University of Utah Gymnast Sydney Soloski: The Truth Behind the Perfection

giving up is not the option. My dad always had a saying that was
you don’t change your goal, you just change your direction on how you get
there. And so it didn’t matter. I would say in my life now, it doesn’t matter
what roadblocks or speed bumps there are. I’m I’m headed to the same place.
And it’s just we’re just taking a different route. Yeah. And giving up
doesn’t get you to your goal at all or if any faster. Welcome to the Know
Your Ship podcast presented by E-Hub. I’m your host, Frank Dolce. Well,
welcome to Know Your Ship. Thanks, Sydney. Catherine. Yep. Saloski, that’s
me. How do you feel about social media and people know a lot more about you
than you would guess? Is that does that make you uncomfortable? It does now
more at this stage of my life than it than it used to. But I do think that I
grew up with it enough that I don’t think it’s as weird or as violating as
some older folks. Were you trying to be nice when you said older folks? Well,
I just don’t want to offend anyone. Is that That’s a That’s interesting. Why
would that be offensive to be older? Well, no. I thought No, no, no. Saying
being older wasn’t offensive. Other wordings could have been. So, what what’s
another way of saying older that would be offensive? This is a trap. Um, if I
said like if I was like, “Oh, old people.” Like, I feel like that
has like a funny connotation. Yeah, there’s nothing wrong with being old. I
think aging is beautiful. Yeah, I Yeah, I do too. Everyone, I’m in the I’m in
the middle of it. We are. I think it should be like like the connotation
should be more like elder like wise. They have life experience, but life
experience doesn’t mean that you’re wise. It doesn’t necessarily mean that
you’re wise, but let me give you an example. Okay. You’re super smart. Did
you ever get lower than an A? Mhm. Barely. You were academic all-American,
right? I was academic all conference, academic all-American. You had a very
high standard. You got really good grades. Yep. And you and I could take the
same leadership principles class and have a different experience in that
class because of my lifetime experience in the workplace. Yeah. Which is just
longer. Yeah. Than your experience. So it doesn’t necessarily mean wise, but
I have different I have a lot more context. Okay. In that scenario, I would
say, how do you feel about that? Because it’s it’s really interesting that
you mentioned this. I I don’t know how we got onto the async because I was
thinking as right before we started this like Sydney’s going to be the
youngest guest I’ve ever had. And then I thought I probably shouldn’t say
that. It might people might think that’s weird. No, I don’t think that’s
weird. Just different context. Anyway, you have lots of interesting
experiences in your life. Tell us tell us about this one we started with.
Okay. So, if you don’t know, let’s just do the rundown. Okay. Lifetime highly
accomplished gymnast, fivetime all-American. Yep. At the Um, the University
of Utah. Go Utes. Yep. Uh you you won several I call them meetats, but do you
call them something else? No, meet meats is correct. Okay. Uh you specialized
in the floor routine at the University of Utah, but growing up you were like
an all-arounder. Yep. Like and very you you you were very successful, won
lots of awards, lots of trophies, all this stuff. Yeah. Okay. So gymnastics,
especially recently, I think we’re hearing a lot of the dark underbelly of
gymnastics. And one of those things might be like this verbal abusive
relationship you have with coaches. Yeah. So tell us about that. My
experience or why in the in the sport? Yeah. It occurs. Yeah. I like both of
those. Both. Mhm. I think if we look at gymnastics as a whole, as a sport,
you’re very young when you start out. So like for example, I was five and
that was considered Was that a late start? A late start. Oh. There’s a lot of
people that do it, you know, from the age of two, three. Mhm. So it’s very
very young girls. It’s super subjective. It’s judgmental. It’s not like
you’re just like putting on pads and like running into someone. Okay. I don’t
know why. I don’t know exactly why she would say that, but the entire premise
of the sport is being perfect. Uhhuh. Right. And I think that that is a lot
is very hard for a lot of other athletes to understand that like just to
relate it to you, it didn’t matter how pretty the ref thought the touchdown
was. If the ball cross the line, it counts. They like nobody in the stands
after you scored a touchdown. You didn’t get somebody holding up a card that
I think it should be six points or Exactly. Yeah. Yes. I cared though. Yeah.
