Flips & Flippin’ Bad Days: mastering emotional agility
In January 2019, the social media world was captivated by the gymnastics routine of 21-year old American, Katelyn Ohashi. Competing for the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), Ohashi leapt, flipped, and turned in a high-energy performance that gained perfect 10 scores from the judges. However, it wasn’t simply the scores that led Ohashi’s routine to hit the headlines.
Ohashi’s journey to that performance, and the follow-ups that kept her in the spotlight, was filled with challenge and opportunity, success and failure. In 2013, she won the American Cup, defeating future Olympic Gold Medalist, Simone Biles in the process. A year later she was seriously injured before, having returned to competition, fracturing her sternum in 2016. The 2018 National Championships saw a fit-again Ohashi win the floor title — her first national championship victory.
This technically brilliant athlete, repeatedly broken but seldom beaten, then took the floor at 2019’s Collegiate Challenge. Complementing her skill this time, however, was a routine that showed the crowd more of…
