Sabrina Vega

Sabrina Vega (born May 24, 1995) is a retired American gymnast from Carmel, New York. She was a member of the United States team that won gold at the 2011 World Artistic Gymnastics Championships. She was a five-year national team member and trained at Dynamic Gymnastics in Mohegan Lake until 2013 when she switched gyms to train at Great American Gymnastics Express. She began competing for the University of Georgia in 2017.

For the Spanish chess player, see Sabrina Vega (chess player).
Sabrina Vega
Nickname(s)Sabby
Country represented United States
Born (1995-05-24) May 24, 1995
Carmel, New York, U.S.
Height5 ft 1 in (155 cm)
DisciplineWomen's artistic gymnastics
LevelSenior
Years on national team2008-2012
ClubGreat American Gymnastics Express
College teamGeorgia Gymdogs
Head coach(es)Al Fong and Armine Barutyan Fong
Former coach(es)Sorin Cepoi
Teodora Ungureanu
RetiredOctober 3, 2015 (elite), April 3, 2020 (NCAA)
Medal record
Women's artistic gymnastics
Representing  United States
World Championships
2011 TokyoTeam
Pacific Rim Championships
2010 MelbourneTeam
2010 MelbourneBalance Beam
Pan American Championships
2010 GuadalajaraTeam
2010 GuadalajaraBalance Beam
2010 GuadalajaraAll-Around
Websitewww.sabrinavega.com

Personal life

Vega was born to David and Jahaira Vega. Her father was a gymnast when he was younger. Her younger brother, David Jr., plays baseball and football. Vega began gymnastics in 2000.[1] Vega filed a lawsuit against the Karolyis, USA Gymnastics and USOC for the abuse she suffered by Larry Nassar, the former national team doctor. She joins well over 300 women and girls who were victims of Nassar's abuse.

Elite career

In 2009, Vega competed at the United States Junior National Championships in Dallas, Texas. She won gold on the floor exercise, bronze on balance beam, and finished fourth in the all-around.[2] She competed at the 2009 Junior Pan American Championships in Aracaju, Brazil where she helped the United States team win the gold medal. She won silvers in the all-around and on uneven bars behind teammate Kyla Ross.

In her first major meet as a senior, Vega placed third in the all-around (56.85) at the 2011 CoverGirl Classic on July 23 in Chicago, IL. She captured second place on floor (14.25) and finished fourth on vault (14.6).[3]

In August, Vega placed fifth all-around at the 2011 U.S. National Championships in St. Paul, Minnesota, with a two-night score of 112.05.[4] Vega earned fourth place on floor exercise (28.9) and fifth place on beam (28.85).[5]

Vega was named to the Worlds team along with Alicia Sacramone, Gabby Douglas, McKayla Maroney, Aly Raisman, and Jordyn Wieber. The team went on to win gold in the team final, where Vega competed on bars and beam.

Vega competed at the 2012 Olympic Trials. She finished 10th in the all-around and was not named to the team.

Sabrina didn't train in 2013 but resumed training mid-2014 and attended the final U.S. training camp in November 2014.[6]

On July 25, 2015, Vega returned to Elite competition for the first time since 2012 after transferring to GAGE with Al Fong and Armine Barutyan-Fong and new teammates Brenna Dowell and Madison Desch. She competed on uneven bars, beam, and floor. She scored a 0 on bars because she did an exhibition only on the event. She had a sub-par beam routine with a 5.6 start value and sustained an overtime. She scored a 12.500 to finish 14th on the event. She had a fall on floor despite a good 5.7 difficulty and scored a 13.200, finishing 11th on floor.

On October 3, 2015, Vega announced that she had retired from elite gymnastics and would be accepting a scholarship to the University of Georgia and would be competing in NCAA gymnastics for the Georgia Gym Dogs [7]

NCAA career

2017 (Freshman)

Vega competed beam and floor consistently throughout the season, with season-highs of 9.9 and 9.95 respectively.[8] Georgia qualified for the NCAA Women's Gymnastics Championships, where they placed 12th.

2018 (Sophomore)

Vega competed beam and floor at every meet and vault in all but one, earned first team All-American honors on floor, earned SEC Specialist of the Week, and repeatedly led the team on floor. At the 2018 Tuscaloosa Regional, Georgia came in ranked 18th and was not favored to advance to the NCAA Championships. However, the higher-ranked Michigan team struggled and Vega hit the final routine of the day for Georgia. Thanks to Vega's solid 9.875 on beam, Georgia edged out Illinois by 0.075 for the second slot at Nationals.[9] Surpassing expectations, Georgia finished 7th at the Championships, just missing out on a spot in the finals.[10]

2019 (Junior)

Entering her junior year as a team leader,[11] Vega was named SEC Specialist of the Year and earned regular season first team All-American honors on beam and second team honors on floor. She competed three events (vault, beam, floor) in every single meet. Georgia again qualified for Nationals, where they placed 8th.

2020 (Senior)

In her final season, Vega added bars to her program and competed all four events for the first time since 2012. Unfortunately, her final season was cut short due to the COVID-19 pandemic, but she finished ranked in the top 20 nationally on beam and the top 10 nationally on floor and "was Georgia’s leading scorer five times on beam, nine times on floor, and three times in the all-around," according to the UGA athletics department.[12] She earned regular season All-American honors and two SEC Specialist of the Week awards, while landing among ESPN Top-10 "Should Go Viral" floor routines.[13] Vega also was nominated for the AAI Award, "widely considered the Heisman Trophy of Women’s gymnastics."[14]

Vega was also a strong student at Georgia, majoring in biology and minoring in public health, with the goal of attending medical school.[15]

References
  1. "Sabrina Vega". usagym.org. Retrieved May 8, 2013.
  2. "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 2009-09-06. Retrieved 2009-08-30.CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  3. "2011 Cover Girl Classic Meet Results" (PDF) (Press release). USA Gymnastics. 23 July 2011. Retrieved 25 July 2011.
  4. "Women – 2011 Visa Championships - Women Day 2". Factsheet. USA Gymnastics. 20 August 2011. Retrieved 22 August 2011.
  5. "2011 Visa Championships - Women Day 2 Beam Rankings" (PDF). Factsheet. USA Gymnastics. 20 August 2011. Retrieved 23 August 2011.
  6. https://usagym.org/pages/post.html?PostID=15218&prog=h
  7. https://instagram.com/p/8YXtLKkNAy/
  8. "Sabrina Vega - 2020 - Gymnastics". University of Georgia Athletics. Retrieved 2020-09-24.
  9. balancebeamsituation (2018-04-07). "Regionals Live Blog". The Balance Beam Situation. Retrieved 2020-09-24.
  10. "Teams". roadtonationals.com. Retrieved 2020-09-24.
  11. "Teams". roadtonationals.com. Retrieved 2020-09-24.
  12. "Sabrina Vega - 2020 - Gymnastics". University of Georgia Athletics. Retrieved 2020-09-24.
  13. "Gymdogs 2020 Season Recap". University of Georgia Athletics. Retrieved 2020-09-24.
  14. "2020 AAI Award nominees announced -". 2020-02-14. Retrieved 2020-09-25.
  15. Sudge, Brandon (5 April 2019). ""Equal passions: Sabrina Vega balances stellar GymDog performances with pre-med track"". The Telegraph.
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