I mean, I cared how pretty it was for sure. I would say in the history of the
University of Utah, percentage-wise, I probably had the highest number of
appealing looking touchdown plays. Okay. Love the confidence. I I don’t think
it’s confidence. I think it’s just facts. Objective. Objective. Okay. So
yeah, it’s very objective. The gymnastics like origin obviously it goes back
like a long long time but a lot of it is older men as coaches or judges or
Okay. coaches are typically older men. A lot of them are Eastern European
came over brought kind of the gymnastics culture to North America to now have
what it is. And your peak of the sport, you’re probably 16. Mhm. Is when
you’re eligible for the Olympics, but that is kind of the age in which you’re
probably peaking in your career, which is very young. So, you have a sport
that is derived in perfection where when all of that is happening, it’s like
a very prominent age, especially for young women. And a lot of coaches use
that and abuse that. And I think that that’s where you see it kind of coming
out is that you don’t you don’t have to be an an abusive system to be
successful. But a lot of I think how gymnastics was taught. Mhm. was that it
was this very like tough love which I agree with but it just we got to a
point where it was taking it past an athlete coach relationship and it was
getting you know personal and a little bit abusive in the feedback that they
would provide feedback personal attacks just a lot of I had a lot of
teammates in college that would have you know experiences that they would
tell me about that I didn’t experience mine was very much like telling me I
was worthless I was useless. You know that I was disappointing everyone
around me. I’ I’d be better off if my family was dead. This is from a coach.
Mhm. And is is this in the context of you’ve just performed and and maybe and
you didn’t perform at a high enough standard sometimes? A lot of it was
mainly in practice of I told you to do this and you couldn’t figure it out
like you’re useless. You’re worthless. Yeah. Does that come from this Eastern
European coaching culture or is this gymnastics culture? I mean we so in
athletics that that kind of relationship with coach and player is not so
rare. No, it it can feel it can be and feel like an attack when you don’t
perform well. And I’m not diminishing your what you’re talking about. Uh, so
I’m just trying to I’m trying to understand if there’s something more in
gymnastics from your experience as a third party. I I mean I think we heard
about that fairly regularly and now we we hear about it a lot. People are
coming out and talking about it a lot more. I guess the question is how did
you respond to it? How did you manage it? Well, let’s just start there. How
did you respond to it? How did you manage it? Not well. M it was happening
for a while and I just started telling my parents I wanted to be done. I
wanted to quit the sport. I had no interest in it. I would fight with my mom
about going to practice. I didn’t want to do it. I would cry. I would It was
And I never told them why. I just told them I just didn’t want to do it
anymore. And so it took my parents taking me to therapy which ended up being
the greatest thing. and I, you know, opened up to a third party about it and
I just told her like, I just I’m not interested. If that’s what it takes, I
don’t want to be a part of that. And we worked through it. You know, my
parents got involved. They felt horrible that I was going that I was being
told these things and they didn’t know. And so they went to my club coach who
I had my entire career and she was pretty unaware of what was going on and
brought me back in the gym when he wouldn’t be there. So I kind of was on
like a odd training program. Okay. So you had a female club coach. Yep. And a
male. And he he was also a club coach. Yeah. So this was like back uh like
when I was in middle school, high school. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And I attended
a lot of my kids practices and things. Yeah. As they were growing up. Are are
parents not allowed in that gymnastic scenario? I mean, because if it’s if
parents are there and this is happening, then there you would think there
would be some accident. Yeah. So, my practice schedule was pretty much Monday
through Friday, 7 to 9:30 in the morning and then again from 2:30 to 6:00
p.m. And you had school? and I would I would go to school in between that
time and then Sundays we practice from 1 to 6. So parents were encouraged to
not attend practice because it was they’re long they’re a long duration. A
lot of parents thought that they knew, you know, better than the coaches. So
there was that kind of dynamic of I don’t want to answer to the parents
asking me why I’m doing everything. And so, no, no, my parents did not, it it
was encouraged that they were not there. They like put up a gate to try to
like, oh my gosh, keep it out. And it wasn’t to hide what was going on. It
was mainly to just let us because there’s a lot of parents that live
vicariously through their kids. For sure. In the sport of gymnastics, that is
really, really common. And so, there was a level of protection of you as a
kid being like, “Hey, like I want you to practice without being
terrified of your mom.” Mh. So, I don’t think that it was it wasn’t
necessarily to hide anything the coach was doing, but there was this but
there but there was stuff going on that parents weren’t being made aware of
aware of. And so once they were aware of it, then the the gymnastics club
that I was a part of, you know, took action and terminated. Oh, gotcha. Yeah.
