Honda Sports Award winner Kytra Hunter wants perfection in her collection
Wednesday, May 2, 2012 | Football, Gymnastics, Chris Harry
GAINESVILLE, Fla. – She was too young to join a family member's friends at a gymnastics birthday party, so an undeterred 2-year-old Kytra Hunter scooted off – father close behind – and jumped, rolled and tumbled all by herself.
It wasn't long before the living room couch became little Kytra's favorite flipping station.
“That's sort of how it got started,” she said.
Every athlete has a start to their story, but few have endings like Hunter's; not that she's anywhere near the conclusion of a University of Florida career that after just one season is chock full of achievement and accolades.
Another big one rolled in this week.
Hunter was announced Wednesday as the 2012 Honda Sports Award recipient for gymnastics, an honor given annually to the nation's top female in each of 12 sports. Word of the prize came Thursday, less than a week after the freshman became the first UF gymnast to capture two individual titles at the NCAA Championships last weekend at Duluth, Ga. Hunter won the all-around crown (also a Florida first) last Friday, then took the vault competition Sunday, becoming just the fifth competitor in the event's 31-year history to claim multiple titles as a freshman.
She competed again as an all-around in the next day's Super Six final, helping the Gators finish with .010 points from capturing the program's first team championship.
And now comes, basically, the Heisman Trophy for gymnasts.
“I'm just so honored and humbled by it all,” Hunter said Friday. “I never even thought about something like this.”
Her coach might have.
Rhonda Faehn gushes about the meeting she had with Hunter last fall, where she went one-on-one – like Faehn does with all her athletes – with the rookie from Frederick, Md., and talked about goals heading toward the season.
“I want to score 10s on every event,” Hunter stated bluntly.
Faehn could not have been more impressed. Maybe she shouldn't have been so surprised.
Hunter, after all, came to UF by way of the Hills Club Gaithersburg, Md., the same gym that produced U.S. Olympic champion Dominique Dawes, Hunter's hero and role model – not to the mention the athlete she'd been compared to – same grace, power and athleticism -- for nearly a decade.
She came to the Gators aiming high.
“It's never more disappointing to me, as a coach, than to hear them, when asked about their goals, say, 'I'd like to make [the competing] lineup,' “ Faehn said. “Too many athletes are afraid to set their expectations so high because they're afraid of disappointment. There's always going to be disappointment and loss here, failure there. But you can't get where you want to go without the goals.”
And you can't set them as Hunter did – and use them as motivation – without the skill and mental fortitude it takes to be a champion; or in Hunter's case, a two-time champ.
[Note: She didn't nail any 10s, but had bunches of 9.9s -- and three 9.975s]
She exhibited that star power right away by winning the all-around title in her very first meet as a freshman; on the road at North Carolina State, no less.
“That was her launching pad to a long season,” Faehn said.
A long way from launches over the living room couches.
But with the same humility, despite the growing collection of hardware.
Hunter swears that part of her won't change.
“I'm a firm believer in God. In the Bible, Peter said you have to humble yourself under the hand of God and at the right time He will bless you. I've lived by that,” Hunter said. “Coach has been on me to kind of open up and be happy with myself, but the fact is I am happy … I just keep it inside.”
She smiled.
“Besides, I have three more years and we want to make history,” Hunter said. “We want to win the Super Six [national championship], and I'm going to stay humble until we do.”
