TUCSON — Gianna Lenczner did not plan to end her college gymnastics career as a beam specialist. But after years of injuries, surgeries, and a voluntary step away from the sport, the Arizona Wildcats senior found her footing, on a 4-inch-wide beam, and made the most of it.
The Wisconsin native began gymnastics at age 6, giving up soccer to go all in on the sport.
"I started gymnastics when I was 6 years old and I was playing soccer at the time. They were like, you have to pick one or the other, and I was only 6, and I was like, OK, let's do it," Lenczner said.
She spent years chasing the sport, but injuries followed her every step of the way.
"I was having some issues with my right ankle and had to end up having surgery, and then that led me to training a lot of extra bar work, but that unfortunately led to me having surgery. I tore my labrum. I'm very lucky that my coach here still took a chance on me," Lenczner said.
Once at Arizona, the struggle continued.
During her first two years, Lenczner could not travel with the team and was constantly in pain. After her sophomore season, she made the decision to step away entirely.
"I just didn't do gymnastics at all after my sophomore year and just completely stepped aside from it to just kind of refresh and think about my decisions and try to enjoy life outside of that," Lenczner said.
That break did not last long.
Longtime GymCats coach John Court called Lenczner that summer with a proposition she had repeatedly turned down: become a beam specialist.
"I do not want to be a beam specialist and then he called me over the summer and was like, are you sure? And I was like, OK, fine, I'll do it," Lenczner said.
It was the only event her body could handle, and she made it count.
Lenczner competed in every meet during her final two seasons and earned a career-high score of 9.90 on the balance beam.
"Beam is one of the hardest events to compete in, you're up there alone. Just mentally I was so much tougher because so much stuff had happened to me that competing felt a lot easier," Lenczner said.
The hardships she endured shaped her into more than a competitor. They made her a leader.
"Those terrible times of not competing, not traveling, getting injured, and then making my way into lineup, being able to tell other people my story and help them through those hard times, I feel like that really helped me become a better leader," Lenczner said.
That leadership, combined with a perfect 4.0 GPA, earned the accounting major Big 12 Scholar Athlete of the Year honors: only the second recipient in program history.
This May, Lenczner will stand at the podium as valedictorian, speaking at the athlete commencement.
Next year, she stays in Tucson, pursuing her master's degree in accounting, studying for the CPA exam, and carrying the lessons learned on the beam into whatever comes next.