Okay. So you you went through this experience and and this experience didn’t
drive you didn’t motivate you to try harder. It was like I’m done with this.
Mhm. Because it wasn’t, you know, it’s always framed as, well, it’s because I
expect more of you or I think that you’re better, so I’m going to be extra
hard on you. And I could I could have handled the tough love. I just couldn’t
do walking in every day not knowing who was going to be my coach, whether it
was going to be someone that was supporting me, wanted to help me, or if I
was going to be, you know, screamed at, yelled at, that type of thing. So, I
think that a lot of the the fear came in from like not knowing what you were
going to get. Yeah. Do you are you a coach? No. Do you ever want to coach?
I’m not opposed to it. I’m not like in love with the idea of it. I think it
would be great to give back because I love the sport, but I don’t think that
I maybe possess all of the traits that coaches should have. What are those
traits? Um, patience. Yeah, I I would say I’m not the most patient person. I
had one bad coach in my career, which was 17 years. You had this period of a
terrible Yeah. situation. Okay. Yeah. Prior to that I had amazing coaches.
Even during that my club coach was amazing. After that I had great coaches
and then I came to college and had also great coaches. So I have seen the
passion that they have had for the sport and I just don’t think that I have
that. And I think that as a young athlete you do deserve your coach that
wants to be there and I just don’t think that I right now in my life I don’t
have that. So I don’t know if I’d be coaching for the right reasons. So, as
you look back on this experience and we we’ll we’ll talk more about your
career, but specifically with the difficult coach, what are your lessons?
What are the lessons you took away from that? Do you think about that in the
things that you do today? And that does that guide how you interact with
people in a in a leadership role? I haven’t thought about it in a very long
time to be honest with you. Um, I think the lessons that it taught me was
that everyone is going to have an opinion of you and everyone is going to say
what they want to say and it’s my choice whether or not I internalize it. And
so I think I got tougher from it, which sounds kind of horrible, but um I
know it’s like you don’t want to give that guy any credit for it’s it’s not
credit. It’s more but yeah, I didn’t need what he thought of me to be what I
thought of me. And so I would say that would be the only, you know, credit
silver lining of that situation is that I don’t let what other people say
about me dictate how I feel about myself anymore. Yeah. Yeah. Well, what’s
wrong with that? You Okay. In that time, you also had all of these incredible
coaches. Actually, I want to talk about that next. Were you the sole gymnast
in your family? Was this like something your parents did or did you have
friends or other family members? No. My parents participated in gymnastics
when they were in like high school, but it was very like recreational and
like what everyone kind of did. Yeah. But no, I was the first one in my
family that did it seriously. Okay. So, outside of this little period, 3 to 5
year period. Yeah. How would you describe your relationship with gymnastics?
Did you love it? Did you thrive in it? Did you hate it or were there times
when you just thought, I don’t ever want to see a mat again? I would say when
I was younger, I fell in love with it and I always had the dream as most
young athletes do. I always had the dream of I wanted to be an Olympian and
then that went into I want to be a college gymnast. I want to like have that
experience. It’s always what I wanted out of it. And then I went the elite
route to try to, you know, do the Olympic thing. And it’s it’s really hard.
