A Victory Lap for Skylar Killough-Wilhelm in Her Final Season of Gymnastics

For her first four years in the NCAA, Skylar Killough-Wilhelm was a star at the University of Washington. In 2021, she was the first GymDog freshman to compete in the All-Around since 2014 and the fifth ever GymDog freshman to compete All-Around in their first collegiate meet. Throughout her career at Washington, she earned incredible career highs, including 9.975s on bars and floor and a 39.700 in the All-Around. In 2024, she finished out her career at Washington as an AAI Award Nominee and qualified to NCAA Championships as an individual, where she was named a Bars First Team All-American and All-Around Second Team All-American. 

After the conclusion of the 2024 season, Washington’s head coach Jen Llewellyn took the head coach position at the University of Iowa, and Skylar was left to make a decision. Before the coaching change, she was planning to take her 5th year (given to all athletes who competed in the 2020-2021 season because of COVID) at Washington, but with the sudden change, she saw an opportunity to explore new options. The transfer portal was already closed, but because of the coaching change, Skylar had 30 days to enter the portal. Within two weeks, she entered the portal and started what she called a fast-paced and unexpected process that eventually led her to the University of Kentucky.

“This experience is such a gift, and I’m just trying to soak up as many opportunities, experiences, and lessons as I can,” Skylar said. “That was the whole point going into [transferring]. It was such a faithful leap, and I had to ask myself, ‘What do I want out of this experience?’ A lot of things came to mind, but I really just wanted a new opportunity and to see where I could go.”

In her 5th and final year of NCAA gymnastics at Kentucky, Skylar has made an immediate impact. She’s consistently competing in the All-Around; she’s competing upgrades, and she’s hoping to lead Kentucky back to the NCAA Championships.

Going back to her career at Washington, Skylar finished out her time as a GymDog qualifying to and competing at the NCAA Championships, a moment she says she will never forget. Watching the Cal Regional Final with her team, Sklyar needed Stanford to qualify in order to go to Nationals, and it came down to Chloe Widner’s floor routine. 

“When she hit her floor routine, that moment, I knew I was going, and I just couldn’t believe it. Everything had to work out how it needed to for me to go. I just felt so grateful and truly blessed that I was given that opportunity to represent UW. Obviously, I have a lot of love and respect for them. To be able to go to Nationals as an individual to represent them meant the whole world. It was so crazy competing on a stage like that. I just was at so much peace just knowing that I got the opportunity to even go.”

Coming to Kentucky, Skylar was surprised by the competitiveness in the SEC, but now, she uses it as motivation. “I think the fans really enjoy gymnastics in the South, and you can really feel it,” she said. “The energy is so different, and there’s just this passion for it, and this passion for sports, not only gymnastics, but it’s been crazy. I never would’ve expected anything like this, coming to another school. Washington was great. They had tons of fans, but I definitely feel like there’s a rivalry between different SEC schools. Every week, you’re competing against, pretty much, a top 15 team. There’s this hunger to want to continue to build from week to week.”

A Season of Upgrades

Skylar explained that a major reason she’s able to compete her upgrades this season – a Yurchenko 1.5 and a double layout off bars – is because of the facilities Kentucky offers. At Washington, over the summer, she’d have to go to a different gym to be able to use equipment needed to consistently train her upgrades. Now, Kentucky’s gym is much more extensive. 

Kentucky’s Athletic Department’s resources also help sustain her through the season. “They have amazing athletic trainers that really, really care about us,” Skylar said. “We have massages, and we get dry needling and cupping. Also, we fly charter. That’s something that seemed completely new to me. I’d never flown private for gymnastics meets, but they put our bodies first here. Being able to charter really helps us sustain our bodies for the long 13, 14-week season.”

With her upgrades, knowing this is her last season, the coaching staff at Kentucky saw potential in Skylar for more. “I knew I had more potential in me, and I really pushed myself,” Skylar said. “My coaches here really saw that in me. They saw that potential, and they wanted to explore where I could go further. That really inspired me, that they believed in me. I don’t think I could’ve done it without them.”

Especially with her Yurchenko 1.5, Skylar is grateful for Assistant Coach Chad Wiest.

Wiest coached at Washington for Skylar’s freshman year and reached out to Skylar within an hour of her entering the portal. “I struggled mentally on the 1.5 for a few years,” she said. “It’s been a process, and every year looks different for me, but I think what it came down to was numbers, and I just have been able to get in more numbers here. It’s crazy that I’m doing it, but I’m so grateful I am because I knew I could. It’s been great working with Chad. He’s really helped me a lot with that.”

Skylar also loves having the support of Kentucky’s newest Assistant Coach Raena Worley behind her. “I remember sitting in the stands at Nationals, watching her compete after I competed earlier that day,” Skylar said. “It was so amazing to watch her do her floor routine and just see how happy she was. You could tell that she was so happy with her career. Being able to have her as a coach has been really amazing because I looked up to her so much as an athlete. I’m also friends with her, and she just brings this light-heartedness, and she knows what it takes to win. It’s really cool having that experience on the team, as a leader and as a coach. I think it offers a great perspective for us.”

