Apr 13, 2025, 11:23 AM ET
ON A THURSDAY afternoon right through the varsity gymnastics season, the top-ranked Louisiana State Tigers are making ready for festival. The reigning nationwide champions have became their apply into a ridicule meet, forward of the real check tomorrow.
As this system with the country’s best moderate attendance, it can’t fairly manufacture the magic of its sellout crowds, however chatter and track mimic a meet-day setting. Last targeted via all of it is Konnor McClain. Whilst teammates communicate between performances, the sophomore is warming up solo.
watch NCAA championships
Thursday, April 17:
Semifinal I: 4:30 p.m. ET, ESPN2 and ESPN+ (Oklahoma, Florida, Missouri, Alabama)
Semifinal II: 9 p.m. ET, ESPN2 and ESPN+ (LSU, Utah, Michigan State, UCLA)
Saturday, April 19:
Workforce ultimate: 4 p.m. ET, ABC and ESPN+
(The highest 4 groups from semifinals)
“She will get this glossed-over glance on her face, and he or she is going to a spot this is all about what she’s about to do,” head trainer Jay Clark advised ESPN. “She hears not anything. She sees not anything. She recognizes not anything.”
Clark and the Tigers know higher than to be involved. Like many gymnasts, McClain has made sacrifices in pursuit of her desires, suffered accidents and skilled heartbreak. She has since untangled her sophisticated courting with the game, rediscovering the enjoyment in gymnastics.
Regardless of searching for solitude forward of her performances, McClain isn’t really on my own, for she has a pre-meet ritual of her personal. Whether or not LSU is at the highway, dealing with fierce fighters in a stacked SEC convention, or at house, welcoming its unswerving fanatics, she texts her dad ahead of stepping onto the mat.
“I do not get a reaction,” she advised ESPN, “however it nonetheless approach one thing.”
Konnor McClain will compete for the No. 1- seeded LSU Tigers on Thursday, as they target to shield their nationwide identify. Jerome Miron-USA TODAY Sports activities
KONNOR DEMONSTRATED A GIFT for gymnastics ahead of she may just stroll. At 16 months outdated, she was once pulling herself up at the rings at her native health club, her mother, Lorinda, stated. Via 20 months, she was once appearing backbend kickovers in the lounge. Her dad, Marc, even gave her the nickname “Hen” for her gravity-defying flips.
“My dad was once my best possible pal,” Konnor stated. “He did all of the ball sports activities with my siblings, and so we had a unique more or less bond.”
Along with her dad cheering her on, Konnor thrived. She was once decided on to the U.S. junior nationwide crew in 2018, and once more the next yr. However as she improved, so too did the power. In 2020, the coronavirus pandemic interrupted her strict coaching agenda. And the postponement of the 2020 Olympics intended she was once all of sudden age-eligible to compete within the subsequent yr’s Video games. As Konnor moved quickly to arrange for the Olympics, then again, she confronted a crushing truth.
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Rising up, Konnor was once one of the crucial handiest athletes of colour at her health club; her mother is white, and her dad Black. However it wasn’t till she was once older that she felt like she was once handled in a different way on account of her race.
“It wasn’t the most productive, simply because we are rising up as blended kids in a predominantly white state,” she stated. “I began to understand it, and prefer, notice those don’t seem to be my other people.”
She felt singled out every now and then, pronouncing the negativity sowed doubt. “Is there one thing fallacious with me?” she’d ask herself. “Like, why am I nonetheless doing this?”
She stored the worst of her stories from her father, as a result of she knew he’d inspire her to go away the health club if he ever came upon. However in Might 2021, Konnor got here to the verdict on her personal. After a disappointing efficiency on the U.S. Vintage, and an much more disappointing reaction from her coaches, she resolved to go away West Virginia.
Marc McClain known as Konnor “Hen” on account of her skill as a gymnast. Courtesy of Lorinda McClain
With the Olympics simply months away, Konnor acted temporarily. She reached out to 2008 Olympic all-around champion Nastia Liukin and requested to enroll in the Global Olympic Gymnastics Academy, owned by way of Nastia’s father, Valeri. The Liukins agreed to take Konnor on.
In a question of days, she had packed up her assets and made the 16-hour pressure to Texas together with her dad. As at all times, Marc introduced phrases of knowledge alongside the way in which.
