“My Sports Experience” Karen Tang (16)

For the Spring 2016 JOUR459G class, students were asked to write about sports experiences from their childhood. Former Maryland gymnast Karen Tang is earning her Master’s Degree from Merrill College after four years as a student-athlete. She wrote two stories – one from her childhood and one from her college career.

Karen’s sister, Kathy Tang,  is also on the Maryland Gymnastics team.

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Photo Courtesy of Karen Tang.

CHILDHOOD EXPERIENCE

I was seven years old when I started gymnastics. I remember sitting in my living room with my mother in our small town house, watching a gymnastics meet. My mom was amazed with these tiny girls in leotards flipping around and performing crazy tricks that seemed impossible for anyone to do. I looked at my mom and said “Mom, I am better than these girls, look!” I then attempted my best imitation of cartwheels and flips on our couch. It wasn’t the first time I’ve done this. My mother had told me countless times to stop destroying our furniture, but being the daredevil child I was, I never listened. After that moment, my mom thought, “Okay, if she really thinks that she can do gymnastics, let’s see how good she really is.”

The following week I enrolled in Tim Daggett Gold Medal Gymnastics in Agawam, Massachusetts. I loved it. I was able to bounce and swing around as much as I wanted. Within a month, the coaches saw a lot of potential in me. And after a year, they asked me to move up to team – the gymnasts that were on team had a shot to become top elite. You start at level five and if you’re good enough, you make your way up to level 10 by the time you graduate high school.

Team was so different than what I was used to. Before I would go to gymnastics twice a week for an hour, but team was four days a week for four hours a day. It was a big time commitment but I was dedicated. I learned so many new skills right away and by the time season came around I was ready for my first level 5 competition.

I remember being so excited putting on my meet leotard. It was a crushed red velvet leotard with silver-colored long sleeves. My hair was pinned in a tight ballerina bun with a matching red velvet scrunchie. I carried my big red “Daggett’s gymnastics” duffle bag, which had nothing in it beside my coach jacket, and was ready to go.

The meet took place at my home gym and because we hosted the competition, our team got to start on vault. I was thrilled because I loved vault back then. When I saluted to the judge, I ran as fast as I could down the 80-foot runway, performed a front handspring over the horse and stuck the landing. My coach gave me a high five and told me to wait for the other girls to finish.

Our second event was the uneven bars. I wasn’t yet ready to jump from the low bar to the high bar by myself so I had my coach spot me. In gymnastics, coaches are not allowed to touch the gymnast when they are performing. If they do, the gymnast gets points taken off of her overall score. I didn’t know this at the time so I was devastated that I got a low score but my teammates reassured me that I had a great routine.

Next, we headed to the balance beam – my weakest event. I had a hard time focusing and balancing on a four-inch beam at the same time. But nonetheless, I still was ready when my name was called. I had a few wobbles but managed to stay on the beam. I dismounted and got so excited that I ran to my dad and gave him a hug. However, I forgot to salute to the judges after my routine. I got nervous that they wouldn’t give me a good score so I ran back to them and tapped them on the shoulders and saluted. They started laughing and told me not worry and that my score wouldn’t be affected. From that point on my coaches never let me live that one down.

Our last event was floor. I was second to last up and could feel my nerves getting to me. I just wanted to get it over with. As I was ready to step on to the floor, my dad gave me a thumbs up. I gave him a quick smile and walked onto the floor. My music began and I tried my best to keep up with the music. I landed my first pass and I could hear my dad cheering in the background. It gave me the motivation I needed to finish. Although, I stumbled on my leap pass, I was able to charm the judges with my last pose and smile.

After everyone was done, all the teams gathered on the floor for the award ceremony. I got so excited when my name was called. I ended up walking away with four participation ribbons. Ribbons were given out to girls that didn’t get first, second, or third. They were basically, a moral booster for the girls that didn’t win anything. I remember getting those a lot when I was younger. But I stuck with it. Slowly, I got better and through my hard work and persistence I was able to transform from a spunky little girl flipping on couches to a NCAA Division I student-athlete at the University of Maryland. After all these years, that memory has always stuck with me because I believe it was the stepping-stone to my gymnastics career, which eventually lead me to a full scholarship.

