Grace, Grit, and Gold

Name: Shayna Wilson 

Grade: Sophomore 

Event: All-around: vault, uneven bars, balance beam, and floor exercise 

Hand Dominance: Right

Height: 5’7

Hair Color: Black 

Eye Color: Brown 

Date of Birth: February 29, 2009

When and how did you start gymnastics? How long have you been on the Panthers, Stuyvesant’s gymnastics team, and what inspired you to join it?

I started gymnastics when I was around two or three in preschool, and then my mom saw how much I enjoyed it. She put me into real classes when I was around five years old, and from there, I started doing really competitive gymnastics. I was doing club gymnastics until I was about 13 years old, and then I had to stop because doing that with regular school and studying for the SHSAT was just too much. If it hadn’t been important for me to get into a specialized high school, I probably would still be doing club gymnastics. That’s kind of what inspired me to join gymnastics at Stuy, because I thought it would be a less competitive and less time consuming way to still do the sport that I really like and still be able to manage it with school. 

Did you find returning to gymnastics after your hiatus to be difficult?

So, the summer before freshman year, I went to this gym to try to get my skills back, and I was really sore for a while. But once I came back during freshman year, I was already prepared because I’d gone back earlier to train. I would say it was a lot less stressful because in club gymnastics, where I used to be, it was a lot more time consuming, and the coaches were a lot stricter. But now it’s a lot more chill, and I have more control over the skills I want to do. 

What events do you specialize in/are your favorite? What skills/strengths are involved?

I’d say floor is my favorite because I used to dance a lot. I went to Alvin Ailey, so getting to incorporate my choreography is really fun, and I like doing it to the floor music. I’d say my best event is vault. I usually tend to score the highest on that event. And, I would say for floor, it requires overall body strength and a lot of cardio; at the end of my routine, I’m always dying. But for bars, it’s mostly upper body. I feel like bars is the only one that specializes in the upper body. Everything else is kind of overall-everything. And, I stretch every night, but it’s not annoying to do that. It’s kind of relaxing before bed. And then conditioning—I feel like I don’t do that enough. Sometimes I go to the gym over the weekend, but we don’t really condition during practice anymore.

In your opinion, what are the best and worst parts about gymnastics?

I think the best part is how it teaches you to have a lot of mental toughness because it’s a very mental sport, and you need to be okay with failing a bunch of times. And you're not going to learn a new skill right away. It takes a lot of practice and time. I think that part of my personality has really grown a lot because gymnastics is a very hard sport, and it’s also individual. So, even though it is technically a team sport, a lot of it is individual. And, I would say the hardest part is just also the physical toll it takes on your body. A lot of the time, in practice, I feel like I have to decide between if it’s worth pushing through the pain or taking a couple days off, but then I’m worried about falling behind. You have to balance it out and really decide if your body is okay to practice that day.

What do you think about when competing?

Before I’m competing, I’m silent. I really don’t talk, and I’m in my zone. I kind of just block everything out. And, when I’m competing, I’m really focused and I’m not worried about anything around me, especially on the beam. I’m just focused on staying on the beam and not focused on the sounds around me or anything.

What is something that you have overcome or are working to improve on as a gymnast?

I would say I think too much like a perfectionist, and that can be very challenging in gymnastics because sometimes you just have to focus on getting new skills to get more points—not the details like straightening your legs or pointing your toes. I think, overall, I just really need to work on not getting too focused on the little mistakes I’m making and just the overall picture. 

What was the process like for the Panthers to become City Champs for the first time in school history?

I think there was a lot more attendance this year and the consistency at practice was really important. It helped us become better gymnasts this year. Also, I think the freshmen that joined have a lot of background and talent, so that also helped us. Overall, winning the PSAL championships a couple weeks ago is my favorite Panthers memory, just because it’s the first time in history, and we worked really hard to get there. 

You also dive and do track. How do you manage to balance playing all of these sports? 

Well, there are different seasons, so I kind of just focus on one at a time. But for this year, this was my first year doing diving, and I think since gymnastics is kind of similar—it’s really just flipping off the diving board—it wasn’t that hard to learn the new skills in diving. Gymnastics definitely helped me with that. But, in terms of time management, it really is fine because they’re different seasons. 

What are Gymnastics States like and how do you plan on preparing for them? 

So you take a bus; this year, it’s in Buffalo. And then you get there; usually, there’s practice at the competition site. Then you go back, you have dinner, and then you wake up, and there’s the competition most of the day. There’s not much free time. It’s really just a practice, the meet, a little bit of fun time, and then we return. To make States, you needed to get a certain score to qualify—just the cutoff, and then they selected people from the group that qualified. Some were selected to do all-around, so me and one other girl are doing all-arounds, and then there’s multiple people going for certain events. There isn’t really any special preparation process for states—I’m only going to have one day before I leave because of vacation. It’s kind of bad and makes me nervous—how I’m going to perform—but a lot of the skills will just come back to me. It should be fine.

Fun Questions:

Funniest Teammate: Jillian Lee

Favorite Event: Floor 

Favorite Leotard Brand: GK Elite 

Favorite PostGame Meal/Snack: Chipotle 

Competing on Full or Light Stomach: Light

Hobbies: Modeling 

Gymnastics Pet Peeve: The sound when you’re scooping up chalk and it scratches your grips. 

If You Could Play Any Other Sport: Synchronized Swimming 

Motto to Live By: “Progress not perfection” —David Perlmutter 

Fun Fact(s): I have been on TV five times—once was on the Today Show with Aly Raisman. If I could eat one food for the rest of my life, it would be fruit. And, I really want to go to space when I’m older.