“It was once identical to, ‘OK, the previous is the previous. Let’s transfer on.’ And that is the reason what it was once,” she stated. “We by no means seemed again on what simply had came about, and we needed to transport ahead, as a result of on the finish of the day, I nonetheless had extra competitions to reach.”
Competitions just like the Olympics. However in a while after arriving in Texas, Konnor made up our minds she wasn’t able to check out for the Video games. As an alternative, she spent the summer season improving from a hand harm — and considering a long term in collegiate gymnastics. Clark were making recruiting journeys to Konnor’s health club since she was once in heart college, and he or she’d had her center set on LSU since 2018, when she visited the Baton Rouge campus for a countrywide crew tournament.
“She was once a kind of youngsters that comes alongside in a technology this is mythical even ahead of they come,” Clark stated. “There may be few athletes that transfer the needle that method.”
Konnor dedicated in August 2021. However she did not intend to enroll in the Tigers till after the 2024 Olympics. In pursuit of that function, she deliberate to take part in October’s international championships variety camp. Making the crew will be the subsequent step towards her senior world debut.
Sooner than the development, Konnor’s dad and more youthful brother visited her and her mother in Texas. They traveled in from Las Vegas, the place the remainder of the circle of relatives had moved when Konnor modified gyms. After a couple of days, she noticed them off on the airport, embracing them each.
It will be the ultimate time she ever won a hug from her dad.
“My dad was once my best possible pal,” McClain advised ESPN. “He did all of the ball sports activities with my siblings, and so we had a unique more or less bond.” Courtesy McClain circle of relatives
KONNOR PLACED FOURTH on the 2021 international championships variety camp, incomes her a place at the U.S. crew, after which went directly to worlds, the place she positioned 8th on beam in {qualifications}, narrowly lacking the development ultimate.
A couple of weeks later, then again, her personal international got here to a forestall.
The day after Thanksgiving, Marc known as Konnor and Lorinda. He wasn’t feeling neatly. However Konnor and her mother were not involved. “This man will get a paper reduce and cries,” Lorinda stated.
Then, Marc stopped answering his telephone. When he after all known as once more, it was once to document that he had COVID-19 and was once heading to the medical institution. He was once in vital situation.
Konnor and her mother in an instant flew to Las Vegas, however COVID-19 protocol intended they could not discuss with with Marc. Konnor stayed every week ahead of returning to Texas to proceed coaching. Gymnastics was once the very last thing on her thoughts. “I used to be identical to, if my dad dies, I die,” she stated.
The McClains stayed hooked up over FaceTime, providing encouraging phrases to Marc, who was once on a ventilator. “There was once no speaking again, however we knew he was once listening,” Konnor stated, “As a result of every so often, a tear would drop from his face.”
On Christmas Day, Lorinda known as Konnor again to Las Vegas. Two days later, Marc died. He was once 55 years outdated. Konnor watched his ultimate mins from the medical institution room window.
The next day to come, the McClains spent hours at a neighborhood tattoo store celebrating a dad who devoted his lifestyles to circle of relatives. Konnor selected the picture of a fowl, in honor of the nickname he had given her. However it now raised sophisticated emotions.
“After he handed, that is after I began blaming gymnastics on why I wasn’t with my circle of relatives, and why I did not get as a lot time with my dad as my siblings did,” she stated. “However he was once the one that sought after me within the health club. And so it took a very long time for me to comprehend that.”
McClain gained the 2022 U.S. nationwide identify — main a podium of 3 Black gymnasts for the primary time within the historical past of the contest. Mike Ehrmann/Getty Photographs
TWO MONTHS AFTER her father’s dying, Konnor returned to festival. She participated in elite gymnastics’ season kickoff tournament, the Wintry weather Cup, carrying a patch with Marc’s initials at the again of her leotard. And she or he gained.
“It felt like he was once proper there beside me and he nearly, like, helped me,” she stated. “As a result of he knew I may just do it and he, like, held me up there at the occasions. He did not let me fall.”
Konnor stored successful. In April, she took house the all-around identify at Italy’s Town of Jesolo Trophy. And in August, she earned the similar honor on the U.S. gymnastics nationwide championships. Flanked by way of Jordan Chiles and Shilese Jones, it was once the primary time within the historical past of the contest that Black gymnasts had earned the 3 height spots.
“I more or less used my anger and all of the ache that I suffered via, and I endured,” she stated.
