Nia Dennis

Nia Dennis (born February 23, 1999) is an American artistic gymnast. A National Team member since 2012, she began to represent the United States internationally in 2014. She trained at Buckeye Gymnastics in Westerville, Ohio and Legacy Elite Gymnastics in Naperville, Illinois, and is currently a member of the UCLA Bruins women's gymnastics team.

Nia Dennis
Dennis at the 2014 City of Jesolo Trophy in Jesolo, Italy.
Personal information
Country represented	United States
Born	(1999-02-23) February 23, 1999 Columbus, Ohio, United States
Hometown	Westerville, Ohio, United States
Residence	Los Angeles, California, United States
Discipline	Women's artistic gymnastics
Level	Senior International Elite
Years on national team	2012-present (USA)
Club	Buckeye Gymnastics, and Legacy Elite Gymnastics
College team	UCLA Bruins (2017-21)
Head coach(es)	Chris Waller
Assistant coach(es)	Randy Lane
Former coach(es)	Kittia Carpenter Li Li Li Yuejiu Wu Jiani Valorie Kondos Field Jordyn Wieber
Medal record Representing  United States Pacific Rim Championships 2014 Richmond Team 2014 Richmond All-Around 2014 Richmond Vault Representing UCLA Bruins NCAA Championships 2018 St. Louis Team 2019 Fort Worth Team

Competitive history

2010–12: Career beginnings

2010

Dennis competed at the 2010 Covergirl Classic in the 10-11 Hopes Division, where she placed 2nd.[1]

2011

Dennis qualified to Junior International Elite status in 2011. She qualified to the Covergirl Classic in the Junior division. She finished 21st of 36 participants, with a score of 50.450 [2] and therefore did not advance to the National Championships.

2012

She was scheduled to compete at the Secret U.S. Classic but withdrew with injury.[3] Dennis advanced to the VISA Championships as she had already qualified. She had an excellent two days of competition, accumulating a two-day all-around score of 109.550.[4]

2013–14: Junior U.S. National team

2013

Dennis returned to the Secret U.S. Classic in 2013. She finished 5th all-around, picking up a gold medal in vault (15.250) and a silver on floor (14.600).[5] Nia advanced to Nationals in Hartford, CT. She finished her two days of competition with 112.550, placing 4th in the all-around.[6] She took home a silver medal on vault also.

2014

Dennis made her international debut in March 2014 at the City of Jesolo Trophy in Jesolo, Italy. She took home a team gold and individual silvers on the bars and all-around.[7] She went on to compete at the 2014 Pacific Rim Gymnastics Championships in Richmond, Canada, where she won the gold medal with the U.S. team and the all-around and vault silver medals.[8]

2015–2017: Senior International Elite

2015

Dennis' senior international elite debut came in 2015. On February 17, 2015, it was announced that Dennis had committed to UCLA for NCAA gymnastics.[9] She will join for the 2017-18 school year and will join Olympian Kyla Ross

On July 13, 2015, it was announced that Dennis was rumoured to be leaving her long-time gym Buckeye Gymnastics and has moved to Legacy Elite Gymnastics in Illinois.[10]

Following the 2015 U.S. National Gymnastics Championships, Dennis was named to the U.S. Senior National Team and was invited to the World Championships training camp.[11]

2016

Dennis goes into the 2016 season as a second-year senior. On January 26, 2016, it was revealed that she would be the single U.S. female participant at the 2016 Stuttgart FIG World Cup event, held on March 19, 2016.[12] However, in February 2016, she tore her Achilles tendon.[13]

On June 24 and 26, Dennis competed at the P&G Championships in St. Louis, Missouri. For this event, Dennis only competed on the uneven bars. On night one, she scored a 14.500 and on night two, she scored a 14.600, giving her a score of 29.100, and placing her in twenty-fourth all-around.

2017-present: College

In the fall of 2017, Dennis began attending the University of California, Los Angeles, joining the gymnastics programme for the 2017-2018 season.[14]

Regular season ranking[15]

Season	All-Around	Vault	Uneven Bars	Balance Beam	Floor Exercise
2018	N/A	28th	43rd	N/A	109th
2019	N/A	23rd	N/A	347th	86th
2020[lower-alpha 1]	N/A	32nd	N/A	N/A	18th

1. The season was cancelled after the 10th week of competition due to the coronavirus pandemic.

Competitive history

NCAA

Year	Event	Team	AA	VT	UB	BB	FX
2018	PAC-12 Championships			13	7
	NCAA Championships			58	54
2019	PAC-12 Championships			8	8
	NCAA Championships				7		20
2020	PAC-12 Championships	Canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic in the USA [16][17]
	NCAA Championships

References

1. "2010 Cover Girl Classic. Meet Results - Multi Women - Hope 10-11" (PDF). Gymnastics Results. USA Gymnastics. 25 July 2010. Archived from the original (PDF) on 9 March 2016. Retrieved 29 December 2014.
2. "CoverGirl Classic Chicago, IL (USA) 2011 July 23 Artistic Gymnastics Results Women Junior". Gymnastics Results. 23 July 2011. Archived from the original on 8 October 2017. Retrieved 29 December 2014.
3. "Nia Dennis Profile". GymDivas.us. Archived from the original on 12 October 2014. Retrieved 29 December 2014.
4. "2012 Visa Championships - Women Day 2 Meet Results - Juniors" (PDF). Gymnastics Results. USA Gymnastics. 10 June 2012. Archived from the original (PDF) on 20 July 2013. Retrieved 29 December 2014.
5. "2013 Secret U.S. Classic Meet Results" (PDF). Gymnastics Results. USA Gymnastics. 27 July 2013. Archived from the original (PDF) on 18 March 2015. Retrieved 29 December 2014.
6. "2013 P&G Championships - Women Day 2 Meet Results - Multi" (PDF). Gymnastics Results. USA Gymnastics. 17 August 2013. p. 1. Retrieved 29 December 2014.
7. "VII Trofeo Cita' di Jesolo 2014 Jesolo (Venice) (ITA) 2014 Mar 22-23 Artistic Gymnastics Results Women Senior & Junior". Gymnastics Results. Archived from the original on 30 July 2014. Retrieved 29 December 2014.
8. "2014 Pacific Rim Championships April 9-12, 2014 – Richmond Olympic Oval Team and All-Around Results" (PDF). Pacific Rim 2014 Gymnastics Championships. 9 April 2014. Archived from the original (PDF) on 13 April 2014. Retrieved 29 December 2014.
9. "2017-18 Dennis to UCLA - CollegeGymFans.com". collegegymfans.com.
10. Greaves, James. "Nia Dennis Relocates to Illinois, Training at Legacy Elite", Chatty Gymnast, 13 July 2015. Retrieved on 13 July 2015.
11. "USA Gymnastics announces 2015 World Championships training squad". USA Gymnastics.
12. "Stuttgart World Cup Competitors Announced". January 26, 2016.
13. Hopkins, Lauren (February 18, 2016). "Okay, I can confirm that Nia Dennis has torn her Achilles. Truly heartbroken for her after such a strong return to the sport last summer".
14. Vera, Amir. "UCLA gymnast Nia Dennis has crowd falling crazy in love with her Beyoncé-inspired routine". CNN. Retrieved 2020-03-12.
15. "Standings". roadtonationals.com. Retrieved 2019-04-25.
16. "Pac-12 statement on men's basketball tournament, Pac-12 sport competitions and Pac-12 championship events". Pac-12 Conference. March 11, 2020.
17. "NCAA cancels remaining winter and spring championships due to coronavirus concerns". NCAA. March 13, 2020.