‘09 Worlds Recap – 4 – Kayla Williams – A Cinderella Story

Have you ever heard of Kayla Williams before? I mean, from something or someone other than me. No? Well, don’t feel badly. I didn’t know about her until two months ago. And five months ago, by gymnastics standards, she didn’t even exist.

In elite American gymnastics, star gymnasts are typically identified very early. They either train at a world-class gym by the best coaches, or participate in TOPs, a skills-based program that brings talented athletes to the attention of USAG. These gymnasts will be ear-marked early on, and watched carefully as the progress through the ranks before testing to junior elite at a young age. By the time these gymnasts reach the age of being able to compete in the senior ranks, they are already well-known by the gymnastics public and officials.

Generally if an athlete doesn’t test into elite before they are fourteen or so, it’s very difficult for them to be noticed by the right people and be able to attend the right competitions that can put them on the correct track for a successful elite career. If a gymnast intends to compete elite at all, they will do that early on so as to get experience.

But Kayla didn’t. For whatever reason, elite was never really in her goals. A lot of that might have had to do with the fact that she wasn’t age-eligible for Beijing anyway. If she’d been a year older, it’s possible that her coach might have seized that opportunity and pointed her towards the elite path. But she wasn’t, and since most gymnasts who just miss out on one Olympics rarely make it to the next, Kayla and her coach steered her gymnastics goals in other, very manageable routes. She’d be perfect in the NCAA circuit, someone must have thought. And so she was groomed for Level 10, the level below international elite in the US, and the level that all collegiate athletes compete at.

Kayla did very well at Level 10. She reached that level when she was 13, I believe. I know the first year she made it to the Junior Olympic Nationals (the biggest competition for a L10 athlete) she ranked, but not medaled. The second year, 2008, she made it to JO Nats again and took second place. And her third year competing, this past May, she went to JO Nats and took the all-around title as well as several medals on other events.

Somewhere along the line, someone (her coach?) must have realized that there was a lot more that Kayla was capable of. She had won the ultimate competition in L10; there was really no way to go up except for elite. And she wouldn’t be going to college for at least two years; maybe three. Somewhere, somehow, her coach had her start training elite-level skills.

Kayla’s story is not that well known, which is why my facts are a bit muddled. I’ve heard that Kayla tried out for elite before this summer, but didn’t make it. I haven’t been able to verify that, though. I’ve also heard that Marta saw Kayla at JO Nats this year, saw her power and what she was capable of, and advised her coach to get her to an elite qualifier. I’ve also heard that her coach tried to get Kayla invited to the National Team Training Camps multiple times before this year. I don’t know how much fact is in all of these things, but I suspect that there’s a bit of truth to all of them. Marta was desperate for someone to fill the gap on vault and floor that was made when Alicia Sacramone retired, and Kayla, with her insane power and already polished double-twisting-yurchenko vault (a VERY hard vault and an international standard), seemed to be a likely candidate. Marta had others she was keeping her eye on as well, though, so Kayla was just an inclusion to a large pool of girls that Marta was trying to pick a new star from.

All we DO know is that Kayla did go to an elite qualifier in June, and passed. She was then invited to the Cover Girl Classic in August, a qualifying competition to Nationals.

I watched Classics, and I remember that Kayla was shown on a few events. I didn’t have a flying clue who this girl was, obviously. But then again, I didn’t really know who anyone was except the great Nastia Liukin and her fellow cohorts. That Kayla was good was clear. That she was pretty rough on various aspects was also clear. Competing Level 10 and competing elite are two vastly different things.  There’s a whole different mindset, and training methods that are instituted when one is generally fairly young. After Kayla had made elite and had gone to a training camp with Marta, the first change that Marta made was Kayla’s floor routine. She thought that Kayla needed something a little more sophisticated. So Kayla’s college-type routine was ditched for a hastily-put-together routine set to music that didn’t really fit her. Considering that Kayla only had had her new routine for around two months by the time Classics came along, you have to respect the way she was able to make it work and do her best.

Kayla qualified handily to Nationals, probably expected from Marta, but a nice surprise for her. You have to understand where Kayla was coming from. A few months before, Level 10 had been her whole life. She hadn’t really thought beyond competing at that level and joining a great college team. Now she was thrown into the world of elite; the world of her idols that she’d watched on TV the summer before. And not only was she competing with the likes of Nastia Liukin, but she was actually GOOD at what she was doing. She was getting good scores. And now she was going to the US National Championships, with the outside possibility of maybe making the World Championship team because of her phenomenal vaulting ability. A little crazy for a sixteen year old to process, right?

Kayla did very well at Nationals, winning vault (by default, I heard), and ranking in the top 10 all-around. That was more than enough to qualify her to the World team selection camp, where she now had a good shot at making the team.

You really have to be amazed at how things just aligned so perfectly for Kayla this year. Realistically, if everyone who had competed at Nationals had been healthy enough, the would have gotten the spot to London over Kayla. Sam Pezek had an amazing vault and Chellsie and Nastia could have taken a spot easily if they’d been more prepared. But for various reasons, they all dropped out, leaving a spot empty, and that spot went to none other than Kayla Williams.

From Level 10 to elite, to World team member, all in five months. Pretty amazing, huh?

But wait! It gets better.

As Worlds approached, buzz around Kayla began to build and build. People who had been going, “Kayla who?” just a few weeks before, were now scrambling to find out as much info on this girl as they could. They discovered that this unknown gymnast from West Virginia had vaults that were capable with competing with the reigning Olympic Champion. Given the current vaulting field, this kid just might run away with a world medal; and not just any medal; maybe even a GOLD medal. NOW things were really getting crazy!

