© John Cheng

ARLINGTON, Texas, March 7, 2015 – Two-time World all-around champion Simone Biles of Spring, Texas/World Champions Centre, and Oleg Verniaiev of the Ukraine won the women’s and men’s 2015 AT&T American Cup titles, respectively. The USA’s most prestigious international invitational and part of the International Gymnastics Federation’s all-around World Cup Series, the AT&T American Cup made its debut in a football stadium when it was held today at AT&T Stadium, the home of the Dallas Cowboys.

In addition, Jessica Lopez of Venezuela and Verniaiev won the FIG all-around World Cup Series titles, awarded to the gymnasts who tallied the most points based on placement at the three events in the series: DTB-Pokal World Cup in Stuttgart, Germany, Nov. 29-30, 2014; the Glasgow (Scotland) World Cup, Dec. 6, 2014. and AT&T American Cup. Each received 24,000 Swiss francs.

  • Women’s medalists: Biles, first; MyKayla Skinner of Gilbert, Ariz./Desert Lights Gymnastics, second; Erika Fasana of Italy, third.
  • Men’s medalists: Verniaiev, first; Ryohei Kato of Japan, second; Donnell Whittenburg of Baltimore, Md./Team Hilton HHonors (U.S. Olympic Training Center), third.
  • Simone Biles, champion, scores and routines: vault, 16.033; uneven bars, 15.200; balance beam, 15.066; floor exercise, 16.000; all-around, 62.299. Biles executed a nearly stuck Amanar on vault. On the bars, she swung through a Weiler kip to toe-on Shaposhnikova opening sequence before connecting a piked Tkatchev to Pak salto. She dismounted with a stuck full-out. On beam, she opened with a wolf two-and-a-half turn and a front aerial to sissone. Her series was a back handspring to two layout stepouts. Her dismount was a tucked full-in. On the floor, Biles opened with three consecutive H-rated tumbling elements: layout full-out; the Biles, and a tucked double-double. She closed with a full-in.
  • MyKayla Skinner, second place, scores and routines: vault, 15.100; uneven bars, 14.266; balance beam, 13.533; and floor exercise, 14.933; all-around, 57.832. Skinner vaulted a Yurchenko double full. On beam, she tumbled a back handspring to tucked full and dismounted with a double back. On floor, Skinner mounted with back-to-back layout and tucked double doubles. Her third tumbling pass was a one-and-a-half to two-and-a-half. She closed with a full-in.
  • Erika Fasana, third, scores and routines: vault, 14.533; uneven bars, 13.900; balance beam, 13.800; floor exercise, 14.400; all-around, 56.633.
  • Oleg Verniaiev, champion, scores and routines: floor exercise, 14.766; pommel horse, 14.366; still rings, 15.266; vault, 15.233; parallel bars, 15.900; and horizontal bar, 15.066; all-around, 90.597. Verniaiev started on the floor with a layout Thomas. He vaulted a Dragulescu (handspring double front 1/2). On the parallel bars, he was clean on a peach to one bar directly to a healy. He dismounted with a double front half out. On the high bar, he opened with a clean Yamawaki half. He also performed a Takamoto half into a Tkatchev-half and a stuck layout double-double dismount.
  • Ryohei Kato, second place, scores and routines: floor exercise, 15.066; pommel horse, 14.500; still rings, 14.666; vault, 15.300; parallel bars, 15.433; horizontal bar, 15.133; all-around, 90.098.
  • Donnell Whittenburg, third place, scores and routines: floor exercise, 15.400; pommel horse, 13.966; still rings, 15.500; vault, 15.300; parallel bars, 15.400; horizontal bar, 14.366; all-around, 89.932. Whittenburg opened on the floor with a stuck one-and-half to double front. He tumbled a layout Thomas and closed with a half-in, half-out. On the still rings, he showed strong positions including an Azarian Maltese to bounce cross opening combination. He finishes his routine with a layout double-double. On the vault, he performed a handspring double front half out. In the fifth rotation, Whittenburg moved to the parallel bars, where he executed a front toss to peach 1/2 to peach sequence. He dismounted with a double front half. He finished his competition on the high bar, where he began his exercise with a Yamawaki half. Later, he swung through a Takamoto full to Yamawaki. He concluded with a layout double-double dismount.
  • Sam Mikulak of Newport Coast, Calif./Team Hilton HHonors (University of Michigan), 4th place, scores and routines: floor exercise, 14.100; pommel horse, 13.800; still rings, 14.766; vault, 15.333; parallel bars, 15.133; horizontal bar, 15.466; all-around, 88.598. Mikulak: In the first rotation, Mikulak sat down on a front full to double front on the floor exercise. On rings, he performed a back uprise to Maltese followed by a kip Maltese. On vault, he nearly stuck his Kasamatsu double full. He moved to parallel bars next where he performed a front toss, peach 1/2, peach, giant Suarez sequence. He concluded the routine with a double front. On the high bar, Mikulak flew high on a layout and tucked full-twisting Kovacs. He finished his competition off with a layout, double-double dismount.

AP-style results

Women’s all-around
1. Simone Biles, USA, 62.299
2. MyKayla Skinner, USA, 57.832
3. Erika Fasana, Italy, 56.633
4. Jessica Lopez, Venezuela, 56.365
5. Elsabeth Black, Canada, 56.132
6. Vanessa Ferrari, Italy, 55.731
7. Emily Little, Australia, 55.165
8. Natsumi Sasada, Japan, 53.733
9. Claudia Fragapane, Great Britain, 52.532

Men’s all-around
1. Oleg Verniaiev, Ukraine, 90.597
2. Ryohei Kato, Japan, 90.098
3. Donnell Whittenburg, USA, 89.932
4. Sam Mikulak, USA, 88.598
5. Yusuke Tanaka, Japan, 88.098
6. Jossimar Calvo, Colombia, 87.897
7. Andrey Likhovitskiy, Belarus, 86.965
8. Daniel Purvis, Great Britain, 86.332
9. Alexis Torres Serrano, Puerto Rico, 83.664

Background

  • The AT&T American Cup became an FIG all-around World Cup event in 2011. This year’s AT&T American Cup is the third and final event in the 2014-15 FIG all-around World Cup Series.
  • The impressive list of former American Cup champions also includes Bart Conner, Tim Daggett, Paul Hamm, Jonathan Horton, Shawn Johnson, Danell Leyva, Nastia Liukin, Shannon Miller, Carly Patterson, Mary Lou Retton, Kurt Thomas, Peter Vidmar, Jordyn Wieber and Kim Zmeskal. Past sites for the American Cup include: New York City (1976-80, 1982-84, 2004, 2008, 2012); Ft. Worth, Texas (1981, 1996-98); Indianapolis, Ind. (1985); Fairfax, Va. (1986-90, 2003); Orlando, Fla. (1991-94, 2000-02); Seattle, Wash. (1995); St. Petersburg, Fla. (1999); Uniondale, N.Y. (2005); Philadelphia (2006); Jacksonville, Fla. (2007, 2011); Hoffman Estates, Ill. (2009); Worcester, Mass. (2010, 2013); and Greensboro, N.C. (2014).
  • Based in Indianapolis, USA Gymnastics is the national governing body for gymnastics in the United States. Its mission is to encourage participation and the pursuit of excellence in the sport. Its disciplines include men’s and women’s artistic gymnastics, rhythmic gymnastics, trampoline and tumbling, acrobatic gymnastics and group gymnastics. For more complete information, log on to usagym.org.