Toni-Ann Natasha Williams (born November 20, 1995) is a

Jamaican American Jamaican Americans are an ethnic group of Caribbean Americans who have full or partial Jamaicans, Jamaican ancestry. The largest proportions of Jamaican Americans live in South Florida and New York City, both of which have been home to large Jam ...

artistic gymnast that competed in college gymnastics for the Cal Bears women's gymnastics team. She has also been a member of the Jamaica national gymnastics team since 2010. She is the inaugural Jamaican gymnast to compete in the Olympics, in 2016.

Personal life

Williams was born in Maryland on November 20, 1995 to parents, Tony and Marlene Williams. As her parents are both from Jamaica, Williams is eligible to compete for that country in

FIG The fig is the edible fruit of ''Ficus carica'', a species of small tree in the flowering plant family Moraceae. Native to the Mediterranean and western Asia, it has been cultivated since ancient times and is now widely grown throughout the world ...

international competitions. Through her mother, Williams is a niece of Jamaican politician

Anthony Hylton George Anthony Hylton (born 27 April 1957) is a Jamaican politician who served as Foreign minister, Minister of Foreign Affairs from 2006 to 2007. Career Hylton was elected Member of Parliament (Jamaica), member of parliament with the People's ...

. She grew up in Randallstown, Maryland, attended Greenspring Montessori School for eleven years, and graduated from Roland Park Country School in 2014. She is currently attending

University of California, Berkeley The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California) is a public land-grant research university in Berkeley, California. Established in 1868 as the University of California, it is the state's first land-grant u ...

and is a member of the Golden Bears gymnastics team. She has three sisters, Maya, Kristine and Zitafa. Her sister, Maya, is also a gymnast on the Jamaica National team.

Club career

Toni-Ann trained at United Gymnastix in Reisterstown, Maryland throughout her whole club career. She moved up to Level 10 in 2009 and joined the Jamaica national gymnastics team in 2010. In 2011, she was State and Regional Champion and competed in her first international competition, the

2011 World Artistic Gymnastics Championships The 2011 World Artistic Gymnastics Championships were held in Tokyo, Japan, from October 7–16, 2011, at the Tokyo Metropolitan Gymnasium. Due to uncertainty over the nuclear situation following the 2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami, the Inte ...

in Tokyo, Japan. She was hoping to qualify to the

2012 Olympics The 2012 Summer Olympics (officially the Games of the XXX Olympiad and also known as London 2012) was an international multi-sport event held from 27 July to 12 August 2012 in London, England, United Kingdom. The first event, the ...

but was unable because she didn't meet requirements at the 2011 Worlds. In 2012, she was again crowned State Champion. Williams represented Jamaica at her second World Championships in 2013, in Antwerp, Belgium. In 2014, Toni-Ann was State Champion for the fourth time in her Level 10 career.

College career

Williams' first season in the NCAA was during the 2015 season for the

California Bears The California Golden Bears are the sport, athletic teams that represent the University of California, Berkeley. Referred to in athletic competition as ''California'' or ''Cal'', the university fields 30 Varsity team, varsity athletic programs ...

2015 season: Freshman

Williams quickly became one of Cal's top gymnasts to ever compete in the program, even in her freshman season. On February 13, 2015, during a regular season meet against Oregon State, she broke the school record on vault, scoring a 9.975. During the regular season, she peaked at #1 nationally on floor on February 23, 2015 and has reached as high as #5 nationally on vault (on March 2, 2015). She qualified to the 2015 NCAA Women's Gymnastics Championships as an individual all-arounder.

2016 Olympics bid

In February 2015, it was announced that she and British gymnast and

UCLA The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) is a public land-grant research university in Los Angeles, California. UCLA's academic roots were established in 1881 as a teachers college then known as the southern branch of the California St ...

gymnast,

Danusia Francis Danusia May Francis-Reid (born 13 May 1994) is a retired British artistic gymnast who represented Great Britain and Jamaica in international competition. She was a reserve athlete for Great Britain's 2012 Olympic team. She attended UCLA and c ...

, would participate at the

2015 World Artistic Gymnastics Championships The 2015 World Artistic Gymnastics Championships was the forty-sixth edition of the Artistic Gymnastics World Championships. The competition was held from 23 October – 1 November 2015 at The SSE Hydro in Glasgow, United Kingdom, and is the fir ...

and try to qualify for the

2016 Olympics ) , nations = 207 (including IOA and EOR teams) , athletes = 11,238 , events = 306 in 28 sports (41 disciplines) , opening = 5 August 2016 , closing = 21 August 2016 , opened_by = Vice President Michel Temer , cauldron = Vanderlei Cordeiro ...

in Rio de Janeiro.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Williams, Toni-Ann 1995 births People from Randallstown, Maryland American female artistic gymnasts Jamaican female artistic gymnasts California Golden Bears women's gymnasts American people of Jamaican descent Living people Gymnasts at the 2016 Summer Olympics Olympic gymnasts for Jamaica Gymnasts at the 2019 Pan American Games Pan American Games competitors for Jamaica NCAA gymnasts who have scored a perfect 10