Every athlete fears for the day that an injury takes them out of competition.
For LSU junior gymnast Lauren Li, it came when she broke her foot in a preseason practice session last year.
Now healthy, Li is working to earn a spot in this season’s lineup after the injury prevented her from competing during her sophomore year.
“Rehab went really well,” the all-arounder said. “When I started coming back into training, it was still during the season last year. I was always a little bit short just because everybody had the extra training that I didn’t have, so I was always alternate for beam.”
As a freshman at Penn State, Li competed in all four events, with a career high of 9.90 on both beam and vault and 39.10 in the all-around. After transferring to LSU for her sophomore season, Li broke her foot during a preseason practice that left her unable to compete for the majority of the season.
Li said it was a disappointment to be unable to compete last season, but back and healthy, she’s ready to contribute in any way.
While fully capable of competing in all four events, Li focuses on beam and hopes to earn a permanent spot in the lineup. Li played a pivotal role in LSU’s season opening win against Georgia, scoring a 9.85 on beam.
“Someone new in the beam lineup, Lauren Li, goes up, goes 9.85 right there in the No. 3 spot, which is a critical spot,” LSU coach D-D Breaux said. “When you get two great performances, that No. 3 has gotta hold up and set up the end of the lineup.”
Breaux explained that the intersquads often dictate how the lineup will play out for the following meet. It is important that those intersquads mean something, Breaux said.
“Consistency wins,” Breaux said. “The best three scores in any event, they’re pretty much gonna be sacred. With the three scores that are the lowest, we’ll have an opportunity to look at that and make a substitution.”
Echoing Breaux’s sentiment, Li said she thinks she needs to work on consistency more than anything. Li explained that the team wants somebody that it can trust to always hit their routines in competition.
“I have a good beam routine,” Li said. “But there are other girls in the lineup that can be just as or more consistent than I am. I think that’s what I really need to work on myself.”