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COLLEGE EXPERIENCE

I made a promise to myself to be the best gymnast I could be and contribute in anyway I could for the gymnastics team. The first month was a huge transition period – not only were we expected to practice and go to classes, but we had to endure six weeks of rigorous boot camp to get us into shape. I thought I had good time-management skills but you’re really put to a test when all of a sudden you have to balance classes in the morning, practice in the afternoon, a lift workout in the evening, study hall or tutor sessions after dinner and then homework at night. It was a cycle but once I got into the routine, it became the norm.

In the gym I was preforming the way the coaches expected and was on track to compete in the all-around. By the time boot camp was over we were getting ready for our first intrasquad. I remember the day clearly, it was a fall November day, we were having our first team event – which mean the best six girls practice in an ordered line up and have a mini competition to see if they would be the ones to compete on that event. We were on vault. I remember being nervous, I wasn’t too confident in myself yet but couldn’t let my emotions show. I was second in line up. I saluted and started running down the runway. I hurdled into my vault and started twisting in the air, for a spilt second I thought ‘this is going great’, the landing however, was not so great. I came down with locked legs and heard a crunch. I instantly started screaming and grabbed my knee. The trainer came running over and she knew I had dislocated my knee. Luckily, my knee went back in place but I had to go see the doctors right away.

When I saw the doctors, they told me I had to get surgery. They told me once it dislocates, my knees has a greater chance of dislocating again. I couldn’t phantom what had just happened. I had worked so hard, I went through the hard part and just when season was around the corner I got hurt. It didn’t seem fair.

I went into surgery Dec. 4, 2010 with only my trainer. They told me it would be easy and I would only be sidelined for six weeks. They were wrong. By the time I finally woke up, they told me it was worse then what the MRI had shown. Apparently my ligaments weren’t strong enough to hold my knee into place and since I was under the knife and I didn’t have my parents there with me, the surgeons didn’t have approval to fix the other problem areas they found. I needed a second surgery. This time I gave them permission to fix whatever they needed so I could get back into the gym as soon as possible. Yet, my recovery time was eight months, I would have to miss my entire freshman year.

At the time of my injury, I was truly devastated. I felt like I let my team down and because of that I fell into depression.  In treatment it seemed like every time I was rehabbing my knee, I got frustrated. It would take me two times as long to do anything. Gymnastics was another struggle because it was my outlet of bonding with the team and when I got hurt I felt like that was stripped away from me.

It took the whole summer that year for me to start becoming myself again. I slowly began to appreciate all the little steps in my recovery process. Every small accomplishment brought me closer to getting back to gymnastics. I found happiness when I got my brace off, when I could start running and when I could start doing gymnastics again.

Each year that passed I got better and better. In my last year of gymnastics, the university switched over to the Big Ten Conference. It was an exciting time for our team. The Big Ten meant that we would get more recognition, compete against top schools and show everyone that we can be just as good as them. It was an incredible year for me. I was able to lead my team as a captain and compete on vault, the uneven bars and floor. The proudest moments I had that year was when I tied the school record on bars 9.925 and placed fifth on bars at our first ever Big Ten Conference meet.

 Looking back, yes, my injury was a difficult time but it was a blessing in disguise. Because of my injury I was offered a fifth year of eligibility to compete. I want to focus on my fifth year because it is the sole reason why I am here writing this story, while getting my master’s degree at the Philip Merrill College of Journalism.

So after my injury I knew I wanted to make up for the year I lost. My coaches and I agreed that I would be able to come back for my super senior year. However, I didn’t want to coast through school. I wanted to stay on track and graduate my senior year. I did just that and graduated in 2014 with a bachelor’s degree in communications. But what now? I already graduated but still had one more year of eligibility and needed to stay in school to compete.

I figured out a plan. Instead of just taking random classes to stay eligible I pursed my master’s. I applied to the journalism school and was fortunate to get in. From that point on everything changed. Before, as a student-athlete I was able to register for classes earlier than regular student to accommodate for practice times. However, that’s not the case for graduate students. My coaches were understanding and let me come into the gym earlier to practice. It was tough having to go to class in the morning, rush to practice and get everything done in an hour and half, then sprint back to Knight Hall for another class and finish the day off with lift. It was mentally draining but it was worth it.

I’ve have had incredible experiences on the gymnastics team and wouldn’t change anything. I was able to leave my mark and grow the program. I am so fortune to have been on a team with amazing coaches and teammates that will love and support me the rest of my life. So while I’m no longer Karen Tang the gymnast, I will always have the love of gymnastics in me. It was gymnastics that got me here to Merrill and it will be gymnastics that will help me with any other life decisions. It has brought be true happiness that some people may never experience and for that I am forever grateful.