This weekend, the NCAA women’s gymnastics championships included a farewell to the sport from UCLA's Katelyn Ohashi, who completed her final performance on Friday.
You may remember her Michael Jackson-scored, super-human tumbling floor routine that went viral. She earned a perfect 10 at the Pac-12 women's gymnastics championship this January. A video of that routine garnered millions of views on social media.
Ohashi came close to her perfect 10 once again in her last college performance, scoring a 9.95 during her floor routine.
Ohashi had a huge smile on her face throughout the routine dancing to Beyonce and Tina Turner in between complex stunts. She's gained star power not only for her success as a gymnast, but also for speaking out against issues like body shaming and domestic violence.
A gender studies major, Ohashi told Marie Claire magazine she plans to continue that activism after college. Ohashi ended her last performance by pretending to do a mic drop and blowing a kiss to the crowd.
Doing things her way has been a hallmark of this 21-year-old, former U.S. national team champion. At age 16, she was told she would never tumble again after injuring her back and both shoulders. She once described herself as broken, and she made the difficult decision to give up the pros and instead go to UCLA to compete as a college athlete.
Perhaps even more painful than her injuries was being told that she had to lose weight because she looked like “a bird that couldn’t fly.”
While in college, Ohashi is also sharing her journey towards body acceptance in a blog called Behind the Madness, where she is empowering women and helping them overcome body-shaming.
Her latest post addressed her decision to honor victims of sexual abuse by removing the signature Michael Jackson music from the routine she performed on Friday. Her new all-female soundtrack intentionally blasts a message of empowerment and self-love.
“I would say a lot came from inside and just realizing that my platform is to speak out on sex assault and [on] women’s empowerment, so I want to keep uplifting people,” said Ohashi.
That message is amplified by how much fun Ohashi has when she takes to the floor and the trademark joy she exudes through the smiles, winks and wiggles in her routines.
Recently, she took a break from practice at UCLA’s John Wooden Center to talk about whether she was feeling the pressure to get another perfect 10 on her final floor exercise.
“Honestly that’s the least of my concerns. I can [only] control how I compete and how much fun I have out there, so what the judges see is completely different," she said. "My biggest concern is just having as much fun as possible and literally embracing the last few minutes I have on the floor."
So don’t expect her to be nostalgic about her last official meet or her final days as a gymnast, as she is already looking forward to post-gymnastics life.
Next up? Graduating in June with and publishing book of poems and photographs. It's a project she’s had to put on hold to finish the season.
“It's hard to cut off something you’ve done your entire life [but if] I had another year I don’t think I would want it," she said.
"I’ve learned all there is to learn with gymnastics — I've been on [the] elite side, I've been on [the] college side. I’ve experienced joy, and I’ve experienced hardship, I'm in this place now where my message is deeper than gymnastics, so I’m ready for what future has to bring me.”
This post was originally published on April 19 and has been updated.