American gymnast Lynzee Brown performs on the floor: Image via Instagram (@lynnzee17)

“My mission is just how far can we go” – NCAA star gymnast Lynnzee Brown opens up on her career

Modified Mar 13, 2024 12:31 GMT

Lynzee Brown is an American gymnast competing for the University of Denver. She has been one of the best gymnasts in the NCAA for half a decade.

In 2021, the American gymnast was ranked second nationally in the all-around category by setting a school record score of 39.825.

Early on in her career, Brown was focused on forging a respectable streak of wins. However, she began suffering from a string of injuries. Brown tore her Achilles tendon in February 2020, after which the pandemic shut down the world.

She returned in 2021 but was hit by the same injury in 2022. The American told Olympics.com that she somehow managed to stay motivated by watching her teammates perform:

"I already got to see what it was like to be one of the best individually, and now, my mission is just how far can we go as a team."

She admitted that her injury the second time around was very hard to deal with, despite the first one being relatively easy to recover from:

"I wish people knew that every injury is different, mostly because I didn’t know that ... My first injury was so successful coming back and I had the season of a lifetime. I expected that going in this time and I was shocked to see how even the same injury, same timeline, basically, it was a lot harder this time around mentally, physically."

As of 2023, Brown is back to doing what she does best. On February 12, she competed in all four events against Big 12 Conference opponents West Virginia, and helped her team score a 197.125 total, driving them to victory.

She told Olympics.com that she has learned a lot as a collegiate athlete as she looks to cap her final year with a win:

"I really learned how to let people in, to celebrate the wins. I had this misconception that if you celebrate the good things, they’ll stop happening. That’s not necessarily true ... From my freshman year, I’m a completely different person, different mindset, attitude, beliefs. But the biggest change is just that I believe I can do anything."

Brown on coping with loss and coming up as a gymnast

The American gymnast mentioned that sacrifices made by her family propelled her career, and they eventually bore fruit as her team took a fourth-place finish at the NCAAs in 2019.

Everything was going so well for the young gymnast, but tragedy struck when she lost her mother, who suffered a cardiac arrest a few weeks after the championship.

Brown opened up about her family's sacrifices and her financial situation as a child:

"My mom had some health issues back then, and I had to quit because she was hospitalized. We couldn’t afford it ... My club coaches called her and were like, ‘She’s too good to quit.’ So, they offered to pay my tuition from fifth grade till I graduated high school because we couldn’t afford it."

This was a moment of realization for her:

"That was definitely a moment when I realized that I was good [at gymnastics] and that people cared enough about my success to do tremendous favours for me and my family"

Brown will have an opportunity to compete at the US Trials next year to gain a spot in the Olympics. Alternatively, she can choose to represent Haiti, which will also give her a boost for the Olympics.