LSU junior all-around gymnast Jessica Savona has been at the highest level of the sport — the Olympic games.
But she also has been at the lowest level, unable to compete for more than two years combined after a pair of career-threatening injuries.
The good and the bad have made her into the gymnast she is today — the 2013 Southeastern Conference floor champion, a 2014 First-Team All-American and an integral part on the No. 2 gymnastics team in the nation.
The native of Mississauga, Ontario, showed her potential at a young age as a multisport athlete. She was one of the premier Canadian athletes in gymnastics and soccer while also swimming and running competitively.
“I played soccer until I was about 12 or 13,” Savona said. “It was at the competitive level where I would be competing for my province against other provinces. But it got to the point where I loved gymnastics too much to give it up, so when soccer became a high priority thing and gymnastics became a high priority thing, I had to decide, and I chose gymnastics.”
Savona proved she made the right choice in 2007 when she became the junior champion at the Elite Canada Championships in Abbotsford, British
Columbia, Canada. Then she tore the anterior cruciate ligament in her right knee in 2008 while training for a competition.
It took a year and a half until Savona could compete again and two years until she could perform to the best of her ability.
“It seems a lot bigger now that I am looking back at it, but at the time, I just wanted to be back,” Savona said. “I did whatever I could to be back to where I wanted to be. I focused on a day at a time strengthening, working out and trying to stay fit.”
By 2010, she reminded the world of the potential she showed two years earlier. She represented Canada at the 2010 World Championships and the 2011 Japan Cup. She added first-place finishes on beam and floor and a second-place finish in the all-around at the 2011 Canadian Championships.
But in 2011, disaster struck again. This time, the ACL in her left knee gave out, calling her gymnastics career into question.
But Savona didn’t let the second injury compromise her determination. She recovered from the second injury in nine months, just in time to qualify for the 2012 Canadian National team as an alternate.
“It came down to how much I wanted to get back and prove my worth to myself,” Savona said.
Savona said suffering the injuries may have made her a better gymnast. She lost the ability to perform certain skills she had before, but it opened the door to try new ones.
LSU gymnastics coach D-D Breaux saw Savona on a recruiting trip and was impressed with her new array of skills. Breaux offered her a scholarship in spite of other colleges’ concerns about her health.
“She had the injury, but I saw what she was doing, and I saw the level of difficulty, intense level of push and the drive that she
demonstrated in that three days of competition,” Breaux said. “I knew [she] was the kind of student athlete I like to recruit.”
Now, four years removed from her last major injury, Savona is one of the best gymnasts in the SEC. She still draws inspiration from the time she was at the lowest point of her athletic career.
For Savona, the day-to-day aches and pains from a college-level training regimen are much easier to push through after what she has already overcome.
Her strong work ethic in training translates to consistency in competition. She has posted five scores of 9.875 or better on floor, including two 9.900 scores in a row.
“If she keeps mentally stable in between her ears, she’s one of the best competitors we have,” said senior all-arounder Rheagan Courville. “She brings a lot of experience, power and discipline to our team and a really strong work ethic that everybody looks up to.”
You can reach Jacob Hamilton on Twitter @jhamilton_TDR.