And they just got crazier and crazier. Kayla performed really well in qualifications on the two events she was slated to compete, vault and floor. She barely missed out on qualifying to the floor exercise final, and qualified first to the vault finals, with a nearly textbook perfect DTY and a rough but completed second vault (Barani, I think?). You have to give her a little slack when you realize that she just learned that second vault within the last few months to make her competitive on an elite level.

But that was just qualifications. The best was yet to come.

Vault finals was the first individual apparatus final competed for the women, and Kayla was slated to compete fairly early on, but after Hong Un Jong, her main rival. This was good for her, as it would put more pressure on Un Jong to pull out all the stops and give her more chances for error. And that’s exactly what happened, with the reigning Olympic gold medalist on this event crashing on both her vaults.

And then it was Kayla’s turn. She competed her newer vault first. Her form was a little sloppy in the air, but her landing was quite solid and in control. That is one area where Kayla had an advantage on her competitors. Level 10 has always emphasized stuck landings, whereas elites were never deducted for steps until this year. Since Kayla was already used to sticking her elements, the adjustment wasn’t as hard for her as it was for others.

With her first vault done and under her belt, it was now time for Kayla to pull out her masterpiece. She ran down the vault and completed a beautiful DTY that was about as perfect as I’ve ever seen it done. I could get nit-picky about one or two elements about it if I wanted to, but even the harshest critic would have to agree that DTY’s are rarely competed that well.

And she stuck it the landing cold, too!

The absolute elation and relief on her face after she finished was such a joy to see. She ran off the podium and leaped into her coaches arms. She’d been so calm and cool the whole competition; so admirable for a gymnast at her very first international competition, let alone the World Championships. But now that her competition was done, she was able to let her focus down and you could see the emotions tumble out of her. There were not a few teary eyes that day, not to mention her own. Such an incredible, but overwhelming experience for a young girl!

She won, of course. There was no one else who could challenge her scores. Kayla Williams walked away with the gold medal, her first international medal ever (and what a medal it was!), and she had the distinction of winning the USA’s first ever title on that event. Alicia Sacramone had come close several times, but it was Kayla Williams who was lucky enough to be in the right place at the right time, to take away the gold medal.

It’s such a Cinderella story, really. What are the odds? In May, she’d been a Level 10 gymnast; with no elite aspirations whatsoever. And now here she was, in October, the World Champion on vault. This is the stuff made of dreams and fairy-tales. An unlikely fairytale, but a true one nonetheless!

I think that what impresses me most about Kayla is not just her gymnastics, but her raw talent and potential, not to mention her wonderful personality. She seems lke such  a sweet and genuinely kind person, so grateful for the opportunities that she’s been able to have because of her sport. I saw a lovely set of interviews she did at Nationals, and they were so fun to watch. Kayla really seemed to be over the moon just to be at Nationals; I can only IMAGINE what being in London must ave been like, not to mention actually winning!

What’s exciting about Kayla is that realistically, she has a lot more that she could do. Having  competed in the L10 ranks for so long, she’s been limited in her gymnastics and what she could do. She’s used to running on a very short vault runway, for example, which makes her powerful vaults all the more amazing. Imagine what she could do if she actually used the whole runway to gain enough speed and power!

She’s shown that she’s still very rough,  gymnastics-wise, as far as elite standards go. Apart from her amazing tumbling skills, her floor exercise routine was not a thing of beauty. She’s also at the disadvantage because she hasn’t had years and years of flexibility and dance training as her now top competitors have. If Kayla wants to prove that her gold medal was no fluke, she’s really going to have to work hard and improve so much in order to stay on top next year.

She’s s till very much a wild-card, which is pretty exciting, I think. We’ve all seen how much she’s been able to improve over the span of a few short months. Imagine if she had a whole year, or years, to improve and perfect elite-level skills and routines! Kayla could bring the house down in every sense of the word.

But, it could also very easily go the other way. Now that she’s won a World title, she’s going to have an enormous amount of pressure placed on her. She benefited from being a bit “innocent” and an underdog going into London; I’ve got a feeling that she may not have realized just how big that was until it was all over. Now, she no longer has the luxury. Every vaulter in the world now wants to beat her, and her specifically.  That’s a lot of pressure for one young girl, and while she’s proved herself to be very focused and steady so far, she might not do so well in the future.

But that’s all what if’s, what if’s. 2010 is going to be a really exciting year for Kayla Williams and USA Gymnastics, I suspect. If Kayla is able to go out there and show that she has not only been able to stay at the same level she was this year, but even improve, that could solidify her spot as a valuable member of team USA and raise her stock, so to speak.

Which is important, if Kayla is entertaining any thoughts of the London Olympics now. Only five girls will be representing the USA at the 2012 Olympics, and because of that, the US can really afford to send one gymnast who competes less than three or four events. Kayla has said herself that she “stinks” at bars, and she’s good, but not amazing, at beam. I think that if she could make her floor routine a medal contender and get her beam routine to Olympic-level, she would stand a very good shot at making an Olympic spot.

But that’s all very, very much in the future. Right now, Kayla needs to focus on staying healthy, and keeping her options open. Maybe, two years down the road, she’ll decide that the Olympic path isn’t for her, and will move on to a fabulous collegiate career. That’s really okay. Whatever makes her happy, makes me happy.

Because when you think about it, she’s already accomplished something amazing. Something that could only have been in her wildest dreams.

No, strike that. Beyond her wildest dreams.

Congratulations, Kayla Williams!!  You’re the new World Champion!

Up Next: The final installment to this ridiculously long recap.