Eight Medals for Ragan and Emma!
chris burdette
Ragan Smith of Lewisville and Emma Malabuyo of Flower Mound traveled to Italy for the City of Jesolo Trophy this weekend, adding eight special souvenirs to their suitcases for the trip home.
Both had super-consistent performances in Italy with clean work and no mistakes in a very competitive competition. In a field of 27 senior-level competitors (those born in 2000 or earlier), Ragan placed second in the all-around on Saturday, only six tenths behind 2012 Olympic all-around champion Gabby Douglas! She had big scores on all four events for a total of 59.05, contributing to the team gold medal in addition to the silver of her own. On Sunday, Ragan competed in the beam and floor finals, winning the silver medals on both. She had the highest execution score on beam for her clean work there, and the Italian crowd loved her Addams Family floor routine.
Emma competed in the junior division, which featured 25 young gymnasts born in 2001 or later from the United States, Italy, Canada, Germany, Slovenia, and Finland. She earned a silver all-around medal on Saturday, earning spots in all three event finals she hoped to qualify into. Emma picked up silver medals for her clean work on bars and her beautiful performance on floor, and then blew the competition away on beam with both the highest difficulty and the cleanest routine on beam, winning the gold medal there by a full point – a huge win in a sport where tenths and hundredths of points can decide your fate!
For both, the City of Jesolo Trophy was a very strong start to their 2016 season, especially for Ragan, who is hoping to make it to the Olympic Games in Rio this summer (Emma’s not old enough and will have to patiently wait until 2020 for her shot). After their success, the two enjoyed a day of fun in Venice, but now it’s back to Texas Dreams to train hard for the season still to come.