Bridget Sloan

Bridget Sloan
Bridget Sloan performs on the balance beam at the 2008 U.S. National Championships in Boston, MA.
Personal information
Full name	Bridget Elizabeth Sloan
Country represented	United States
Born	June 23, 1992 (1992-06-23) Cincinnati, Ohio
Hometown	Pittsboro, Indiana
Height	1.50m (4'11")
Weight	47kg (104lbs)
Discipline	Women's artistic gymnastics
Level	Elite
Club	Sharp's Gymnastics Academy
College team	Florida Gators
Head coach(es)	Marvin Sharp
Medal record Women's gymnastics Competitor for the United States Summer Olympics Silver 2008 Beijing Team World Championships Gold 2009 London All-Around Silver 2010 Rotterdam Team Pan American Games Gold 2011 Guadalajara Team Pacific Rim Championships Gold 2010 Melbourne Team

Bridget Elizabeth Sloan (born June 23, 1992) is an American gymnast. She is the 2009 All-Around World Champion and the 2009 All-Around U.S. National Champion. Sloan was a member of the silver medal U.S. women's gymnastics team at the 2008 Olympics.

Early life and career

Bridget Sloan was born on June 23, 1992, in Cincinnati, Ohio. She began gymnastics in 1996 when she was 4. She currently lives in Pittsboro, Indiana, and graduated from Tri-West Hendricks High School.

2007

In her first year as a senior, 2007, Sloan placed 5th all-around and 3rd on Bars at the U.S. National Championships. She served as the alternate on the American team for the 2007 World Championships. Sloan also represented the United States at the Good Luck Beijing Olympic test event in December 2007, where she won the bronze medal in the all-around and a silver on floor exercise.

2008

In March 2008, Sloan suffered a torn meniscus while warming up at a meet in Italy. She was forced to sit out the competition and returned home for surgery and rehabilitation, but recovered in time to compete at the 2008 U.S. National Championships, where she competed only on beam, bars and floor; and the U.S. Olympic Trials. Sloan was named to the U.S. team after the final selection camp in Houston in July 2008.

At the 2008 Olympics, Sloan competed in both the qualifying and team final rounds of competition. Her contributions to the team became critical in the qualifying round, where the Americans were forced to put up only four athletes on three events, and count all four scores, due to injuries to Chellsie Memmel and Samantha Peszek. Sloan made small errors on floor and uneven bars but performed well under pressure. Her all-around scores placed her 11th overall among all competitors. In the team finals, Sloan competed on vault, contributing a 15.200 score to the American team's silver medal win.

2009

In February 2009, Sloan competed in the Tyson American Cup and placed second to 13-year-old Jordyn Wieber. In August, Sloan competed in the US Nationals and had a shaky preliminary competition. However, her consistency in the finals won her the gold medal in the All-Around, Floor and Uneven Bars.

In October at the 2009 London World Championships, after a shaky preliminary round, Sloan qualified 5th for the all-around and 7th for the uneven bars final. She competed like a champion in the all-around final and won the gold medal over teammate Rebecca Bross by only 0.050. Sloan earned her place in gymnastics history as the fifth American woman to win the World all-around title. In the bars final, she performed a solid routine and placed 6th.

2010

Injuries plagued Bridget throughout the year, greatly limiting her in competitions. An ankle injury early in the year limited her participation in the Pacific Rim Championships to bars. The same injury kept Sloan to the beam at the CoverGirl Classic. A new pectoral injury prevented her from defending her National all-around title. At Nationals she performed two tentative beam routines, one that included a fall, and placed 11th on the apparatus. However, Sloan impressed National Team Coordinator Márta Károlyi with her improvement at the selection camp, and was brought to the World Championships to perform on bars and floor, placing fourth in the bars final.

2011

Sloan sat out the majority of the competitive season while recovering from surgery on her bicep. She stated that it is unlikely she would take part in the 2011 National or World Championships in an effort to stay healthy for the 2012 season, her ultimate goal being the 2012 Olympics.

Although Sloan did not compete in the 2011 National Championships, she later headed to the Karolyi Ranch in New Waverly, Texas, to participate in both selection camps for the 2011 World Championships team. She was subsequently named to the team for the 2011 Pan American Games. She competed only on the uneven bars and floor exercise in Guadalajara, and scored in the thirteens on both apparati. She failed to qualify for either of the event finals, even though on uneven bars it was due to the "two [athletes] per country" rule (Bridgette Caquatto and Shawn Johnson both scored higher than her)

College

Sloan has committed to attend the University of Florida, signing her national letter-of-intent with the Gator Gymnastics team. Sloan will defer enrollment at UF until the 2012 fall semester to allow her to seek her second consecutive spot on the U.S. Olympic team for the 2012 Summer Olympics. Sloan will rejoin 2010 World Championship teammate Mackenzie Caquatto on the Florida team.

Competitive history

Senior Career History

Year	Competition Description	Location	Apparatus	Rank-Final	Score-Final	Rank-Qualifying	Score-Qualifying
2010	World Championships	Rotterdam, Netherlands	Team	2
			Uneven Bars	4

Year	Competition Description	Location	Apparatus	Rank-Final	Score-Final	Rank-Qualifying	Score-Qualifying
2009	American Cup	Chicago, IL	All around	2	59.600
	U.S. Championships	Dallas, TX	All Around	1	117.550	3	57.700
			Uneven bars	1	29.450	3	14.550
			Floor exercise	1	29.350	3	14.300
			Balance beam	5	28.850	6	13.950
	World Championships	London, UK	All Around	1	57.825	5	56.075

Year	Competition Description	Location	Apparatus	Rank-Final	Score-Final	Rank-Qualifying	Score-Qualifying
2008	Olympic Games	Beijing, China	Team	2	186.525	2	246.800
	U.S. Olympic Team Trials	Philadelphia, PA	Uneven bars	8	30.100
			Balance beam	12	29.100
			Floor exercise	14	28.850
	U.S. Championships	Boston, MA	Uneven bars	3	31.700
			Balance beam	7	30.600

Year	Competition Description	Location	Apparatus	Rank-Final	Score-Final	Rank-Qualifying	Score-Qualifying
2007	U.S. Championships	San Jose, CA	Floor exercise	2
			All around	5
			Uneven bars	5
			Balance beam	10
	U.S. Classic	Battle Creek, MI	All around	1
			Uneven bars	2
			Vault	3
			Balance beam	3
			Floor exercise	3 (T)

Floor music

2008: Araba (Instrumental Version) by Mustafa Sandal

External links

• Official Website
• Sloan on Twitter
• Bridget Sloan at Fédération Internationale de Gymnastique
• Bridget Sloan at USA Gymnastics
• Bridget Sloan at the United States Olympic Committee