Kayla DiCello returns to the UF lineup for the first time since 2023 on Friday with the talent to stake her place among the program's all-time best. (Photo: Hannah White/UAA Communications)
DiCello: 'A Long Time Coming'
Thursday, January 8, 2026 | Gymnastics, Scott Carter
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By: Scott Carter, Senior Writer
GAINESVILLE, Fla. — On the late-April day in 2023 when Kayla DiCello announced after her freshman season at UF that she was taking a year away from college gymnastics to train for the Paris Olympics, she knew there would be milestone moments to reach for her goal to become a reality.
DiCello returned home to Maryland to train at Hill's Gymnastics, where she was introduced to the sport as a 2-year-old at a mommy-and-me class with her mother, Kecia. She transitioned back into life at home and long days filled with training and schoolwork. DiCello checked off events toward Paris, including the All-Around bronze medal at the 2024 U.S. Championships behind Olympic icon Simone Biles and Skye Blakely, DiCello's current UF teammate.
The plan was on track until DiCello suffered a torn right Achilles tendon on the first day of the U.S. Olympic Trials in Minneapolis in June 2024. Not only was she not making the Olympic Team, but DiCello also was not going to walk for a while. Forced into inaction, she opted to repair years of wear and tear on her left Achilles a few months later. Hear more from Kayla DiCello as she joins The Voice of the Gators on the latest Gator Tales podcast.
At that point, DiCello's perspective shifted. She began to celebrate more modest milestones such as taking small steps on padded surfaces, regaining the strength to stand on her toes and straightening her feet without discomfort.
"I was very happy whenever I would get those little accomplishments,'' DiCello said this week. "It's baby steps, especially when coming back from this injury."
DiCello's surgeries meant that she would also miss Florida's 2025 season and have to wait another year to reclaim her spot as one of the nation's top collegians. As a freshman, DiCello was so dominant that they could have named the Southeastern Conference Freshman of the Week in her honor. She won the award six consecutive times to close the regular season before capping the year with All-American honors in the all-around and balance beam at the NCAA Championships.
Kayla DiCello serves lunch at a Dominican Republic youth center during the GatorsLead Global trip in June of 2025. Photo by Luiz Gomez
DiCello took advantage of the forced break by learning about the non-gymnast part of her identity. She took a service trip to the Dominican Republic with other UF student-athletes. She became a Pilates enthusiast. She spent more time hanging out with her friends and experiencing college life.
And once she cleared the physical hurdles to return to the gym, DiCello got back to work with a renewed sense of herself as an elite athlete seeking her old self.
"I learned that it is definitely a process that no matter what I was going through in the gym, whether I could do stuff or not, just making sure that I was grateful for all the little things, and just not adding too much pressure on myself,'' DiCello said. "Not looking too far into the future about what if this, what if that, and really, just staying where I am in that moment … because it's so easy for me to go back in the past and just rethink about the injury."
Kayla DiCellois smiling a lot these days, healthy and ready to return to action on Friday night at the O'Dome. Above, she tosses out goodies to the crowd at Tuesday night's men's basketball game. (Photo: Hannah White/UAA Communications)
A junior with three years of eligibility, DiCello's return provides a massive boost for the No. 3-ranked Gators. She is an Olympic-level gymnast who offers vast experience and the lessons from grinding through a grueling rehab.
"We wouldn't be here, where we are today, without Kayla's leadership,'' UF head coach Jenny Rowland said. "She's extremely talented. She's extremely focused, determined, committed to her team and helping be who the team needs her to be. She's willing to step out of her comfort zone and step up and lead."
Meanwhile, DiCello's anticipation of Friday night's arrival is multi-layered.
First, the obvious. She is set to compete in a regular-season meet at the O'Dome for the first time since Feb. 24, 2023, when the Gators closed the home portion of their season during DiCello's first year on campus.
"It's been a long time coming," she said. "I'm just ready to be back out there and be with my team and really just take in every moment and enjoy it."
And second, her sister, Karleigh DiCello, is a sophomore gymnast at West Virginia. The Gators traveled to Morgantown a season ago, but Kayla was unable to compete. Friday will mark the first time the two sisters have competed against one another in college.
"My parents are gonna be here, and they're dressed up, half West Virginia, half Florida, so they're supporting us both,'' DiCello said. "I'm just really excited. My mom is very creative, so she has one sneaker she decorated with Florida stuff, one sneaker with West Virginia stuff. I think she has jeans, and she put all Florida down one side, all West Virginia down the other side.
"She's very prepared for this."
Finally, a third thread to DiCello's return is that she and Blakely, whose bid for the 2024 Paris Olympics was also derailed by an Achilles injury suffered at the U.S. Trials, will compete for the first time together as Gators. Blakely performed on a limited basis as a freshman but is full-go like DiCello entering 2026.
"I know that I'm excited for it, just like also watching her with her recovery, and just seeing how she went through it and everything,'' DiCello said. "We used each other so much over the past year and a half. We would challenge each other as we're doing our rehab, just in the gym, we would play games to make it fun, so that we could feel like we were participating."
DiCello has thought about this moment along her long journey back, and it's finally here. She said she is 100% healthy and is training in all four events. DiCello continues to refine her floor routine, but from what she says, she is back on track and confident she is as good as ever. She has even considered a return to elite gymnastics, but that won't be determined until after the season and what her body tells her.
For now, DiCello has a clear head, a sound body, and wisdom from the eye-opening experience of getting back up after being knocked down, right as a lifelong dream was within her grasp.
"It gives me a new perspective of everything and just taking everything, one thing at a time, not taking anything for granted,'' she said. "I literally told myself last year, I think I feel like a freshman again. I am starting over."
