INDIANAPOLIS — McKayla Maroney has recently been “in and out of the gym” for health reasons, and if she hopes to make a second Olympic team in 2016, it will be very tough, U.S. national team coordinator Martha Karolyi said Wednesday.
Maroney hasn’t competed since the 2013 World Championships and is not competing at the P&G Championships that start here Thursday. The Olympic vault silver medalist’s health issues are documented here.
On Wednesday, Karolyi was asked if she had any updates on Maroney’s status and if Maroney was still training for the Rio Olympics.
“I don’t think so,” Karolyi said. “I just talked to [one of Maroney’s coaches] Galina [Marinova at the Secret Classic the week of July 25]. … She said [Maroney] still looks like [she] has some heart problems, so she was in and out of the gym. So I feel like it will be very hard at this moment if she is not included in a very regimented training because it mostly will be like it happened in the last cycle with some of the girls.”
In the last Olympic cycle, 2008 Olympians Nastia Liukin, Shawn Johnson, Alicia Sacramone and Chellsie Memmel tried to return after breaks of various lengths to make the 2012 Olympic team. None made it.
When asked to confirm Karolyi’s comment later Wednesday, an official from Maroney’s longtime California gym repeated that Maroney has been in and out of the gym due to injury.
Maroney was adamant in an August 2014 interview that she’s determined to make the 2016 Olympic team.
“For people who don’t think I’m, like, really serious about this, you’re wrong,” Maroney said in a USA Gymnastics interview while attending the 2014 Secret Classic. “I want this so bad. I’m not just messing around, chilling, acting. I’ll do that later.”
