Men_s_Gymnastics_vs_Ohio_State_LA_1899Men_s_Gymnastics_vs_Ohio_State_LA_1899
Lydia Asplin/NU Communications
Men's Gymnastics

The Rise After the Fall

N Our Voice By Taylor Christopulos

I'm super excited to get back to working with the team and seeing what we can do. The rise after the fall always makes for the best stories. And ours is far from finished.

Taylor Christopulos

We did this—all of us. Together.

I can't think of many moments that can compare to hoisting the NCAA trophy. 

No, we weren't able to accomplish our goal of winning a national title. But man, fourth place is still pretty amazing. 

We were all stoked to get that trophy, especially for our seniors. It was our last competition together, and we wanted to go out with a bang. 

But honestly, as much as I love what we accomplished at NCAAs, that fourth-place finish wasn't necessarily as important to me as the journey of getting there.

Competing at this level reignited my love for the sport of gymnastics by challenging me in ways I never would have believed possible—both as an individual and a member of this team. 

And if things went a bit differently on our final day of competition, we could have pulled it off and even won that national title. 

Believe me.

Deep down, I know we could have done it.

The Man in the Arena

We were so close.

After the first day at the NCAAs, we did something truly incredible and beat Oklahoma to finish first. For those that aren't too familiar with men's college gymnastics, trust me, the Sooners are kind of the benchmark in our sport.

Everything was falling into place that day, and we truly believed it was our time.

But then, well, day two happened.

I had to step in on high bar after one of our seniors went down with an injury. I'll be honest, my nerves wrecked me. I've grown up competing with mostly parents in the stands. A couple dozen, maybe a couple hundred at the Junior Olympics. Gymnastics isn't all that popular in the United States, and it's something you get used to as a kid.

But this atmosphere at NCAAs, man, this was different. It was a riot out there. It was one of the loudest competitions I've ever been in, and I felt sick to my stomach.

We train for moments like this the whole year—no, our whole lives. 

When you step into an arena like that, things can get pretty surreal. You have to mentally prepare yourself. If you don't know how to control your nerves, you can mess up pretty quickly. I learned that lesson the hard way when I fell during my high bar routine.

I just wanted to crawl to the darkest corner in the room and sit there all by myself. 

Gymnastics is a sport that comes down to tenths, and falling, well, that’s a lot of tenths. I felt like I just blew it for everyone. We had such high hopes as a team, and I was the first one to fall. I didn't even want to look at my teammates because I felt like I brought those hopes down.

But I'm glad I looked at them. 

They all stood there with their heads held high and continued cheering me on. The positivity within the group never wavered because they knew what it felt like to fall. They reassured me of my training and showed the sort of faith in me that helped me get my confidence back for the later events. 

If I didn't have my teammates, I could have thrown the rest of the meet away.

Moments like that changed my perspective of the sport entirely.

The Road Less Traveled

I didn't crawl into a dark corner. 

I got back to my feet, dusted myself off, and proudly stood with my teammates.

They had my back, and I had theirs.

We could have packed it in and went home empty-handed, but we worked too hard and came too far for it all to have been for nothing.

So we fought back.

We were ultimately able to rally back and win fourth place. Maybe not a national title, but an amazing accomplishment nonetheless. I finished fifth on vault in the individual event and ended my season being named the first-ever Big Ten Freshman of the Year for Nebraska gymnastics.

I'm proud of that achievement, even though I didn't really know they gave out those kinds of awards until I got one. For me, awards are also a great testament to the people around you. Because, well, let's face it - it takes more than one person to be a successful athlete.

My parents raised me to be a hard worker—just the basic and fundamental principles of putting your head down and going to work. 

They taught me to show pride in what you do.

As a religious person, I've also trusted in God to see me through the tough times. I train super hard and lean on my coaches to help me reach my physical peak as an athlete. The same can be said about my club coaches that helped teach me the proper form at a young age to put me in this position.

Coaches, teammates, family members—everything I've accomplished is because of the people in my corner. So, naturally, this great recognition is also for them. 

All of them.

 
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The Comeback

It's great to finally have a little downtime to just sit back and reflect on a long and hard season. I'd also be lying if I told you I haven't already been thinking about next year, though.

We were proud of how we finished—don't get me wrong. It was great to see everybody come together and support one another for one last run with that team.

But I also know we could have done better.

The sky is the limit if we continue to compete the same way we did on the first day at nationals. So yes, I've thought about next year, and I'm sure others on the team have as well. The level of talent we'll have next season is intriguing.

Watch out. We're going to be dangerous.

I'm super excited to get back to working with the team and seeing what we can do. The rise after the fall always makes for the best stories.

And ours is far from finished.