And the Olympic thing is really hard. Oh yeah. Is the Olympic thing really
hard because of the level of competition or is there something level of
competition? One, the training hours, just the commitment. Mhm. Everything in
my life was centered around gymnastics. What I ate, where I went to school,
what friends I had. Everything was about gymnastics. And so as I got older, I
started to like resent that. I don’t think I ever had a friend come over
after school. I don’t think I ever went to a friend’s house after school. How
could you? You were always practicing. You were always in the gym, you know?
And so it was just my parents kept telling me like there is something great
that will come from all of this hard work and like the sacrifice. But I
remember just thinking, I just want to be a regular kid and I just want to I just
want to go to a high school party. I just want to have my first beer. like I
just want to do something that felt like I was like everybody else because I
was always not weird but I was always the one that like had that thing that
like oh well she can’t come because she has this or you know stuff like that.
I just felt like so much of my life was controlled. Did you feel like you
couldn’t quit at some point? I mean, you obviously you had a great career
throughout college and that probably paid for your education, which is
amazing, but did you feel like you couldn’t quit at some point or did you
determine at some point, you know, I I do like this. I do enjoy this. This is
a part of my life. I’m good at it and I want to keep I’m going to take it as
far as I can. I don’t think I ever felt like I couldn’t. It was more that I
always had this internal battle of like I know that I that would be the wrong
thing. I always knew the the desire to be normal was not gonna outweigh what
being a gymnast could be. The desire to be normal would not outweigh, would
you say, the desire to be a gymnast and all of the sacrifice that takes? In
hindsight, yeah. But at going through it, no. Going through it, it just felt
like it’s what I should be doing. Uhhuh. You know, I felt like, oh, I was
given this talent. You know, I’ve put a lot into this. I should see it
through. I should see what could happen. And so I didn’t really reall in love
with the sport until I came to college. And then that’s when I had the like
aha moment of this is what my parents were talking about. This is what all of
my coaches have ever told me. Like this is the moment where it pays off.
Okay. Did the college experience then feel more like a normal kid experience?
a little bit because now you’re at on campus, you’re although you’re around
teammates, you’re also you also have all this other influence. I was part of
a community that wasn’t just sports. Yeah. And so, yes, it did feel like I
got a a a little bit of, you know, that freedom that I think everyone wants
at some point. How many gymnasts on a college team? uh 12 scholarship
athletes and then so we probably had I think throughout my five years we’ve
fluctuated from like 13 to 16. Okay. Out of the 13 to 16, how many would tell
me a story similar to yours? Probably every single one. Yeah. 100%. They all
had some crazy coach. They all were married to the sport. Yeah. You don’t, in
my opinion, you don’t make it to the elite of the elite division one
gymnastics team unless you gave it everything that you had. Mhm. And every
part of your life. Wow. I have so many questions now that we’re thinking
about all of this because if you’re the elite of the elite, which you have
been, that takes a tremendous toll on your body. I want to talk about that.
I’m sure you’ve had interesting injuries. Yeah. Yeah. Can you talk about
those like the major ones cuz we’d be here all day. Yeah. Um first we we
should have brought in the we we should have brought in the medical chart.
Okay, let’s do that. I there’s all of these lessons that I want to get to,
but I want to fill it in with this background. So, we’re just going to go
through this process. So, let’s let’s talk about uh overcoming overcoming
injuries. What was your earliest? Do you remember? First major when I was 11.
I was in Belgium. It was my very first international trip. It was me, one of
my teammates, and two coaches. One being the coach I didn’t have a great
experience with, and the other one was she was also a judge. So, at the
event, she was a coach. And she was a coach at our club, but she was
certified as a judge. So, she came with us to help because there’s a lot of
like scoring nuances that are different when you travel. That’s the other
thing I want to talk about is the politics. Don’t let me forget that. I’ll
remember that. So anyway, we were I was in Belgium. I was 11. My parents
finally got me a phone for the first time cuz I was, you know, traveling
without them. Yeah. They were not there. And on the very first day on the
uneven bars, I I slipped and I fell. And so I broke both bones in my forearm
like this. And so, you know, I had to call paramedics. I had to reset my arm
in the gym. Oh. Mhm. In the gym. Mhm. Cuz I was like losing circulation to my
hand because of the way that the bones were. You were on the uneven bars. Do
you remember what you were doing when you slipped? Mhm. It was It’s called a
kip and then like a cast. It’s the most classic thing you’ll ever see a
gymnast do on the bars. And it was it was a warmup and I remember slipping
and falling. It happened in slow motion. It wasn’t a competition. You were
warming up. Warming up in a practice and then snapped my arm into four
pieces. went and had emergency surgery. Yeah. I had no idea what was going
on. Woke up with two pins in my arms and Yeah. No parents, just my coach.
