Janelle McDonald

Biography

on Instagram Janelle McDonald was named the new head coach of the UCLA Gymnastics team on May 9, 2022 and in the first three seasons has brought the Bruins back into national prominence with a 2025 NCAA runner-up finish and three conference titles. In 2025, UCLA’s first year in the Big Ten Conference, McDonald led the Bruins to big success. UCLA swept through the Big Ten with a perfect conference record to win the regular season title before recording a Championships record 198.450 to win the Big Ten Conference title, with four individual champions in Chae Campbell (all-around), Ciena Alipio (balance beam) and Brooklyn Moors and Jordan Chiles (floor exercise). The Big Ten Coach of the Year guided the Bruins to a second-place finish at the NCAA Championships and coached Chiles and Moors to NCAA individual titles on uneven bars and floor exercise, respectively. The 2025 Bruins went 33-6, scored 197 in 15 consecutive meets to end the season and earned a total of 22 All-America honors. In her first season as a head coach, McDonald was named the 2023 Women’s Collegiate Gymnastics Association (WCGA) West Region Coach of the Year, and she and her coaching staff were tabbed by College Gym News as the Coaching Staff of the Year. McDonald led UCLA to its first NCAA Championships appearance since 2019 and a final national ranking of fifth. The Bruins also won a Pac-12 regular season co-championship and finished the regular season ranked No. 4 nationally, 10 spots higher than they ranked