Widner Named Athlete of the Year
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Chloe Widner, who competes for Texas Dreams Gymnastics, was named Junior Olympic Athlete of the Year by USA Gymnastics.
IRVING, TEXAS — 16-year-old Chloe Widner was named the Junior Olympic Athlete of the Year at the annual Texas USA Gymnastics Honoree Banquet held at the Irving Convention Center last week.
Widner, who is coached by Kim Zmeskal-Burdette and Chris Burdette of Texas Dreams, has qualified to Junior Olympic national championships every year since reaching level 10 — the highest level in the J.O. system — in 2015.
After showing consistent improvement each year, Widner earned her first national title at this year’s national championships in Indianapolis, Ind., taking the gold medal for her excellent floor exercise performance. Widner also placed second all-around and on vault and fourth on the uneven bars and balance beam in her division, the strongest overall competition for any gymnast from Texas.
In addition to her success at nationals, Widner was the Region 3 all-around, bars, and beam champion this year, and won the gold medals on every event but vault at state championships. Widner was also the state and regional all-around champion in 2016, and she has been named to the J.O. national team two years in a row for her excellence in competition, the highest honor a J.O. gymnast can achieve.
A student at Lakeland Christian Academy, Widner committed to the University of Arizona for her NCAA career, receiving a full-ride scholarship from the program that ranked 26th nationally in 2017 among collegiate gymnastics teams. Widner is expected to join the Wildcats in the 2019-2020 season, and should come in as an invaluable member of the team, able to add big scores on all four events.
About Texas Dreams Gymnastics
Texas Dreams Gymnastics has a long history of training the nation’s most talented gymnasts. Owners Kim Zmeskal-Burdette and Chris Burdette and their staff operate from an enormous 36,000 square-foot arena. Zmeskal-Burdette is the USA’s first world champion gymnast, and is also an Olympic medalist and International Hall of Fame member.
Texas Dreams is renowned for innovated and inspired coaching and training in all gymnastics trends and techniques. The gym has a record of developing talented athletes at every age level, and has a history of placing elite gymnasts on the U.S. national team every year. For more information about Texas Dreams, please visit www.texasdreams.com or call 972.471.2345.