Trinity Thomas knows the chances of her competing in the 2024 Olympics aren’t great, but she’s OK with it.
She’s just glad to try again, the York County native said Wednesday of the University of Florida Gymnastics Training Division.
After spraining both ankles as a junior in Florida prior to the NCAA championships, Thomas said she is leaving elite competition behind to focus on her senior season. She changed that a few months later to take a more wait-and-see attitude.
“I was depressed, I was sad,” Thomas said on Wednesday. “But I pulled myself together, came back and had the best season of my life. I definitely can’t get excited about that.”
As a senior, she won three NCAA singles titles, including the all-around title, leading Florida to second place in the four-team finals. She also achieved a dozen perfect scores, climbing to the top of the all-time list of collegiate gymnasts.
After earning bachelor’s degrees in applied physiology and kinesiology, Thomas decided to use the extra year of licensure granted by the NCAA due to the pandemic to pursue a master’s degree in health education and behavior.
A hot start to the season put her within reach of a record 28 points, but another leg injury late in the season nearly derailed her run. She returned to compete in the NCAA vault and parallel bars championships and set a career record 10 on the final jump of her collegiate career.
This degree also brought new impetus for her future.
Residence in Florida
“I thought about it for a while,” Thomas said of the Olympic run. “It’s another year of gymnastics, and I love gymnastics, so it can be as big or small as I want.”
“I still have fuel in the tank, let’s see how much.”
It’s not just about training for the Olympics. She will also be working towards a second master’s degree, this time in Entrepreneurship, and will work with the gymnastics team as a student coach.
“I’ve been here for five years, so there’s obviously something very special about this place,” Thomas said. “I absolutely love Florida…the coaches, the team, Gator Nation, the family are very special to me and have been there for me. I wasn’t ready to go.”
She said the injuries she sustained at the end of the season gave her a taste of what it would be like to coach her teammates. She stood on the sidelines, providing support and guidance as the Gators went through NCAA competition without her.
And she’s been working with the four gymnasts who stayed in Gainesville this summer, including Leanne Wong, a silver medalist at the 2021 World All-Around Championships.
“I feel like I sort of got into it [coaching] “I’ll play my part with injuries at the end of the season,” Thomas said. “So now that they’re on the competitive floor, to be totally on their side, I’m super excited because I can be there for them and encourage them. They’re going to do great things, so I can’t wait.”
Small steps
Returning to top-level gymnastics is daunting enough as it is, but doing it while recovering from an injury takes it to the next level.
During her floor routine in the regional semifinals, she loaded the area where her calf meets the Achilles tendon. It continued to bother her even after several months of physical therapy, and only recently has she seen improvement.
Thomas is aware that their journey will be anything but smooth. But she has a plan and wants to stick to it.
“I don’t focus too much on the question, ‘Oh, can I make the team?'” Thomas said. “It’s going to happen or it’s not going to happen at the end of the day. I have to focus on what I have to do to get there.”
The first thing to do is to get completely healthy, she said. She feels pretty close but isn’t ready to give it all just yet.
In addition to her strength work, Thomas works the basics in the gym, limiting herself to soft landings, among other things. She also gives her body time to rest and the right kind of fuel it needs to heal.
“The most important thing is to get healthy, regain your strength and develop the skills,” said Thomas. “If my health doesn’t come first, it doesn’t matter.”
The next step will be to prepare their routines for elite competition. This includes adding tumbling passes to a longer floor exercise and more difficult skills like vault, beam and parallel bars.
“There’s definitely going to be improvements, a lot more skills that you’re going to see in the routines,” Thomas said. “You can tailor your routine to suit you, so that’s pretty cool.”
When asked if her floor exercise routine includes her signature gator nibble, the 22-year-old laughed and said it was way too early to think about it.
It’s also too early to say when and where she’ll be competing, unless she knows it won’t be in 2023. She hopes to get an invite to a monthly national team camp in the fall and compete from there. The competition to determine the US Olympic team will take place in June 2024, months before the Paris Games.
Thomas has competed against many of the top names in US gymnastics, either during her 2016-2020 US National Team stint or in college. In the past two years she has faced 2020 Olympic all-around champion Suni Lee (Auburn), floor champion Jade Carey (Oregon State) and team silver medalist Jordan Shiles (UCLA).
Additionally, she was teammates with and will coach Wong and 2021 World Championships all-around bronze medalist Kayla DiCello.
They are all expected to compete for spots on the 2024 Olympic team, in addition to Simone Biles, who announced last week that she is returning to competition.
‘Knowledge is power’
Thomas’ third degree will be very different from her first two. After five years in healthcare, she will ease the business urge she felt while working with NIL accounts.
“The NIL world opened my eyes to some pretty cool things,” she said. “And one day I wanted to learn how to run my own business. I’m honestly my own business now, but I’m just trying to figure things out and make sure I’m doing them in the right and most efficient way.”
Thomas completed deals shortly after the NCAA began allowing athletes to use their name, image and likeness. She has also attended conferences and awards shows where she has networked with other athletes to share stories.
A month ago, Thomas was named NIL Athlete of the Year at a conference in Atlanta. The award is given to the man, woman and innovator who best uses their name, image and likeness. Among the deals Thomas signed was a partnership with Gatorverse to host a youth gym clinic. According to businessofcollegesports.com, she also has contracts with H&R Block, Gemini Naturals, Amazon and Quatro Gymnastics. Gemini Naturals produces the signature cobalt blue hair color Thomas wore during her Florida years, and it will have a leotard line through Quatro Gymnastics.
According to Businessofcollegesports.com, Thomas was among a group of female gymnasts who dominated the NIL market in their first year. The article states that “gymnasts accounted for a whopping 44 percent of total transaction value among female athletes reporting on INFLCR,” a company that helps athletes maximize their NIL score.
“NIL really changed the game,” said Thomas. “It’s incredible that all Olympic athletes come to collegiate gymnastics. And many of them will return to the elite class at the next Olympics as well. That has never happened in the past.”
Thomas said she’s making the most of her zero chances by staying in school and coaching her former teammates.
“It’s just more knowledge,” she said. “And knowledge is power.”
Shelly Stallsmith covers York Adams High School esports for GameTimePA and the USAToday Network. Reach out to her via email [email protected] or on Twitter @ShelStallsmith.
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