Skylar is known for her stunning execution, especially on bars, what she says is her favorite event. “I think it has to do with the foundation of my club career,” she said. “I think that I had a lot of coaches that really instilled the importance of basics and extension through your lines. That club career built on the standard that Kentucky Gymnastics has. I think that I’m held to that standard every single day. [Head Coach] Tim [Garrison] knows what I’m capable of. I’m really grateful that he does push me to continue to uphold the execution that I came in with.”

As Her Career Comes to a Close

In terms of goals for the end of her career, Skylar sees her 5th year as a victory lap. “I think that it’s just about having fun for me at this point,” she said. “I’ve prepared 19 years for this moment. To put pressure on myself like that, that’s not the goal. I’m not trying to put pressure on this year at all. I’m just trying to have fun and enjoy it with the teammates that I’ve been given. They are so special, and they mean the whole world to me.”

She also thrives in the competitive environment of NCAA gymnastics and wants to qualify to Nationals with her team. “It’s more than anything, but I want to go to Nationals with my team,” Skylar said. “I know that’s a huge goal of ours, not only that, but to show the world who Kentucky is and that we are so undercounted. We are here, we are ready, and we want it so bad. I think that it’s just like a year of hunger. I’m so grateful that I get to be a part of that.”

Now with just a few more meets left in her career, Skylar says she’s at peace with her career coming to a close. 

“I think it all starts with what is your identity in? That’s something that I’ve been challenged with this year, especially, but with my team, they make it very clear that I’m more than just a gymnast, and I’m more than just their teammate. I am a strong, independent person that is worthy of love. It sounds so corny, but they help remind me that I’m going to be okay no matter what, and that my life has purpose after gymnastics. Putting my identity in something that is bigger than myself and in my faith, I think is so important so that I don’t get dragged into this idea that, ‘Am I going to be okay after gymnastics? What am I going to do? I’m not going to be okay after going from four hours a day to zero.’ I think it’s just very important to understand that we’re more than gymnasts and that life is not all about gymnastics.”

Along with finishing out her gymnastics career at Kentucky, she’s also completing an Applied Nutrition and Culinary Medicine Graduate Certificate along with the final classes she needs to apply to nursing school. At Washington, she’d have to take a class or two at a community college to finish out the requirements for nursing school, but she’s been able to complete them all at Kentucky. 

She also loves how Kentucky has given her a ton of opportunities for horseback riding. She was a part of the Saddle Seat Club at Kentucky earlier this year. “Being able to be here, there’s horses everywhere you look,” Skylar said. “I’m such a horse girl, and I’m not afraid to admit it, but I just love them so much.”

Gymnastics has been a part of Skylar’s life for almost as long as she can remember, which makes gymnastics mean a lot to her family as well. 

“As every family does in the sport, I think a lot of sacrifices are made. I moved from Colorado to Iowa when I was seven, and I trained at Chow’s, and my mom made that move. Our family split up for two years, and it was a sacrifice that we had to make, that my mom made for me to be able to do what I loved. I didn’t even realize the impact of her selflessness until I was much, much older. This last year is really for them. They’ve given me so much. My sister has given up so much for me to do what I need, and I just am so grateful for them. So this year is really for them.”

Skylar is also very grateful that her dad is now able to watch her compete at Kentucky. He has Parkinson’s disease and was never able to watch her compete at Washington because of how far she was away from home. 

Lastly, when asked about a favorite moment from her career, Skylar spoke about Dan Miller, her club coach who sadly passed away after a short battle with cancer in July of 2024. Miller took Skylar under his wing at Triad Gymnastics in Ankeny, Iowa when she moved back home after a serious Ulnar Nerve Transposition surgery. Previously, Skylar was living with her coaches in Tennessee, but because of the surgery, she thought her time with gymnastics was over. “He saw a lot in me,” Skylar said. “At that time, I didn’t even know if I wanted to do gymnastics anymore. He pushed me to be the best gymnast that I could, and I credit a lot of my success to him.”

Looking to the NCAA Championships in 2024, Miller flew to Fort Worth to surprise Skylar. “It was the greatest surprise ever,” she said. “To know that he was able to be there for me, and he was the one who also helped me get there, that meant the entire world.”

Since he passed away, Skylar has dedicated this season to him. 

“All these upgrades that I have, every time I came home in the summer, he would ask ‘When are those upgrades gonna be in there?’ I just feel that he’s impacted me in so many ways and that these upgrades are from him. He’s just inspired me to really go all in this year and to show the world that anyone can do this. This year has been really special because it’s a dream to make it to Nationals again. I know that if I do, and even if I don’t, I know that he’s been there with me throughout this entire process.”

Photo Credit: Lloyd Smith for Inside Gymnastics and UK Athletics

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