Madison "Maddie" Desch (born August 25, 1997) is a retired American artistic gymnast who was a member of the gold medal winning US team at the

2014 World Artistic Gymnastics Championships The 2014 World Artistic Gymnastics Championships was held in Nanning, China at the Guangxi Gymnasium from 3–12 October 2014. The competition was the fourth time a World Artistic Gymnastics Championships has been held in the continent of Asia. ...

and

2015 Pan American Games Fifteen or 15 may refer to: *15 (number), the natural number following 14 and preceding 16 *one of the years 15 BC, AD 15, 1915, 2015 Music * Fifteen (band), a punk rock band Albums * ''15'' (Buckcherry album), 2005 * ''15'' (Ani Lorak al ...

. She competed on the gymnastics team at the

University of Alabama The University of Alabama (informally known as Alabama, UA, or Bama) is a public research university in Tuscaloosa, Alabama. Established in 1820 and opened to students in 1831, the University of Alabama is the oldest and largest of the publi ...

where she accepted a full athletic scholarship to study beginning in 2016.

Junior elite career

2011

Desch's elite debut was at the 2011 CoverGirl Classic. She tied for third on vault and placed eighth on balance beam. She finished ninth in the all-around, and qualified for the Junior National Championships. At the 2011 Junior Visa Championships, Desch placed tied for seventh on vault, nineteenth on bars, seventeenth on beam, and fifth on floor exercise. She was added to the Junior National Team.

2012

At the start of the year, Desch competed at the City of Jesolo competition with teammates

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, and

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. The team won the gold medal, and Desch placed 5th in the all-around. At the U.S. Secret Classic, she placed 2nd in the all-around behind

Simone Biles Simone Arianne Biles (; born March 14, 1997) is an American artistic gymnast. Her seven Olympic medals tied with Shannon Miller for the most Olympic medals won by an American gymnast. Having won 25 World Championship medals, she is the most de ...

. At the Visa National Championships, Desch placed second in the all-around behind

. She also became the

balance beam The balance beam is a rectangular artistic gymnastics apparatus and an event performed using the apparatus. Both the apparatus and the event are sometimes simply referred to as "beam". The English abbreviation for the event in gymnastics scoring i ...

junior national champion with a score of 29.150.

Senior elite career

2013

Desch's senior debut was at the Secret US Classic. She only competed on balance beam, where she placed sixth. At the P&G National Championships, she placed ninth in the all-around and fourth on floor exercise. However, she was not added back to the National team until the November training camp.

2014

At the City of Jesolo Trophy, she contributed to the USA's gold medal finish, and placed eighth in the all-around. Desch competed two events at the 2014 Secret U.S. Classic, finishing 13th. In August and September, Desch competed at the Pan American Championships in Mississauga, Canada. She helped the American team place first in the team competition. Individually, she placed fifth in the all-around competition with a score of 54.900. Desch was selected to compete at the 2014 World Championships in Nanning, China, but she was later named the alternate.

2015

Desch competed at the 2015 City of Jesolo Trophy for the U.S. National team. On April 10, 2015, Desch announced that she was committed to the

and their gymnastics team to do collegiate gymnastics. On August 13, Desch competed at the P&G Championships where she competed on 3 events (not vault). She started on bars and scored a 13.100. She had a sub-par beam routine and scored a 13.850. On floor, she scored a 13.500. She withdrew from the remainder of the competition because of a back injury. However, Desch was invited to the Worlds training camp at the Karolyi Ranch. On November 11, 2015, she signed the National Letter of Intent to the

2016

On May 29, 2016, Desch announced her retirement from elite gymnastics via her personal Instagram account, citing a persistent back injury. She said she would focus instead on preparing for her collegiate career at the University of Alabama.

NCAA career

2017

In her freshman season at the University of Alabama, Desch was named to the Scholastic All-American, All-SEC, and SEC All-Freshman team and scored a 9.95 on both vault and floor during the regular season. Alabama advanced to the NCAA Championship final (Super Six), ultimately placing sixth.

2018

In her sophomore season, Desch was named a Scholastic All-American and to the SEC Academic Honor Roll. Alabama again advanced to the NCAA Championships, but did not make the Super Six, after placing fifth in the semifinal. She matched her career-high 9.95 on floor against Arkansas in February 2018.

2019

In her junior season, Desch earned All-SEC honors for the second time, and was named a Scholastic All-American and to the SEC Academic Honor Roll. She earned a 9.9 on floor exercise at the SEC Championships, where Alabama posted a season-high score in the first session.https://www.tidesports.com/alabama-gymnastics-sec-championships-2019/

References

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Desch, Madison Living people 1997 births Alabama Crimson Tide women's gymnasts American female artistic gymnasts Sportspeople from Kansas City, Missouri Sportspeople from Kansas People from Lenexa, Kansas Gymnasts at the 2015 Pan American Games Pan American Games gold medalists for the United States Pan American Games silver medalists for the United States Pan American Games medalists in gymnastics U.S. women's national team gymnasts Medalists at the 2015 Pan American Games