Inside the HP Pavilion center in San Jose, Calif., Bridget Sloan was vying for a spot on the U.S. Gymnastics team at the Olympic trials on June 28, 2012.
Four years had passed since the 2008 Beijing Olympics.
Sloan was considered a veteran after competing on the silver medal-winning team in Beijing. She now faced younger U.S. gymnasts such as Jordyn Wieber and Gabby Douglas.
A 20-year-old Bridget was the fourth-oldest of 15 gymnasts competing at the 2012 Olympic trials preliminaries that day.
“I remember waking up that morning feeling good,” Sloan said. “I was like ‘All right, today’s the day. It’s trials.’”
Sloan traveled to San Jose with her coach, Marvin Sharp, while her mother and father, Mary and Jeff Sloan, planned to arrive the evening before the first night of trials.
Sharp, who has coached Bridget since she was four, knew her medical history before going to California. Bridget had suffered numerous injuries to her knees, ankles and arms since joining the U.S. national team in 2003.
“By the time we got to the summer of 2012, she’d been training and competing for 10 years at that level,” Sharp said.
Sharp knew Bridget, the most decorated gymnast at trials, faced enormous pressure. She was the 2009 World Championships all-around champion, a six-time Visa Championship competitor and a Pan American Games gold medalist.
“She accomplished a lot — I mean a lot more than 99 percent of the gymnasts out there,” Sharp said.
On the night before trials, while practicing her routine on uneven bars, Bridget released too soon on one of her favorite skills, the ‘Church’ and realized she was off her mark when her toes came off the bar.
“I felt a little off when I was up there on the equipment,” she said.
Bridget fell flat onto the practice mats. Her elbow ricocheted off of the sting mat just below her. Without any hesitation, she propped up, powdered her hands with chalk and prepared for another rotation.
She skipped her release and performed her jump exclusively to try to avoid the pain that pierced through her arm. But she couldn’t shake it.
Meanwhile, Bridget’s parents were en route to the HP Pavilion Center. A family friend reached out to Mary via text, worried by Bridget’s injury. Unaware of the situation, her mother, Mary, couldn’t make sense of it all.
But any cause for concern was quickly dismissed. Mary’s friend followed up with a text that Bridget had moved on to balance beam.
After consulting with USA Gymnastics medical coordinator Dr. Larry Nassar, Bridget returned to the balance beam and attempted a back handspring. Her arm, weak from her fall, collapsed. Clutching her elbow, Bridget turned to Sharp with a look of concern.
“I looked at Marvin and told him something wasn’t right,” Bridget said.
Sloan convened with Dr. Nassar, who diagnosed Bridget with a bruised nerve in her elbow.
When Jeff and Mary finally made it to the arena, Bridget called, urging them to meet her in the medical room just below the stadium.
Bridget and Sharp felt it was in her best interest to forgo the remainder of the trials to avoid further injury to her elbow.
“That wasn’t how we wanted to end our season, but we weren’t going to go out there and cause her anymore damage, and we didn’t want to go out and have 16 falls and have that be her last memory,” Sharp said.
Bridget’s announcement came one month before the London Olympics began, ending a career that took her from Pittsboro, Ind., to Beijing.
“(When I was) going through the MRI and X-Ray, and I realized that I was done... I started really appreciating gymnastics and what it offered me and what I’ve been able to give back,” Bridget said.
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In the weeks following her injury, Bridget took time to allow her elbow to heal. She worked closely with trainer Darrell Barnes in Indianapolis.
Following rehab, she traveled to several gymnastics camps including Camp Woodward in Woodward, Pa., — a camp she has coached at since 2009 — and Flip Fest located in Crossville, Tenn.
“She kept herself very busy,” Mary said. “She kept herself focused on other things.”
At the camps she served as a floater for the training staffs, walking from apparatus to apparatus, correcting back handsprings and bar swings.
She began to sound like her coach of 16 years.
“People kept telling me I taught the way Marvin [Sharp] did,” Bridget said.
By the end of July, Bridget refocused her attention to selecting a college. She deferred endorsement money throughout her Elite career for a chance to compete collegiately.
Her list had three schools: Utah, Georgia and Florida. With her decision she would become the first World Championships all-around titlist ever to compete collegiately.
Utes coach Greg Marsden shared the same opinion of Bridget as other coaches: she was the most talented freshman going into college gymnastics.
“Everyone knew she was a blue-chipper,” said Marsden. “She brings a great deal to a program with not only her abilities, but her personality, and everybody knew that and that’s why we recruited her so hard.”
When Bridget called Rhonda Faehn to tell her she would become a Gator, there was no answer. On her second try, she got a hold of her new coach, who described Sloan’s commitment as a “present.”
After falling 0.075 points short of winning the national championship at last year’s Super Six, the Gators nabbed Bridget, who made Florida a national title favorite in 2013.
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Sloan did not know what to expect at Florida. Her soon-to-be practices differed from the ones she was familiar with at the Elite level.
Her teammates were skeptical, too.
Junior Lauren Rose was unsure of Sloan’s personality. Performing alongside her was a former Olympian with enough competition hardware to fill Florida’s trophy room.
“I didn’t know if she would acknowledge me,” Rose said jokingly. “And then again, I didn’t know that we would become such good friends because she’s so good.”
Admittedly, Sloan felt nervous throughout the team’s preseason regiments until Florida’s opening meet against Ball State on Jan. 4. Sloan competed on three events and took an outright win on vault — her signature event.
Since the postseason began, Sloan has performed her best yet.
Sloan holds the NCAA’s best regional qualifying score of 9.955 on uneven bars, and has won the event outright six times this season. On balance beam, she has a regional qualifying score of 9.92, second only to Oklahoma’s Taylor Spears’ score of 9.945.
Bridget continued to impress at the Southeastern Conference Championships on March 23 in Little Rock, Ark. She earned a share of the SEC all-around title with a score of 39.75 — following in the footsteps of teammate Kytra Hunter, who earned the title as a freshman in 2012.
Her journey to Gainesville may have been littered with injuries, but Sloan is as confident in her abilities as ever.
Now, Bridget has a chance to get the Gators back to the Super Six today at 3 p.m. at the NCAA Championships Semifinal in Los Angeles.
“I’m so glad that I kept my NCAA eligibility and came to Florida,” Sloan said. “And to be part of such a great team is such an honor.”
Bridget Sloan performs her floor routine during Florida’s 198.1-196.85 win against Alabama on Feb. 8 in the O’Connell Center. Sloan won uneven bars (9.95) and all-around (39.675) against the Crimson Tide.
