World-Traveled Gymnast Marissa King Happy to be in Gainesville
Friday, January 14, 2011 | Gymnastics
Marissa King's gymnastics career started with a soccer game. At seven years old, the Cambridge, England, native was dragged along to her brother's Sunday matches, and one day, the boredom got the best of her.
“I was young and super bored because I wasn't really into football matches and there happened to be a small college nearby. My dad said 'Let's go take a look', and there happened to be a gymnastics display going on,” King said. “I think as soon as I saw it - the bars, the floor, the matting area - I kind of just fell in love with it.”
By the age of eight, King's focus had shifted completely to gymnastics. Eight years later, she was competing in meets on the sport's highest level - from vault and floor in the 2007 World Championships to representing Great Britain in the 2008 Beijing Olympics as an all-around competitor.
After competing in the 2009 World Championships, she decided it was time to pursue another dream – college. It was a big step for King, who had never even seen a collegiate meet until she came to Florida and watched videos. The first meet she attended was her own, when the Gators opened at Oklahoma last season.
The adjustment was a tough one for King, who was used to a more serious style of gymnastics.
“With elite gym, it's all about packing as much difficulty as you can in that one minute thirty, whereas college is about being cleaner, precise and performing. It's having that spunky, fun attitude, where in elite it's all about being professional and serious,” she said.
She placed third on vault at that first meet, but King knew she could do better. And as the season progressed, Florida saw it had a major powerhouse in the freshman.
“Every competition, I learned something new. Every competition I learned something about myself and where I could improve for the next competition to make it that type of collegiate style,” King said. “I watched the other teams, my teammates, and I just kind of took it step-by-step, learned and fed off of them.”
She was a quick learner, picking up second and third place finishes in her next several meets and finally taking her first title with the uneven bars at NC State. Her grasp of collegiate gymnastics really became evident by the end of the season. She claimed at least a share of the final two all-around titles of the regular season and earned a spot on the All-Southeastern Conference second team. Her four All-America honors at the NCAA Championships equals the highest number claimed by a Gator gymnast in her freshman season.
With such a successful season behind her, King is looking forward to sharing what she's learned about the transition from elite to college gymnastics with her new teammates.
“I just want to let them know what mistakes I made so that they won't make the same mistakes,” she said.
But King knows she is still learning. Her toughest challenge so far? Learning to speak American English.
“There is definitely different terminology in everyday language and gymnastics skills. Whenever my head coach says different skills to me, I still have to rethink what she said because I have a different name for them,” she said.
Still, the language barrier is not enough to stop King in her goal to improve upon last season's success while boosting the Gators to new levels.
“Last year, I was still in that elite frame of mind where I was just thinking about myself and my own performance. This year I want to think more about being part of a team,” she said. “The pressures are completely different. I feel like I've learned a lot and I hope to bring what I've learned into making an improvement this season.”
By Mara Rudolph, UF Communications