Just your super loving coach. Yeah. And so the the other the other coach I
was with is that was a judge. She’s she was awesome and she’s the one that
stayed with me and yeah, she was great. And at that time my relationship with
him was not bad. This was in the beginning when it was it was fine. It was
good. So, um, yeah, I was in the hospital for like 4 days in Belgium. In
Belgium and then flew home like a week after that. And what were your 11
years old? What were your immediate thoughts? This sucks. Um, I was really
upset because I really wanted to finally get to like compete internationally
cuz that’s like a big Uhhuh. a big deal. And so it was just like a big blow
to the fact that I wasn’t going to be able to have that experience. But I
would be lying if I said that there wasn’t a for like a slight bit of relief
about not competing. Not competing and just the pressure and everything being
like let like let go for a short period of time. Yeah. I was young. So, did
you have a moment of this is my opportunity to leave gymnastics or did you
think now I have to rehab? Now I have to figure out how to come back. Yeah,
it was more of like okay, how do I figure this out? Because at that point I still
I was in love with the sport. I just wanted to like have the chance and so
yeah, that was the first major one. Came back from that. How long did that
take? How long before you were competing again? probably eight months just
because it had to heal. And then I did have the pins taken out of my arm
because they were poked like starting to press up against my skin and it
really freaked me out. So I had them taken out and then Do you have as a
quick follow-up to that, do you currently have any metal in your body? I do.
Okay. Which I have three plates and 12 screws in my left foot. Three plates
and 12 screws. Yeah. They’re little but Yeah. I only have one screw. That’s
it. Where? In my shoulder. Ah, I feel like that’s classic. The classic tale
of a quarterback. Classic classic. Yeah. And it’s a big screw. Okay. And I
they didn’t even put me out when they just That was the first major one. And
then had some back issues, but those were, you know, pretty normal. And then
then it was the foot. So yeah. And was that same era? How how many this I was
it was right before my 16th birthday. Okay. I remember that. And I broke my
second, third, and fourth metatarsal. Uhhuh. On the balance beam. It like my
foot caught and it my foot like accordioned around it around the beam. So
like the Did you land on the beam that way and your foot went funny or did
you just misstep? Do you know what I mean? Yeah. So I was doing a dismount
which is like how you get off the beam. Yes. And so I was doing a round off.
I’m familiar with the term dismount. I don’t know. Holy cow. It was my feet
coming down. I was supposed to, you know, jump back in the air and do some
flips and stuff and instead you decided to It didn’t go well. That’s the
thing about the beam. Okay, quick aside. Where do the worst injuries occur in
gymnastics? Is it floor uneven beam? Vault? I mean, I’ve seen some horrible
things on the vault. The vault can be very problematic because if you just
miscalculate a little bit, it is a very bad domino effect. The beam is
probably the safest. The beam is the safest. Yeah. Okay. Floor your worst
your probably your worst injury is a like torn Achilles. Oh. Which is pretty
common. Bars can be pretty pretty gnarly clearly. Yeah. Is this on the vault?
Like I they do the thing and they’re flipping backwards and then they jump up
and then their elbow goes like crazy directions. Yeah, it’s a lot of or a
missed like you don’t rotate enough and then you take this weird landing.
