LOS ANGELES — Katelyn Ohashi ended a gymnastics career that started when she was 3 years old and slipped back into regular student life seamlessly.
The day after UCLAs third-place finish in the NCAA championships, the senior tried to take her laptop in for repairs to only find the shop closed on Easter Sunday. She went to a three-hour class on Monday. She procrastinated on homework by scrolling through social media and found that her final floor routine ever, which earned a 9.95, was catching a second wave of attention.
Then it hit her.
“Its been literally one hell of a career,” Ohashi said last Tuesday, smiling at the good fortune.
Good timing[hhmc]
The end of one career opens the door to the next for Ohashi. Her life after gymnastics is muddled, as is the case with many college graduates, but ripe with potential as her star is at an all-time high. Her 15 minutes of fame has already lasted a whole season and shes hoping to keep it going as she tries to build a platform to advocate on wide-ranging issues from body shaming to domestic violence to female empowerment.
Its the post-gymnastics career she had always hoped for, but never knew how to reach. Then a floor routine turned her into the “Perfect 10 Gymnast.”
“(Head coach Valorie Kondos Field) always tells me, youve set yourself up for the things you wanted in life and the universe has kind of opened its doors,” Ohashi said. “And its crazy how timing works as well, because last year if all this would have happened to me — its not like I would have been horrible with it — but I would not be nearly as ready as I am this year.”
It would have been almost impossible to be prepared for Ohashis rise. Her routine went viral in mid-January, but the excitement lasted all season. In February, UCLA performed in front of record-setting road crowds at Stanford and Washington. In March, Ohashi appeared in Rolling Stone Magazine in its “women shaping the future” issue, and the next week, a program-record 12,907 packed Pauley Pavilion for a dual meet against Stanford. In April, a record-setting 8,595 watched the NCAA gymnastics championship in Fort Worth, Texas.
Ohashi eagerly signed dozens of autographs after the meet.
“It was way bigger than me,” Ohashi said.
Ohashi was ready for the moment in the spotlight, she said, because she is “a stronger person this year than I was last year.” She found her strength from her teammates, who proved instrumental in navigating a chaotic senior season.
“I shut my close friends out (last year) and this year, it was in my conscious decisions that these are people Im going to want to be friends with for the rest of my life,” Ohashi said. “These are my soul sisters, this is my family.”
Shell miss many things about gymnastics — performing, competing, the attention shes grown accustomed to, she admits sheepishly — but most of all, shell miss her teammates.
Multi-dimensional human[hhmc]
Ohashi was a star in gymnastics long before she dominated the internet with a Michael Jackson-inspired routine. She won her first — and only — senior elite competition at 15 and was easily recognized for her high degree of difficulty.
Now people know her for more than just the full-twisting back layout she once completed on beam.
“Somebody came up to me at the (championship) meet and said This shirts for you, and its about body shaming and owning who you are,” Ohashi said. “Its so crazy to hear just how much my voice and speaking my truth has impacted people.”
Ohashi read a poem about body shaming on “Good Morning America” in the immediate aftermath of her viral fame. Her poems relate to personal topics like sexual assault, domestic violence and body image, and she hopes to publish a book of them in the future.
Ohashi relishes the ability Read More – Source
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