I’m always amazed at the routines of gymnasts at a professional level; they seem to move their bodies in ways I wouldn’t have thought possible.
Watching very young gymnasts, it’s almost scary how flexible their bodies can be.
If you follow gymnastics, you probably already heard the name Katelyn Ohashi.
She was on the USA Gymnastics’ junior national team for four years and the 2011 junior national champion. Back in 2013, she even beat team member Simone Biles to win the American Cup.
But while Biles went on to become a four-time Olympic champion, Ohashi stepped away from her Olympic dreams.
After suffering a fractured back and tearing both of her shoulders, Katelyn Ohashi decided to drop out of elite level gymnastics and pursue a collegiate career instead.
Recently Katelyn opened up about how the elite level of her sport left her ‘broken’ and how becoming a college athlete helped her find happiness again.
In a video for the Players Tribune she told the world how she went from a happy little girl who loved gymnastics to a girl who felt pressure, stress and rarely smiled.
Ohashi told Good Morning America that she has dealt with body shaming since she was 14 years old:
“In the gym, outside of the gym, on the internet, so it’s something that you can never really escape. … As a 14-year-old, it’s kind of hard to cope with, because you’re still developing as a person, and so everything really impacts you.”
When Katelyn decided to step away from elite gymnastics, she hoped she would be able to compete in college. And she found just that at UCLA where her floor routines are not to be missed.
In 2018, she became the NCAA co-champion in floor in with a score of 9.9625. In that routine, Ohashi’s routine went viral when she flashed finger guns and moon-walked across the floor to music from Michael Jackson.
Going viral once is no easy task, but do twice? Ohashi seems to have cracked the code.
At a college meet in January, Katelyn Ohashi of U.C.L.A. delivered a brilliant technical floor routine, with nary a step on her landings.
Her new routine is packed with insanely difficult moves and Ohashi seems to truly be finding joy in her sport again. Another heartwarming part of the video’s appeal is the joyous reactions from Ohashi’s teammates, from the sidelines.
Pleas watch Katelyn Ohashi and her stunning floor routine below, which earned her a perfect 10:
You can see the absolute joy she is having.
She couldn’t hold in her spirit if she wanted to and it’s great to see this. Completely mouth dropping. Thanks for your hard work and talent. And thanks for sharing!
What do you think of Katelyn Ohashi’s routine?
