Bridget Sloan: Focused on return in 2015
Friday, February 13, 2015 | Gymnastics
By Eden Otero, UF Communications
All it took to end Bridget Sloan's career in elite gymnastics was one fall.
One fall from the uneven bars during the 2012 Olympic Trials and a sprained elbow later and she was saying goodbye to the elite world and a chance at a second Olympic appearance, and hello to a soon-to-be spectacular college gymnastics career.
But after two years of competition, two team national titles, three perfect scores and 58 event titles, Sloan is back on the sidelines after spraining her right ankle during her final tumbling pass in Florida's first meet of the season at Ball State.
“It really was very unexpected,” Sloan said. “I had no intention of going into Ball State and coming out of Ball State on crutches. …Coming back, it's just, being in the gym everyday has been awesome, but at the same time it's so hard watching. I think Rhonda [Faehn] can definitely see that I'm really anxious to get back.”
As Sloan took her final tumbling pass, her ankle turned on the landing leaving her balancing on one leg in a silent arena while she waited for Florida's athletic trainers to help her off the mat. Her reaction wasn't to cry or panic, but rather to mouth to coach Rhonda Faehn and assistant coaches Robert Ladanyi and Adrian Burde, “I can't finish it.”
She knew she couldn't finish the last few seconds of her routine and that's what worried her most.
“I thought I broke my foot,” Sloan said. “I looked down and my whole ankle bone had shifted. I was convinced – convinced – that my season was done. As soon as I looked down I was like, 'I'm done. I'm done.'”
The good news for Sloan: X-rays showed that she didn't break her foot, something that would have ended her junior season.
The bad news: Even though it was a sprain, there are no guarantees. If she does return in 2015, it will be in the latter portion of the campaign.
Four weeks after her sprain and while her ankle feels better, it's still far from a go. Instead of outright practicing on her already delicate ankle, she's visualizing her routines.
Some days she sits on the blocks at the far right corner of the floor exercise mat in the training gym and visualizes her dance routine while her floor music blares out of the speakers.
“Adrian has me doing mental sets, mental floor, beam, bars – all of them,” Sloan said. “Within two days he was like, 'All right they're going to play your floor music and you're going to do your routine in your head,' and I thought he was kidding and then all of a sudden I heard my floor music and he said, 'Yes, this is what it's going to take.'”
While Sloan didn't expect to injure herself in that first meet of 2015 at Ball State, she does expect to be back in the gym and competing before the season is over.
Her overall mentality: No injury can stop Bridget Sloan.
“I could either mope around or I could deal with this in a positive way,” Sloan said. “I'm going to come back. I'm going to prove everyone wrong that said, 'Oh your seasons over.' Nope. It's not.”
