Danie Ferris makes her elite debut for Morocco at Mediterranean Games 2026 in Taranto, Italy; first Moroccan to compete all four events

Danie Ferris carries her mother’s Moroccan heritage onto the floor at the Mediterranean Games 2026

The Florida gymnast spent three seasons celebrating that legacy in Gainesville. Next week she makes her elite debut in Taranto, Italy, on all four events.

Danie Ferris and her mother are the only two of their family in America. This week, Ferris competes for the country the rest of them never left.

The University of Florida gymnast will make her elite artistic gymnastics debut at the Mediterranean Games 2026 in Taranto, Italy , competing in all four events for Morocco. The competition opened on Friday (21 August) and runs to 3 September, with artistic gymnastics scheduled for 30 August to 2 September.

“It means everything. I’m super excited. I’m also a little nervous,” Ferris said at a media availability in Gainesville prior to the event. “It’s my first elite competition, [and first] representing Morocco. But it’s been such an exciting experience so far to see how everyone I’ve met has encouraged me and been so proud of me wanting to take this opportunity .”

Ferris grew up in Palm Coast, Florida, with her mother. The rest of her family is in Morocco, and the trips back are more homecoming than vacation.

“It’s more like a family reunion when I go over there. So just jumping around from house to house, seeing all my cousins and my aunts and my uncle and getting to kind of embrace their way of living,” she said. “It’s really cool to see how my mom interacts with them as well.”

April 4, 2025, Tuscaloosa, Alabama, US: DANIE FERRIS competes on the floor exercise during the competition held at the Coleman Coliseum in Tuscaloosa, Alabama. (Credit Image: © Amy Sanderson

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“It does make me unique”

Her floor music has come from that side of the family since she arrived in Gainesville, but that Moroccan style is something Ferris has had to learn to embrace.

“I never really did music like that growing up because I felt kind of embarrassed,” Ferris said. “But as I grew up, I really embraced my heritage and where I was from knowing that it does make me unique .”

The routine was always aimed at one person watching from the stands.

“That was a big part in kind of showing my mom everything that she did for me paid off and we’re here, and it was a way to just kind of send my love to her and my family and the country of Morocco.”

The choreography is the work of Florida assistant coach Jeremy Miranda, who oversees the Gators’ floor routines and has been on staff in Gainesville for 19 years. Ferris is keeping last season’s version for Taranto.

“Her floor routine, as long as she’s been here, has celebrated that Moroccan heritage, which is so special. Probably none more so than this most recent routine,” Miranda said. " She loves to perform it, and so I’m so excited for her to actually get to do it on the international stage ."

Skye Blakely, Kayla DiCello and Riley McCusker inspired Ferris’s elite push

Competing for Morocco is not a new idea. It’s just one that never quite came together.

“I thought about doing it when I was in club gymnastics, and it just fell through,” Ferris said. “I felt like in that time, college was the best path for me.”

But coming to college – Florida most especially – changed her perspective on that.

Florida’s roster is full of current and former elite gymnasts – Ferris trains alongside Skye Blakely , Kayla DiCello and Riley McCusker – and watching them work reframed what was available to her.

Then came the citizenship, which she began on a trip to Morocco.

“It does take a while to get citizenship and kind of deal with that whole process. So we had to start it early,” Ferris said. “Everyone over there who’s been helping and the people part of the federation have been so helpful. So we made this pretty quick.”

April 18, 2024: Florida’s Danie Ferris on the floor exercise during Semifinal II of the 2024 Women’s National Collegiate Women’s Gymnastics Championships at Dickies Arena in Fort Worth, TX. Kyle Okita

Four events, two of them new again

Ferris is a vault and floor specialist for Florida. She scored a perfect 10 on vault in March 2025, earned All-America honors on the event that season and was named All-SEC in 2026.

In Taranto, she’ll be back on all four events.

“I haven’t competed all four events since my club days, especially I never competed elite, so this is definitely new for me, and it’s definitely a lot,” Ferris said. “But I’ve trained all around since I’ve been in college, so I’ve had the skills there. It was just working them back up.”

The floor routine kept its music. The tumbling is new.

“She added a third tumbling pass. So she’s doing two E passes – double layout, full in – and then her combination pass, one and a half front full,” Miranda said.

Ferris credits the whole climb to one person, unsurprisingly.

“Growing up with just her and learning how to embrace my heritage and who I am as a person. She taught me to be resilient,” she said of her mother.

“Everything that we went through growing up, I watched her be such a resilient person in everything that she did and continue to have a smile on her face even when we were struggling or anything was happening .”