With a heart of gold, sophomore gymnast Lindsey Thompson is constantly working to translate her effort into performance in the gym, said coach D-D Breaux.
Breaux said that Thompson has great work ethic.
“She’s about the hardest working person I’ve ever been around in my whole life,” Breaux said. “We would have liked to had her at a little better skill level, but it’s been a delight working with her.”
Breaux said that Thompson, who trains in the all-around, which includes vault, bars, beam and floor, is good to have in the vault and floor lineup.
“Vaulting was a work in progress last year,” Breaux said. “She’s making tremendous contributions to us in that event [this year]. Floor was a work in progress, but now with her we have an excellent lineup in that event.”
Breaux said that Thompson could be seen this year in the bar lineup as well.
“Her bar routine is full of difficulty,” Breaux said. “It is, for all practical purposes, one of the best routines we have in the gym, she just lacks experience and all of the skills are new skills. Until she can do lots of repetitions and lots of numbers in the gym, we won’t feel real safe putting her in, but that would probably be the next event that we would like to see her become proficient in.”
Breaux said she would like to use the summer to help Thompson improve her beam routine.
“We could probably have her do more difficulty,” Breaux said. “Right now we’ve got her in a place in her difficulty where we feel she can be successful given time. We’d like to use the summertime to add more difficulty and continue to work on her consistency.”
Thompson, a native of Denham Springs, La., performs in the vault and floor lineups for the LSU gymnastics team. Her teammate, Kelly Lea, said Thompson is a good person.
“She’s an awesome teammate,” Lea said. “She never has anything bad to say about anyone, always good things, [and is] there when you need her.”
Lea also said Thompson had great work ethic.
“She works 110 percent all the time,” Lea said. “That’s in workouts and the competition.”
Thompson said she would like to hit her routines at all times.
“I expect to go in [to a competition] and hit like I do in practice and keep my confidence level up,” Thompson said.
Thompson said she knows she is talented but also sees room for improvement.
“Right now [my strength is] vault,” Thompson said. “My biggest weakness event wise would be beam, but my main thing is I need to keep my confidence level up.”
Thompson said she can see the team making the Super Six NCAA National Championship as well.
“I think all of our expectations for the team is to make the Super Six,” Thompson said. “I think we’re very capable of it if we can pull together as a team and hit like we do in practice.”
Thompson said her role on the team would be to compete her best.
“[My role would be] to go in and do what I do in practice-play my part in each event and hit,” Thompson said.