Ashton Locklear Biography, Age, Height, Parents, Routine

Ashton Locklear Biography

Ashton Locklear (Ashton Taylor Locklear) is an American artistic gymnast from North Carolina. At the 2014 World Artistic Gymnastics Championships, she was a member of the gold-medal-winning United States team and is a two-time national champion on the uneven bars (2014, 2016). She is an uneven bars specialist and was an alternate for the 2016 Summer Olympics U.S. gymnastics team, the Final Five.

Ashton Locklear Age

Ashton Locklear is 21 years old as of 2018 born on January 13, 1998 Lumberton, North Carolina USA.

Ashton Locklear Height

Ashton Locklear stands at a height of 5 ft 4 in (163 cm).

Ashton Locklear Parents

Ashton Locklear was born to Carrie and Terry Locklear. She has an older sister, Angelia, who is also a gymnast.

Ashton Locklear Gymnastics Career

Pre-elite

Ashton Locklear watched her older sister’s gymnastics lessons when she was young and began imitating her. Her inspiration to start competing began after watching 2000 Olympics on television. Locklear began her gymnastics career in trampolining, but later switched to artistic gymnastics.

Her first championship was a state-level trampoline and tumbling title she earned at age five. After that Locklear began training at KPAC (Kristie Phillips Athletic Center) in Lake Norman and was coached by Kristie Phillips for a while. She began training at Everest Gymnastics in Huntersville, North Carolina when she was eleven years old, with coaches Qi Han (a former member of the Chinese men’s national team and a graduate of Beijing Sports University) and his wife, Yiwen Chen. Due to the distance between Huntersville and Locklear’s hometown of Hamlet, North Carolina her family maintains a second household near the gym.

Ashton Locklear 2013
She competed at the Nastia Liukin Cup in 2013 where she placed seventh in the all-around and on balance beam, first on uneven bars and ninth on floor exercise. Locklear suffered a stress fracture in her back later that year, which limited her to conditioning for approximately four months and forced her to stop competing on the floor exercise and vault.

Senior

Ashton Locklear 2014

Locklear’s breakout performances came during the 2014 season. She finished first on the uneven bars with a score of 15.700 at the Secret U.S. Classic, beating Kyla Ross, the reigning world silver medalist on bars, by more than half a point. Locklear competed at the P&G Championships in August, where she became national champion on the uneven bars with scores of 15.850 on Day 1 and 15.200 on Day 2. Locklear also placed eighth on balance beam, scoring 14.550 on Day 1 and 13.550 on Day 2. Locklear was named to the national team and to the U.S. team for the Pan American Championships in Mississauga, Ontario.

In Mississauga, Locklear and her teammates (MyKayla Skinner, Madison Desch, Maggie Nichols, Amelia Hundley and Madison Kocian) won the team gold medal, beating silver medalist Brazil by more than six points. Locklear also won gold with a score of 14.975 on the uneven bars.

Locklear was selected on September 17, to compete at the 2014 World Championships in Nanning, China. She helped the team to a gold medal and placed fourth in the uneven bars final with a score of 15.266.

Ashton Locklear 2015

Ashton Locklear sustained a shoulder injury in eraly 2015 and had to have surgery. Following intense physical therapy, on July 25, she returned to elite competition and participated in the Secret U.S. Classic. Locklear only competed exhibition routines, meaning she scored a 0 on both uneven bars and balance beam. Locklear said that she would have her full difficulty back by the P&G Championships.

Locklear competed on uneven bars and balance beam on August 13 and 15, at the 2015 P&G Championships. On night 1, despite a lower start value (removed inbar stalders and used toe-on skills), Locklear scored a 15.400 for the second highest bar score of the night. On beam, Locklear fell on her back handspring–layout stepout series and scored a 12.950. She scored a 15.400 on bars again, on night 2, and 13.750 on beam. Locklear placed second on bars behind 2014 Worlds teammate Kocian and ahead of Bailie Key with a total score of 30.850. She placed 13th on beam with a total score of 26.700. Locklear was named to the senior national team a week after the competition and invited to the 2015 Worlds selection camp.

Locklear initially committed to the University of Florida, later on September 10, 2015, the information was changed on her USA Gymnastics athlete profile to “undecided”, prompting speculation that Locklear had uncommitted. She later changed her Twitter biography, too. On October 2, 2015, almost a month later, she confirmed on her personal Ask.fm account that she had decided to forgo NCAA eligibility.

Ashton Locklear 2016

Locklear began her 2016 season at the City of Jesolo Trophy in Jesolo, Italy where she helped the U.S. team win the gold medal and qualified in first place to the uneven bars final. Locklear took the gold medal with a score of 15.250 in the final. At the 2016 Pacific Rim Gymnastics Championships in April, Locklear helped the U.S win the team competition. She also qualified to the final uneven barsand and took the gold medal with a score of 15.625. Locklear competed at the U.S. Secret Classic in June 2016, where she won the gold medal on uneven bars ahead of the reigning world champion, Kocian, with a score of 15.850 and placed fourth on beam with a score of 14.750.

Locklear competed in June at the P&G Championships, in St. Louis, where she posted huge scores on both days on uneven bars: 15.600 on Day 1 and 15.700 on Day 2 for a two-day total of 31.300, edging out Kocian by a combined margin of 0.150 to reclaim the national title. She also performed on balance beam on both days of competition, scoring 14.450 and 14.150 to take eighth place, 0.050 behind Kocian. She was named to the 2016 U.S. National Team and qualified for the Olympic Trials in San Jose, California. Locklear fell on the beam at night one at the 2016 Olympic Trials, but finished with a score 15.700 on bars night 2. Locklear was chosen as an alternate alongside MyKayla Skinner and Ragan Smith.

Ashton Locklear 2017

Locklear began the 2017 season at the City of Jesolo Trophy in Jesolo, Italy, winning the team gold medal with the U.S. team and the bronze medal on the uneven bars, behind Russia’s Elena Eremina and fellow U.S. teammate Riley McCusker. Locklear competed in late July, at the U.S. Secret Classic, performing on just balance beam. Locklear tied for eighth in that event with Kalyany Steele.

Locklear competed in August, at the P&G Championships in Anaheim, California. Despite competing for evidently-downgraded routines on the uneven bars, she placed second on that event, 0.250 of a point behind the event winner Riley McCusker. She also placed tenth on the balance beam.

Locklear was selected in September to represent the United States at the 2017 Artistic Gymnastics World Championships in Montreal alongside Ragan Smith, Morgan Hurd, and Jade Carey. During qualifications, She competed on uneven bars and balance beam. Locklear qualified to the uneven bars finals in 7th place with a score of 14.566. During the uneven bars finals, Locklear had an unexpected early mistake resulting in 8th-place finish. Later Locklear clarified that during the uneven bars final she had re-injured her shoulder, resulting in a subpar performance.

Ashton Locklear 2018

After undergoing shoulder surgery in the fall, she relocated to Spring, Texas to train alongside Simone Biles at World Champions Centre. In the summer Locklear underwent knee surgery and spent the remainder of the year recovering. Locklear confirmed in July, via Instagram that she too was sexually abused by Larry Nassar.

Ashton Locklear 2019

During an interview with French gymnast Juliette Bossu, Locklear announced that she would make her comeback in February and would compete not only on uneven bars and balance beam, but on floor exercise as well, an event she has not competed on since 2013.

Ashton Locklear Competitive History

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Ashton Locklear Routine