Shannon Miller's Junior Elite Gymnastics Career

Shannon Miller began her competitive gymnastics career in class II competitions locally in the fall of 1986, skipping the first two classes due to her increased ability level (back then class IV was the lowest and I was the highest).

Her first season of competition wasn't smooth sailing. At her first competition in Dallas, she fell off the beam (but she did well in her other events). In fact, she usually fell at least once at every competition. She had to get accustomed to the different equipment at each meet, as well as the fans, judges, nerves, and wearing grips for the uneven bars to prevent blistering. But she had adjusted well by the end of the season, winning the class II state championships.

Her coach, Steve Nunno, thought Shannon was capable of going straight through to the elite level due to her bag of gymnastics tricks, so he had her skip class I. Her first national competition was the team competition at the 1987 U.S. Association of Independent Gymnastics Clubs' (USAIGC) National Gymnastics Championships. She fell on beam but came back and scored a 9.25 on floor, and her team won third place.

Shannon's first major elite level meet was the 1988 American Classic where she was 2nd in the junior B division. She went on to the U.S. Classic a month later and won the all-around, vault, and beam, establishing herself as the best junior B gymnast in the country. Due to her placement here, she was invited to the Junior Pan-American Games for her first gymnastics competition abroad. There, she finished 2nd all-around and 3rd in the uneven bars.

She went on to perform at the Dragon Invitational where she placed 8th overall, even with senior national members competing. At the 1989 American Classic she won the junior division all-around, bars, beam, and floor and qualified to the Olympic Sports Festival. A month later at the U.S. Classic, she pulled a hamstring that affected her performance and placed 6th all-around.

Next, Shannon competed in the 1989 Junior Nationals where she placed 3rd with scores of 9.475 on vault, 9.65 on uneven bars, and a 9.10 on floor where she landed short on her last tumbling pass. She went on to win bars in the individual event finals. Then she participated in the Peachtree Classic and finished fourth.

Shannon had made the junior national gymnastics team and was the 1st junior to ever be invited to the American Cup in 1990 (where she finished 6th overall). She also participated in the International Mixed Pairs competition with Tom Schlesinger, the 1990 Canadian Cup where she was 9th, and the Pyramid Challenge: USA vs. Germany where she ended up as the 7th gymnast after falls on beam and floor. This marked the end of her junior career, as she decided to enter the 1990 U.S. Championships as a senior at only 13 years old.