It’s mainly the landings that hurt the worst. Yeah. But okay. Um back to your
foot. So the I’ve broke the foot heel you you wrapped your foot around the
beam. Just imagine like jumping on the side of something. Yeah. And then your
foot just went around it. And then it broke everything. Broke everything. It
healed. Then I was cleared to practice again. And within two weeks, I did the
exact same thing on the beam. Exact same thing. Same skill. Rebroke it. So
that’s when we decided to to throw a little bit of metal in there to keep it
intact. And it’s still there. It is still there. Yep. Is it limiting at all?
No, just cuz it’s on the bone. So, it’s just my foot. It’s a little bit
fatter than the other one, but that’s kind of about it. It hurts when it
starts to rain and get cold. But are you making that up? No, that’s true.
Yeah. You can tell. You can predict the weather. It hurts. Yeah. It feels
like gets really achy. Really? Mhm. Okay. So, that’s 16 years old. Where are
you in school at this point? Uh like 10th grade. Have you been getting interest
from colleges at this point? Yes. So, are you trying to make the Olympic team
in Canada at this point as well? Yeah. So, I broke my foot a week after the
Olympic trials. A week after. Mhm. Tell me about the Olympic trials. How many
times did you try for the Olympic team? Just once. Just one time. Yeah. It
was like It was like the the national team camp prior to a lot of the Olympic
stuff. Okay. So it was I think it was maybe going into the next year the
Olympics were happening but since I broke my foot I was going to be out. It
was a very cool experience. The Olympic trials. Yeah. Just like being on like
the national team and being a part of that was very cool. It was very
stressful but it was it was a good experience. Did you compete in every event?
Yeah. And then how close were you to making the Olympic team? Is there any
sense of that? No. Oh my god. I’m going to cough. Sorry. Oh, I thought you
were going to cry. I was like, I really struck a nerve there. I’m not that
sensitive. We’re going to dig into that. Where what are you most sensitive
about? What is the thing that that makes you like start to feel a little
emotional? Tug at the heartstrings. Is it like a terrible romcom? That’s a
romantic comedy. Yeah. No. I mean, I’ll get emotional when I watch like
videos on my phone. Like military coming home videos make me cry. Those are
the worst people telling I know like Yeah, that that one is like
gut-wrenching to me. I can’t watch those and then I’m like watching them.
Yeah, they’re so But they’re so it’s it’s like a wholesome Yeah. I would say
I get most emotional from those types of videos. Like a happy a happy cry.
Got is mainly Are you like What is your What’s your personality? Are you like
are you like tough? Do you know the color thing? like you’re type you’re
you’re a red or you’re a blue or you’re yellow or you’re a type A personality
or you I’m type A. Has that been diagnosed? Um or is it self diagnosed? Did
you take a test to do I used to take all those we used have to do all those personality
things? I would say I am when you first meet me I’m very direct. I’m very
blunt. I can be a little offputting cold. In which way? How do you feel like
you’re off-putting? I don’t necessarily give people the benefit of the doubt
when I first meet them. So, are you I’m not judgmental is not the word I’m
looking for, but are you guarded when you meet people? I think so. And is
that is does that have any basis in the way that you grew up? Probably. Being
being like in because you’re the middle you’re the center of attention a lot,
especially at with all that you achieved. Mhm. And so, you’re just a little
more guarded. Just a little bit more. You think you learn to be a little more
guarded around people? Yeah. Initially. Yeah. And then once I am I don’t know
if comfortable is the word cuz I don’t necessarily feel uncomfortable around
people. I just when you have once I feel like I like you or I have warmed up
to you or you have like shown me who you are then I am outgoing. I am fun. I
can be all of those things. But I who I am when if you first interact with me
Mhm. might change. Where would you say we are? We’ve met a few times. A
handful of times. Yeah. Do I have like the 100% Sydney version or am I still
really? Yeah. I’m sitting here. That was pretty quick. Well, I don’t Yeah, I
enjoy your company. I feel like I did something right. Yeah. Good for me. I
got great pastries. I know. How do you feel about pastries? Like pastries are
my downfall. I love pastries. Yeah. No. No. Absolutely. And they’re such my
downfall that it’s it’s the thing I do for all of our podcast guests is I
bring a box of pastries because then I have an excuse. Yeah. To bring a box
of pastry. I like treats. I like sweet. What treats do you like? What’s your
favorite treat? My favorite dessert of all time is a bread pudding. Oh, I
have bread pudding. I’m very excited about it. Do you have a favorite bread
pudding? Can you think of one? Or is it just generally like just a general I
don’t like it to be too sweet. It just needs to have the right consistency.
