind Natasha Kelley. In
her final meet of the season, the Massilia Cup,
Shayla only competed on bars. She finished second.
Shayla turned senior in 2006, and her first senior
outing was the Tyson American Cup where she finished
second all-around behind reigning national champion
Nastia Liukin. Next competition was the Pacific
Alliance Championships. Shayla finished second on
bars, the highest placed American, and also helped
the US to the team title.
Injury prevented Shayla from taking part in further
competition in 2006. As a national team member who
had scored well in the first half of the year, she
had hopes of being named to the US team for the
World Championships in Aarhus, but it was not to be.
There was no further competition in 2006 as Shayla
recovered from her injury.
However, she was ready in time for the 2007 American
Cup. A fall on her bars dismount meant she narrowly
missed qualifying for finals: she would have done so
easily without this error. Shayla was also selected
to the Britain v USA dual match held in Lisburn on
St. Patrick's Day 2007. There were no errors this
time and in the absence of world numbers 1 and 2
Beth Tweddle and Nastia Liukin, she took the bars
title. After the VISA Championships, in which she
finished runner-up to Shawn Johnson, she was
selected to represent the USA in the World
Championships in Stuttgart, Germany.
At the World Championships, Worley and Team USA
finished first overall, four points ahead of the
nearest team. Worley herself qualified 8th overall
for the all-around competition, but because of rules
permitting only two competitors per country, she was
discluded as Liukin and Johnson qualified ahead of
her. Worley also finished in the top 8 on balance
beam, but the 2 athlete rule again caused her
elimination from the event final. During the team
finals, Worley competed on bars and floor earning
15.575 and 14.675 respectively. The scores
contributed to the U.S. total of 184.400, which
earned the gold medal.
