Olympic medalist MyKayla Skinner awaiting birth of first child

By Jeff Metcalfe

Things have a way of working out for MyKayla Skinner … eventually.

Her Olympic dream was only partially fulfilled in 2016 when she was a U.S. gymnastics alternate. Then, after three years in college at Utah, Skinner rolled the dice that a return to elite international training in her native Arizona would pay off at the Tokyo Olympics.

Except a pandemic intervened, forcing the 2020 Games to be postponed a year. A combination of COVID and pneumonia put Skinner into the hospital in early 2021 and before that her training was impacted by an Achilles injury.

Still, she made the U.S. team for Tokyo, performing well in preliminaries but blocked from individual finals from a two-per-country maximum rule. But when Simone Biles dropped out after preliminaries for balance and mental health reasons, Skinner made the most of her opportunity, winning a vault silver medal.

“Through all the trials and all the things I went through, I was kind of able to prove them wrong,” Skinner said. “I can do it and I was able to push through it and it all worked out. I kind of had that fairy tale ending that not everybody gets to have. I feel really lucky, I was so blessed to have the opportunity.”

Even though a second Olympic run meant a delay on starting a family with her husband Jonas Harmer.

They married in November 2019 after yet another U.S. alternate assignment (her third for a major meet) at the World Championships.

Being LDS, you get married young, you have kids young,” Skinner said. “I thought I’m going to get married when I’m 20 and have kids when I’m 22. Obviously with gymnastics I couldn’t do that. Now when I look back on it, 26 is still really young.”

Better than Olympic medal

Skinner will give birth to her first child, a girl, any day. Her due date is September 27.

It’s been more than two years since Tokyo but, as with the Olympics, not a simple path to becoming a mother. “That’s always been more of a priority to me,” she says. “I love kids. For me, this is better than an Olympic medal, but my Olympic medal is pretty cool too.”

Skinner participated in the post-Olympics Gold Over America tour then, taking advice from Jonas, returned to Utah to complete her college degree before trying to get pregnant. Which as it turned out, required six stressful months.

“I was starting to get really down on myself,” she said. “It was so hard. All my friends were starting to get pregnant and having babies. I was hoping I wouldn’t have to do IVF (in vitro fertilization).”

Again, though, the timing of her becoming pregnant in late 2022 after her graduation proved fortuitous given what she was about to endure.

Like her mother Kym during her first pregnancy, McKayla has been sick not just during the first trimester but throughout all of this year. She lost 11 pounds, requiring IVs, and needed injections and medication to somewhat control nauseousness.

What did I do to myself, Skinner wondered. “I have so much respect for women and moms to be able to go and do this because I literally had no idea,” she says, acknowledging the challenge still ahead in delivery.

“I look back on it, there was no way I would have been able to travel from American Fork (where she and Jonas live) to Salt Lake three times a week for school with how sick I was,” had she been pregnant earlier in 2022.

Paving way for longer gym careers

While Skinner is awaiting a life-changing moment, USA Gymnastics is selecting its team for the World Championships, Sept. 30-Oct. 8 in Antwerp, Belgium. That meet will set the stage for the 2024 Paris Olympics.

Eight-time U.S. all-around champion Biles, 26, already is qualified for Worlds, seeking to add to her 25 career medals. She is a heavy favorite to compete at a third Olympics. Gabby Douglas, who last competed at the Olympics in 2016, is planning a comeback and will be 28 next summer.

Others including Jade Carey of Phoenix are following Skinner’s path, returning from college to stiffer rigors of the elite international level.

Name, image, likeness (NIL) financial opportunities make college gymnastics more attractive than when Skinner competed at Utah (2017-19). And there is a year less between Olympics because of the Tokyo postponement.

But for a gymnast to do what Skinner accomplished, in her 20s, requires a combination of talent and good fortune health-wise that will never be easy.

Skinner showed “that you can do it and have success at it,” says Lisa Spini, her coach at Desert Lights Gymnastics in Chandler. “It hadn’t been done much before. Most of the (Paris) team are going to be older girls. They’re not little 16-year-olds anymore.”

“Simone could do this probably forever if she wanted to. She’s an amazing freak of nature, just a natural gymnast, so strong and flexible. She didn’t have the (Tokyo) Olympics she wanted. She’s kind of where MyKayla was (after 2016). She needs to come back and have Olympics she wants.”

Skinner watched some of the U.S. Championships in late August without any pangs of regret about not being on the floor.

“I don’t love gymnastics that much,” she says of a post-partum comeback. “I’m just ready for life and to move on. Watching championships, the girls are actually looking really good. I feel like I was able to inspire this generation. It’s been cool for me to see these girls coming back and pursue it if their body is strong enough. You’ve always been able to do both (college and international), it’s just no one really had the stamina to do it.”

Final path to parenthood

If you happened to catch “American Ninja Warrior” couples edition this week, Skinner clearly was not about to deliver a baby.

The competition was taped in spring 2022 but not aired until almost a year and half later. So Skinner got a look at her former body image and what she hopes it will be again.

“I wanted to work out my whole pregnancy because I was finally getting into the groove, found a place I really liked,” she said. “Then I got sick then when I tried to go back, I was in so much pain then I threw up. I can barely go on walks, I start to cramp and hurt really bad. I have to go home and sit down. My body still has been pretty strong, but I haven’t worked out so I feel weak.”

Jones, who is 6-7, and the 5-foot Skinner did not win the $25,000 Ninja prize, scoring just three points, but the experience was enjoyable in the carefree days between Tokyo and parenthood.

“We filmed it such a long time ago, we weren’t even thinking about kids at the time and now we’re on the verge of having one,” Harmer said. “It was fun to watch because we were both a little disappointed in our performance, but we looked better on TV than we felt in real life so that was cool.”

Harmer is 26, Skinner will turn 27 in December. They met in college, Harmer attending BYU. He has been as supportive as possible during her pregnancy including grocery runs to find something MyKayla could keep down.

There were two baby showers – one in Arizona, another in Utah – over the summer. Their baby will be the 13th grandchild on Skinner’s side and first on Harmer’s.

A babymoon didn’t work out because of her sickness, but Skinner made it to a Taylor Swift concert in Los Angeles with her sister while Jonas took in a UFC fight with his friends.

“He got his moment and I got mine so it all worked out,” Skinner said. “Like, for her, things always seem to do given patience. Now when I look back, I’m really grateful and we’re actually starting at a perfect time. It all works out the way it’s supposed to.”