Dealing with and overcoming injuries isn’t the easiest thing in the world when you are an athlete. But they are a fact of life when you compete the way I do. The hardest part of having an injury is all the time sitting out watching everyone practice and getting better. When I was 10 years old, I hurt my hand adjusting a bar on the uneven bars. This was my first major injury and I needed stitches and a wrapped hand for several weeks. It was so frustrating because with an injured hand there is so little you can do in gymnastics. I hated not being able to advance during that short period. When I got Severs disease in my heels at age 13, I had occasions where I could not do all of practice because of the pain, and once I was out for almost 6 months. Time went by so slow and eventually I hated not being able to do more than conditioning. I slowly started to do uneven bars which was good until I got “zombie” hands. Towards the end of the 6 months I got back into things, but then I was out of shape. But when you push yourself through recovery you find out you can do anything. Severs made vault my most challenging event and I kept working and pushing myself until I was successful. I had medalled in the other events often, but when I took my first medal in vault that season I felt like my hard work paid off. I learned through my injuries that determination can pull you through anything. So even though I am no longer a competitive gymnast this lesson I take with me to diving and to coaching, and even to life.
