When the Fab 5 take the stage in Rio, there will be one north Texan cheering particularly loud.
But watching the gymnasts compete will be bittersweet.
Alyssa Baumann of Plano may have been on the team herself but an injury ended her run at the Olympics just days before trials last month.
“You just wonder how things like that can happen but you just have to trust that everything happens for a reason,” Baumann said.
Baumann was a member of the 2014 World Championship team that won gold. She was won the silver medal for balance beam in 2014 and 2015.
Baumann began gymnastics at age three at the WOGA gym in Plano where Olympic gold medalists Nastia Liukin and Carly Patterson have trained.
Baumann was training on the uneven bars in late June when she says she slipped onto her hands and dislocated her elbow.
“I tore mini-ligaments and muscles that you use your fingers to grip and I needed surgery right away,” she said.
Baumann announced on Instagram that she was bowing out of the trials which, at the time, were just ten days away.
With her road to Rio behind her, she’s now focused on the road to recovery.
She underwent surgery and now spends several hours a day in rehab.
“Everyone has reached out to me. My coaches are just heartbroken but they still have Madison in the Olympics so we’re all just trying to keep positive and cheer her on,” Baumann said.
Madison Kocian, who also trains at WOGA, is one of the five US female gymnasts competing in Rio.
Baumann said she hasn’t ruled out a run at the Tokyo Olympics in 2020.