And Okay, let me ask you this about bread pudding. Do you like a bread
pudding that is a little dry with a topping or do you like it like moist all
the way through? I know that’s the best one. Yeah. And warm, cold, does it
matter? I’d prefer warm, but it’s not that big of a Yeah, warm’s better. An
issue for me. Warm’s better with ice cream or without? Maybe like a little
dollop. Just a little ice cream. Well, I’m glad we share that. I love bread
pudding. So good. Yeah, it caught my eye today. Maybe that’s why. Who knows?
It’s an little invisible string. Yeah. Okay, let’s get back to your I don’t
know how we got so far off topic. Talking about you broke your foot. into the
Olympics right after the Olympic trials. We’re not sure where you were. No.
On making the team, not making the team. How did you feel about that? Like
you you didn’t make the team. You went through the whole process. You were on
the national team. You competed with the national team. You didn’t make the
Olympic team. Who were some of the athletes? Would we recognize some of the
athletes from the Olympic team? Um the most famous one would be her name is
Ellie Black. She’s been to I think four or five Olympics now. What was the
how did you take that? How did I feel? Yeah. Honestly, I knew that was going
to happen. So, to me, it wasn’t like this like big gutting of like it wasn’t
devastating. No, I didn’t feel like it was devastating. And I had already
committed to coming to college here. Oh. At 16 years old, I was in ninth
grade. So, I was 14 when I You were 14 when you committed to the U. Yeah.
Wow. Who who recruited you? Greg Marsden. So, it was uh I felt like I had
something that I was like looking forward to. It would have been like a oh, that’s
really cool to check off the list and say that I went to the Olympics, but it
was never like the end goal. The end goal was to come to college. So, it
wasn’t like the worst thing in the world. So, you committed at 14, you broke
your foot twice when you were 16. Did was there any wavering with the
University of Utah once you broke your foot? Like they called and they’re
like, I don’t know. No, we were very upfront with them on what had happened.
We had sent over, you know, the the scans of everything and they took a look
and it wasn’t an injury that I was not going to be able to come back from.
Mhm. So, that’s when they felt pretty good about it. Who was your trainer at
the U? Mhm. Um, I had a few like our athletic trainer. Yeah. Did they change or
was Yeah, we had So, we had one lady, her name was Katie. She was a bath
athletic trainer through my junior or senior year and then we had another
girl named Melissa that came in and replaced her. Did they get involved with
that analysis of your foot? I don’t remember to be honest. A lot of the
communication was ran through my parents at that point. Gotcha. I was just I
was just there. Just like I Okay. So, when you were recovered from this
injury the second time, was there like how do you get back on the vault? How
do how do you get back on the beam? Like is there any trepidation? Is there
Okay. Yeah, there’s definitely like mental block. Uhhuh. Of like, well, I’ve
tried this a few times. Didn’t end great. So, did you change your dismount? I
did. Good idea. Yeah. So, what what did you do differently? I just got off
the beam differently. I went forward. Didn’t have to do this. Yeah. The same
thing. Okay. Never had that issue again. No. The first time you did your new
dismount where you could like Thank god. Oh yeah, like that. Oh phew, I could
do it. My foot’s not in, you know, pieces. So that was a it was a great
start. How often are people injured in gymnastics? Like is it all the time?
There’s always going to be something that’s like like a nagging injury that
you’re Are you ever completely healthy? Um, no, not really. You just have to
manage it. You just you just manage it. Yeah. And that’s if you have I had
great coaches and athletic trainers that helped manage it in college. So it
was it’s doable. It’s not nece