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Laurie Hernandez is moving forward and, once again, enjoying the sport she loves while preparing for the Tokyo Olympics.
“I like to think I have grown since then. You know, there’s still stuff that will come up to this day that I’ll be talking about either in therapy or to friends or family or whoever,” Hernandez tells PEOPLE. She is one of seven athletes partnering with first-time United States Olympic & Paralympic Committee (USOPC) sponsor Eli Lilly to formTeam Lilly.
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“Sometimes I’m like, ‘This is great. I’m healing, everything is dandy. I have grown so much, I feel so wise.’ And then, there are days where I’m like, ‘I feel like I have snowballed backward down a hill on a skateboard and have not made any progress whatsoever.’ That can really throw you off because that usually comes at a time where I’m like, ‘Oh, I’ve learned that another thing is not right.’ That can sting a little bit, but being able to talk about it and share it on social media and then have people connect to it. I think that’s been really important,” she shares.
With a new support system in her team, Hernandez is, once again, enjoying gymnastics.
“Honestly, there’s so much freedom and movement that is taken for granted when it’s being used as a way to achieve something. And that’s when a lot of the times, not just in gymnastics, but in different sports, different athletes or different jobs will kind of burn out because there’s an expectation for a very natural thing to do, which is to move and to express yourself in that way,” she says. “So I noticed being able to do gymnastics where the coach that just wants me to feel good and to do my best and that wants the best for me.”
“Mental health has, of course, been the biggest part, between just learning and unlearning things and being able to do therapy and having an Olympic delay when you’ve been training for that for so long,” she says. “I know it’s not just me, it’s so many other athletes, but you’re training for this big thing and then the rug kind of gets swept out from underneath you and the assignments now change and it’s for a longer duration that you’re staying in. There’s a lot of things to understand and comprehend, but to be able to either journal or talk to my family about it or talk about it in therapy.”
And as a partner and member of Team Lilly, Hernandez will continue to use her voice to champion all forms of health, including her own father Anthony’s health journey. “My dad was diagnosed with type 2 diabetes when he was younger so he’s had it for a pretty long time,” theDancing with the Starschampion says of the patriarch, who has been “doing pretty well” and “been a lot more active.”
“The pandemic led us to be closer-knit as a family with me and my parents and my siblings. There’s been a lot of looking at new recipes and trying different foods that can fuel us and make us feel good,” she says, adding of her father: “I’m really proud of him.”
“So funny to hear being a veteran,” Hernandez says laughing at the fact that she is only in her early 20s. “You know, it is an interesting thing to compete in such a mixed age group, but at the same time, I’m not competing against age, I’m competing against skill level.”
She adds, “For me in 2016 to be 16 years old and to be able to keep up with everybody and to have that skill level that put me in the mix, that was the most important part. And then people stop looking at your age, they just see what you can do. I think that’s the most important part.”
And fans can expect Hernandez to pull out some surprises in competition.
“We are training all floor events. We are able to do all four and right now they’re coming along pretty well, but also, of course, we are loving beam and since I was able to do individual finals on that for Rio,” she explains.
“For some reason, I think because I’m a little older, it almost comes even more naturally to me now than it did before. I feel like I can just grasp it a little better or get the concept. It just feels a little more like home now. And because of that feeling, we’re able to add more upgrades and play around with different skills. That’s the best part,” Hernandez raves.
source: people.com
