Marissa Oakley (born April 15, 1999) is an American artistic gymnast.

Early life

Marissa Oakley was born on April 15, 1999 in

Naperville, Illinois Naperville ( ) is a city in DuPage County, Illinois, DuPage and Will County, Illinois, Will counties in the U.S. state of Illinois. It is in the Chicago metro area, west of the city. Naperville was founded in 1831 by Joseph Naper. The city was ...

to parents, Dan and Jill Oakley. She has two sisters; Angelique and Joslyn. She got into gymnastics because her older sister, Angelique, was in it and Marissa wanted to do it. She started gymnastics in 2006 at Premier Gymnastics as a level four gymnast. She quickly progressed through the Junior Olympic levels and was a Level 10 in 2010; at ten years old.

Gymnastics career

2010-14: Junior Olympic career

Her first J.O. Nationals was in 2011; placing 48th in the Junior A division. She was State champion in 2012 and later placed twenty-seventh at J.O. Nationals. In 2013, her fourth season as a level ten, she won Regionals. At Nationals, she finished fifth in the Junior A division as well as tying for second on bars with Emily Gaskins and Grace Waguespack. In addition, she tied for third with Rachael Lukacs too. On November 23, 2013, she verbally committed to the

University of Georgia , mottoeng = "To teach, to serve, and to inquire into the nature of things.""To serve" was later added to the motto without changing the seal; the Latin motto directly translates as "To teach and to inquire into the nature of things." , establ ...

and their gymnastics team. Oakley remained a level ten for the 2014 Junior Olympic season and her prowess showed; winning both State and Regional titles. At Nationals, Marissa finished eleventh in the all-around but tied for third on beam with Sophia Carter.

2014-present: International Elite

In March, prior to the Level 10 championship season, Oakley participated in one of the National Elite Qualifier events; held in

California California is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, located along the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the List of states and territori ...

. She finished third in the all-around with a score of 54.100, which was enough to qualify her to the

U.S. Classic The U.S. Classic is an annual summer gymnastics meet for elite artistic gymnasts of the United States. The meet occurs before Nationals and is a qualifier for it. In Olympic years, the aforementioned meets along with the U.S. Olympic Trials are u ...

. At 2017 Classics, Oakley finished in fourth on the uneven bars behind

Ragan Smith Ragan Elizabeth Smith (born August 8, 2000) is an American collegiate gymnast. She is a five-time member of the United States women's national gymnastics team, US National Team (2014–2019). She is the 2017 U.S. National Gymnastics Championship ...

Alyona Shchennikova Yelena Aleksandrovna "Alyona" Shchennikova (russian: Елена Александровна "Алёна" Щенникова, born May 12, 2001) is an American artistic gymnast. She was a member of the U.S. National Team from 2017–19 and was the ...

, and

Trinity Thomas Trinity Lemyra Thomas (born April 7, 2001) is an American artistic gymnast and a four-time National Team member (2016–20). She was a member of the gold-medal winning team at the 2018 Pan American Gymnastics Championships, where she also won s ...

and tied with

Margzetta Frazier Margzetta Bryantina Frazier (born February 25, 2000) is an American artistic gymnast. She was a US National Team member from 2017–2018 and was the 2018 Birmingham World Cup silver medalist. She is currently a member of the UCLA Gymnastics ...

. Later that summer, Oakley attended nationals, where she placed third on the uneven bars behind

Riley McCusker Riley Shannon McCusker (born July 9, 2001) is an American artistic gymnast and a six-time member of the United States women's national gymnastics team (2016–2021). She is the 2019 Pan American Games and 2017 United States national uneven ba ...

and

Ashton Locklear Ashton Taylor Locklear (born January 13, 1998) is a retired American artistic gymnast from North Carolina. She was a member of the gold medal-winning United States team at the 2014 World Artistic Gymnastics Championships, and is a two-time nati ...

and tied with Smith.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Oakley, Marissa 1999 births Living people American female artistic gymnasts Sportspeople from Naperville, Illinois People from Oswego, Illinois Georgia Gym Dogs gymnasts NCAA gymnasts who have scored a perfect 10