Janelle McDonald

Janelle McDonald assumed the role of Head Coach of the UCLA Bruins women’s gymnastics program on May 9, 2022. In little over three seasons, she has revitalised the program, guiding the Bruins to a 2025 NCAA runner-up finish and multiple conference titles. In 2025, UCLA’s first year in the Big Ten Conference, she led the Bruins to an undefeated conference season, the regular-season title, and a Big Ten Championship meet record score of 198.450; her team posted a 33-6 record and earned 22 All-America honors. She was recognised as Big Ten Coach of the Year. Prior to her UCLA appointment, McDonald spent four seasons on the coaching staff at the University of California, Berkeley (2019–22) where she served as the uneven bars coach and helped Cal win its first-ever Pac-12 regular season title in 2022 and achieve a seventh-place NCAA finish in 2021. Earlier still, she began coaching in high school in 1999, and over the next decade developed strong credentials in club gymnastics—most notably a six-year stint at WOGA (2012-18) where the program earned the USA Gymnastics Texas Junior Olympic Program of the Year honor in 2015. She holds a Bachelor of Arts in Interdisciplinary Studies from Arizona State University (2011) and has been certified as a judge with the National Association of Women’s Gymnastics Judges (NAWGJ) since 2001. McDonald emphasises building a strong team culture, prioritising the student-athlete experience, and leveraging her bars-specialty background to elevate all apparatuses. Under her leadership at UCLA, the program not only improved its technical scores (for example posting a 49.487 bars average in 2023) but also established a sisterhood ethos and consistent performance in the high-197 to 198 range in team meets.