Judy Abdalla Goha is a World Cup medalist, World Championships qualifier in the all-around, key member of the Egyptian National Team and now a member of the Illinois gymnastics team. A four-star recruit by College Gym News, Abdalla brings a wealth of international competition experience to a team in the midst of a rebuilding phase.

After the NCAA ruled that athletes no longer had to choose between going professional or maintaining their college eligibility, there was a mass influx of elite athletes committing and competing for top-ranked schools.

However, college gymnasts are not required to perform at the same level as elite competitors. This has made it a fun guessing game for fans to decide what skills the best in the world will bring to a college field.

Recently, these have included the Nabieva from Sunisa Lee, the Silivas from Jade Carey and the Chusovitina/Tuzhikova from Jordan Chiles. All of them are World and Olympic champions.

Abdalla joins the Illini with an elite pedigree and skill set, leaving fans to wonder what she will do in college that sets her apart and propels her to high scoring success.

This column will compare her routines from her most recent competitions, including the 2025 World Championships and the Cairo World Cup. The hypothesized routines will only contain skills she has performed in competition and not from training videos to increase the likelihood of the predictions.

Vault

Elite vault 1: Yurchenko 1/1

Start value: 14.200

Collegiate start value: 9.95

Elite vault 2: Tsukahara 1/1

Start value: 14.400

Collegiate start value: 10.0

Changes made: None. The Yurchenko 1/1 is a commonplace vault in collegiate gymnastics and makes up four of the six current vaults in the Illini lineup. Abdalla’s dynamics are strong, and she gets a lot of height off the table. Sometimes she twists early, negating the power of her block, but her landings are typically clean: a valuable bonus of the vault.

In the Cairo World Cup event final last year, she performed a stellar full, which did have the potential to be upgraded to the coveted 1 ½. 

The Tsukahara is a strong second vault for Abdalla, but her pre-flight form leaves a bit to be desired, and she pikes down early in the air.

I believe she’d score higher staying with the Yurchenko 1/1 currently, but if she improves her form on the Tsukahara, it’d give her 10.0 start value without having to worry about upgrading.

Uneven bars

Elite routine if all connections were credited: Clear Hip 1/1 + Maloney + Hindorff, Pak Salto, Van Leeuwan, Blind ½ + Straddled Jaeger, Full-in.

To adapt her routine from the Cairo World Cup for the collegiate level, it’s important to understand that college gymnastics is about mitigating the deductions as much as possible. The cleanest elements in her routine are what I think she should prioritize for her construction. This is what I would have her routine look like:

Blind ½ (C) + Straddle Jaeger (D), Pak Salto (D), Full-In (E). 

Base college start value – 9.400

• .4 in difficulty bonus by having two ‘D’ skills and one ‘E’
• .1 in extra difficulty bonus by having a ‘D’ level single bar release
• .1 in connective bonus by connecting the ‘C’ pirouette to the ‘D’ release 

= 10.0 start value

These elements were her cleanest, and Adballa had great distance and loft on the release alongside amplitude on her transition. Recently, she has switched between dismounting with a double tuck and full-in. So if Adballa chose the double tuck, she would need to add a giant 1/1 prior to gain connection value and reach the 10.0 start value.

I assume that with the shorter routine, Abdalla’s endurance will be stronger, and she’ll be able to wrap in the extra full twist in the air.

Balance beam

Elite routine if all the connections were credited: Double wolf turn, Switch leap + Switch 1/2, Front aerial, Aerial Cartwheel + Layout step-out, Side somi, Wolf jump + Sissone, Roundoff + 2 1/2 twist.

Changes I’d make for college: There are a lot of avenues to construct her college routines because Abdalla’s dance and acrobatic series have plenty of bonuses in the college scoring system. This means that it will boil down to her consistency and what she’s most confident performing.

Keeping cleanliness at the forefront, I’d have her college routine as:

Full Turn (A), Switch Leap (C) + Split Jump (B), Aerial Cartwheel (D) + LOSO (D), Roundoff (B) + Double Full (D).

Base College Start Value – 9.400 

• .3 in difficulty bonus for having three ‘D’ skills
• .2 in connective bonus for her acro series
• .1 in dismount bonus 

= 10.0 start value.

In the video of her routine from the Cairo World Cup event final, she appeared more definitive on her switch-to-switch 1/2 combination. However, her lack of flexibility on the latter skill would get heavily deducted in college and potentially downgraded. Her wolf double was also janky, with her upper body not demonstrating control. This is why I downgraded her to just a simple turn.

In this routine composition, Abdalla gets .4 in bonus from her acrobatic series alone, which makes it a beneficial but risky combination if she struggles with it.

I think this is the event where she can experiment and incorporate new skills, more than the other apparatus that have certain skills that are visibly stronger than others. Beam was an event with a lot of potential for the Illini, especially once the latter half of the season approached.

This is the one event I have Abdalla out for in my hypothesized lineups, but if she gets a steady routine together, she’d be a very high scorer.

Floor exercise

Elite routine if all the connections were credited: Double Tuck (D), Double Wolf (D), Front Double (E), Switch Leap (B) + Switch Full (D), Memmel (D), 2 1/2 Twist (D)

Changes I’d make for college: Currently, this routine doesn’t check all of the minimum requirements needed to have the 9.4 base start value. Abdalla lacks a combination pass of two or more saltos, so I’d suggest putting a front tuck (A) after either the front double or 2 1/2 twist.

Based on her World Championship qualification video, she doesn’t have the best control over her double tuck. A front tuck is one of the simplest ways to get the requirement without adding a pass. Having a routine with two twisting passes would match the growing trend we are seeing in college gymnastics today.

A big point of discrepancy among college gymnastics fans is the balance between difficulty and maintaining the athletes’ health. More tumbles in a routine can mean more stress on the body over the course of a season, but it can also create a lasting impression on the judges.

Just 10 years ago, teams needed to field lineups of all three pass routines. However, in 2019, Oklahoma Sooner Maggie Nichols scored a 9.95 both days of competition at the National finals on a watered-down two-pass routine, signaling a shift in strategy for coaches.

If athletes can score highly with two-pass routines, why increase the possibility of more deductions with more skills? College gymnastics has adapted to a less-is-more approach for the majority of teams, with 13 two pass routines scoring over 9.900 in 2025 in contrast to only Nichols’ routine in 2019.

Her Memmel is lovely, and she’d be the only gymnast alongside Stanford’s Sienna Robinson to perform it in college currently. However, there’s no need to add it in the routine beyond aesthetic purposes.

I’d have her college routine as: Front double (E), Switch leap (B) + Switch 1/1 (D), 2 1/2 (D) + Front Tuck (A). 

Base college start value – 9.4

• .4 in difficulty bonus for having two ‘D’ skills and one ‘E’ skill
• .2 in connection bonus for connecting ‘D + A’

= 10.0 start value

Abdalla has great musicality on the floor. Once she hones in her power on her tumbling passes, she should be a consistently-high scorer for the Illini with this routine.

Having the elite presence of Abdalla elevates Illinois in all events, especially considering that the higher rated recruits usually attend colleges with more prestigious gymnastics histories.

Her polish and experience will be counted on as the Illini attempt a return to the regional stage under head coach Josh Nilson. Nilson enters his second year at the helm after the team just missed out on a play-in spot in 2025.

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