By Christine Situ, USAG Creator Program
Rin Keys made history in August 2025, when she won the USA’s first medal at the senior World Championships: silver in the individual ball final. This season, after taking to the floor with the apparatus in Tulsa, the 17-year-old easily secured her second-consecutive U.S. ball title to add to her already impressive list of accolades.
How does a routine go from good to great? Below is an analysis of the ball routine that Keys has made one of the best in the world. Readers are recommended to pair the description below with watching a video of her Thursday evening performance during all-around competition.
Once the music starts, Keys quickly establishes a rhythm, hitting every criterion as she executes a series of body and apparatus difficulties. Her efforts in artistry (one of three scoring categories, alongside difficulty and execution) are most prominent here, as her choreography not only follows the phrasing of the music, but also emphasizes accents and changes within the song to avoid rhythm deductions. As the song’s vocals begin, she performs one of two required eight-second dance step combinations, bringing harmony between the music and the gymnast to the forefront. Keys colors her movements with flicks of the wrist and strategically timed poses to convey a sassy and charismatic character, fitting for the music. A rhythmic gymnast is scored on facial and body expression, connections between elements, and the amount of character details in her routine, and the early components of Keys’ routine support high scores in these artistic areas.
Keys’ selection of jumps are one of her most unique qualities as a gymnast. Rhythmic gymnasts often emphasize flexibility, but Keys’ jumps take advantage of her explosive power to add difficulty. She is one of only a handful of gymnasts who perform a turning switch split leap in their routines, and her other jumps (a butterfly jump and turning split leap) are similar in energy. She performs all her body difficulties with a high degree of technical cleanliness, minimizing form deductions while maximizing difficulty.
On the apparatus-related side of difficulty, Keys scatters large rolls and small throws throughout the routine, as they can be performed quickly for high values. Apparatus difficulties tend to highlight the unique features of each apparatus. In this case, the ball’s round shape lends itself to fluid rolls over the body, so, accordingly, rolls are among the highest-valued apparatus difficulties. She must ensure that the ball does not bounce or skip during the roll, otherwise, the element will be marked invalid and she will receive deductions for her execution.
Finally, as she closes out her routine, Keys throws her ball high into the air during a walkover, performs three somersaults, and catches it again without using her hands. This is the last of four dynamic elements with rotation in her routine, characterized by high throws with rotations underneath the apparatus. Keys increases the values of these elements by doing extra rotations underneath the ball, changing her axis of rotation, and adding complexity to her throw and catch by catching outside of her field of vision.
With the last roll complete, Keys strikes a powerful ending pose. She exits to the audience’s enthusiastic applause, claiming the top score of the evening on the apparatus. That Saturday, Keys performed the routine once more during event finals, where she again won the national title after claiming gold in 2025.