UCLA's Madison Kocian Earns Academic All-America Honors
June 19, 2020 | Gymnastics
UCLA gymnast Madison Kocian has been selected by the College Sports Information Directors of America (CoSIDA) as a second-team Academic All-American in the women's at-large category.
Kocian, the 2020 Pac-12 Gymnastics Scholar Athlete of the Year and UCLA Female Scholar-Athlete of the Year, was selected to the second team in the women's at-large category, which covers 14 sports. A senior psychology major, she accumulated a 3.846 cumulative GPA and earned Women's Collegiate Gymnastics Association (WCGA) Scholastic All-America and Pac-12 All-Academic honors three times. She received UCLA's Athletic Director's Academic Excellence Award in 2020 for completing her career with Director's Honor Roll distinction every quarter at UCLA and was also a UCLA All-Academic team honoree in 2018 and 2019. Most recently, Kocian was selected as a recipient of the 2019-20 Pac-12 Tom Hansen Conference Medal, which is awarded annually to a senior male and female at each member institution who best exhibits a combination of performance and achievement in scholarship, athletics and leadership.
Just a few months after winning team gold and uneven bars silver at the 2016 Olympic Games, Kocian made NCAA history when she became the first Olympic gold medalist to compete in collegiate gymnastics. She went on to win Pac-12 Freshman of the Week honors twice and Pac-12 Gymnast of the Week acclaim in 2017 and captured 16 individual titles, including the NCAA Regional uneven bars and floor exercise titles. In 2018, Kocian had a key role in helping UCLA win the NCAA team title and became one of just two female gymnasts ever to win NCAA, World and Olympic championships. The seven-time All-American and five-time All-Pac-12 honoree scored two career perfect 10s on uneven bars, the event in which she won Olympic silver in 2016 and World gold in 2015.
Kocian, who will be seeking a postgraduate career as an orthopedic physician assistant, becomes just the fourth Bruin gymnast ever to earn Academic All-America honors, joining Jill Andrews (1990), Kate Richardson (2004-06) and Samantha Peszek (2015). Kocian earns UCLA's 127th all-time Academic All-America selection.
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