An athlete’s career can be defined by the championships he or she wins.Those who rise to the occasion in clutch situations will be remembered for their heroics.And no one in LSU gymnastics history has shined in the spotlight more than Susan Jackson.Jackson claimed three individual national championships in her career, more than any gymnast in school history. She was also named the 2010 National and Southeastern Conference Gymnast of the Year.LSU coach D-D Breaux said Jackson’s honors came for her actions both in and out of the gym.”Not only was she decorated, but she was complimented,” Breaux said. “The  AAIA Gymnast of the Year award is voted on by the coaches. To win that is truly a national honor. The coaches judge on how the kids represent their university and interact with the other student-athletes, and she has just really done a great job being an ambassador for LSU.”Jackson’s gymnastics prowess began at the age of 3 as a way for her to burn some energy.”I would run across the backs of couches and swing from shower rods or whatever I could get on,” Jackson said. “My mom thought I needed mats around me so that I wouldn’t get hurt.”The Spring, Texas, native did her club training with Dan and Ashley Baker at Stars Gymnastics in nearby Houston. She was a four-time member of the USA National Team, and she finished fourth in the all-around at the Elite National Classic in 2005.Breaux said she was well aware of Jackson’s talents at a young age.”We follow Texas kids pretty close,” Breaux said. “We started following her when she began competing at a regional level, so probably when she was around 12 years old.” Breaux’s persistence in pursuing Jackson paid off. Jackson had scholarship offers from numerous schools around the country, including traditional powerhouses UCLA, Alabama and Georgia. “[The LSU coaches] showed so much interest in me and actually cared about me as a person, not just me as a gymnast,” Jackson said. Another reason Jackson chose the Tigers was to be a part of something special in Baton Rouge.”I didn’t want to go to a school that had already been on top,” Jackson said. “I wanted to go to a school that I could help make to the Super Six and set school records and achieve new heights.”Jackson started her attack on those records from day one.”She was ready to go,” Breaux said. “She’s an elite-level athlete.”As a freshman in 2007, Jackson ended the season as an all-arounder in the Tigers’ final three meets. She also earned first-team All-America honors on the floor exercise. In 2008, Jackson ended the season standing atop the podium at the NCAA Championships the vault national champion. She was also named first-team All-American on the balance beam, floor exercise, vault and the all-around. She was first-team All-SEC and the SEC vault champion.She was named first-team All-American on the vault and all-around again as a junior. She was named the Central Regional All-Around Champion and was national runner-up on the vault to teammate Ashleigh Clare-Kearney. But as a senior, Jackson took aim at the record books.She set the LSU record for most consecutive all-around titles with six and spent a majority of the season as the nation’s top-ranked gymnast.But in dramatic fashion, Jackson saved her best performance for her swan song.In the final meet of her career, the NCAA Championships, Jackson won the all-around national championship. In the individual championships, Jackson performed her final routine on the balance beam and stuck it for her record-breaking third career national title.Breaux said Jackson’s accomplishments cannot be understated.”She’ll be a hall of famer,” Breaux said. “She’s made a national impact.”Now that the dust has settled on Jackson’s career, she is not sure what to do with herself.”Now I’m just going to go home and just sit down,” Jackson said. “I don’t know what to do because I always have to be doing something. And I’ll miss my teammates and my coaches because we had a blast in there.”But Jackson hopes her accomplishments can be a source of inspiration for gymnasts that hope to someday follow in her footsteps.”I hope that the girls that come in later years can say, ‘If someone like that can do it, why can’t I?'” Jackson said. “I just want our accomplishments to be a benchmark for teams to look at and shoot for.”—-Contact Rob Landry at [email protected].