However a bothersome again harm introduced Konnor’s momentum to a halt. She underwent surgical treatment in 2023 and struggled with restoration. This time, her father wasn’t there to supply the optimism she wanted. Whilst she had deliberate to devote the following yr solely to Olympic coaching, she made up our minds to visit LSU a yr early.
“The child, I simply assume, was once slightly bit hollowed out by way of lifestyles,” Clark stated. He made it transparent that Konnor’s psychological and emotional wellbeing was once height precedence.
“[Clark] makes me really feel beloved as an individual ahead of a gymnast,” Konnor stated. “I believe like I have by no means had that ahead of.”
Elite gymnasts are molded to be athletes of independence. Whilst they try to qualify for nationwide groups and the chance to constitute their nation, the adventure can also be keeping apart. Konnor temporarily discovered the other is right for collegiate gymnastics. Teammates are united by way of greater than college pleasure; after coaching in combination day-in and day-out, they’re deeply invested in each and every others’ good fortune.
“Your friendships and your teammates are what get you in the course of the arduous days,” stated Amari Drayton, one in all Konnor’s roommates, and any other standout sophomore for the Tigers.
“They are those who made me love gymnastics once more,” Konnor stated.
Konnor competed within the 2024 collegiate gymnastics season. In the second one meet of her school profession, she scored a great 10.0 at the asymmetric bars. She would earn two extra 10.0s — together with one on the SEC championships — ahead of the crew claimed a place within the NCAA nationwide championship finals.
After main for the primary part of the contest, LSU sat in 2nd position going into the ultimate tournament: steadiness beam. At 3rd within the rotation, Konnor was once following a fall that threatened to thieve the Tigers’ alternative to win.
”We at all times say the following individual up is what is maximum necessary,” stated Haleigh Bryant, an LSU graduate pupil and 2024 NCAA all-around champion. Konnor embraced the duty, appearing a near-flawless regimen. “Konnor were given that rotation and that lineup again on course, and we adopted her like there was once no fall ahead of her.”
3 routines later, LSU secured this system’s first nationwide identify.
KONNOR HAD A MONTH to have a good time LSU’s victory — and end freshman yr ultimate checks — ahead of returning to the elite circuit. She aimed to qualify for the 2024 Olympics, and this time, she felt able. Competing within the U.S. Vintage, she finished an outstanding first rotation beam regimen that ended up incomes her 3rd position, in the back of Suni Lee and Simone Biles. However she by no means had a possibility to finish her comeback. All through 2nd rotation ground heat ups, Konnor tore her Achilles tendon. As soon as once more, she must surrender pursuit of the Video games.
“I will have long past right into a deep, darkish hollow, and I did not wish to do this,” she stated. Motivated by way of the reminiscence of her father and the improve of her crew, she driven via. “I had one of these nice season. I used to be so satisfied right through the entire semester. There was once no explanation why for me to do this once more, simply on account of a torn Achilles.”
Konnor attacked her rehab. Via the beginning of the 2025 school gymnastics season, she was once competing on bars and beam. Her season-high 9.975 on bars in LSU’s meet in opposition to Georgia contributed to the best crew rating in program historical past.McClain helped the LSU crew win the SEC identify in March, in addition to the NCAA regional ultimate in April. Georgia Jones/College Photographs by the use of Getty Photographs
Remaining month, the Tigers claimed the SEC championship identify, incomes their first No. 1 NCAA match seed. Konnor was once decided on for her 2nd consecutive All-SEC crew, and he or she was once named a Girls’s Collegiate Gymnastics Affiliation All-American on bars. Within the NCAA regional spherical, she competed on ground for the primary time since her harm. This week, the Tigers could have a possibility to shield their identify on the NCAA championships, starting Thursday.
Nowadays, Konnor unearths her motivation off the mat. “Lifestyles is solely retaining me going. I get up and I am simply thankful,” she stated. “On a daily basis is worthwhile to me.”
Whether or not that day brings her any other nationwide identify, an Olympic berth, or just a couple of mins of natural pleasure doing the game she loves. As a result of whilst she as soon as resented gymnastics for placing distance between her and her dad, she now understands that is the place he was hoping she’d to find her happiness.
Nonetheless, after such a lot of texts unanswered, and such a lot of meets unseen, Konnor says she can not lend a hand however surprise what her dad would say as of late.
Lorinda is assured within the resolution: “He would undoubtedly inform her, ‘Yeah, you probably did nice, Hen.'”
