since she was two years old my daughter's dream was to be the best gymnast so today
is the biggest day of her life she will be competing against top gymnasts to win her first
championship medal at regionals but at the most important moment a critical mistake
threatens to shatter her dreams it is 48 hours before regionals and there's a problem
salish has a mental block skills she has mastered all year have suddenly vanished
for talented gymnasts getting a medal at regionals can be a path
to the olympics salish has one final practice to get her skills back before the biggest competition
of her life i've always wanted to compete in the championships and i really want to get a medal so
i need to get the highest score that i've ever gotten on one of the events this is andrea one
of my coaches and today we're going to try to get my back cancering back on beam a backhand spring
is the most important skill in her beam routine and though she has nailed it in many competitions
two days ago she lost her confidence and can no longer do it first they're gonna practice
the back hand spring on the floor so she's comfortable doing it on beam okay so you landed
a little bit to the side of the line if we did it like that on the high beam you're gonna fall
up and lunge yep that was right in the middle good job if she wants a chance at getting a medal at
regionals she's gonna have to do her best routines and get her best scores of the season it's time to
go to the low beam you ready sure i can only do if i have spot them okay she's smiling through
it but salish is actually really nervous about this skill since her coach is spotting her salish
feels pretty comfortable attempting the backhand spring press your lunch press your lunge even with
a spot salish is still wobbly on the beam she's not trusting herself and now this is a big moment
her coach is going to give her a lighter spot so salish is almost entirely on her own
oh that is the worst thing that could have happened right now
okay i fell off the beam that's exactly what i'm scared of happening in regionals but i'm gonna
try it again do not focus on any of the times that you fell we just learned from the times we
fell and then we focus on the good turns that we took at regionals you can't have a coach spotting
you and that's why salish is so concerned simone biles just went through the exact same thing at
the olympics we just got to take a deep breath and break the skill back down into basic parts
so it doesn't seem overwhelming do you feel comfortable trying again right now
salish is a tough girl and she rarely shows her emotions in public but right now she's having a
hard time holding it in what we do on social media and on you know we always just show the
best right and everybody's like wow salish is just a great gym this which you are but you
also struggle like everybody else does and andrea is not going to let you do anything that's unsafe
salish is very competitive and holds herself to really high standards but as her father
all i care about is that she's happy and has fun salish decided she wanted to give it one
more try so after 15 minutes of practice on the floor she got on the beam to do her full routine
but she just couldn't do her back handspring today she knows not to try a skill if she doesn't feel
a hundred percent safe she won't know until she gets to regionals what she's going to do
in the competition okay salish if you want a chance to meddle on bars at regionals you
have to hit all of your cassian stands bars is probably salish's best event so
this routine is her best chance to win a medal the cast handstand is the highest
move in her routine and it sets up her dismount so she absolutely has to nail it
squeeze tight hollow it's okay just a little more lean her difficulties
on beam might be affecting her confidence in all of her events
i've never seen her miss a handstand and she's missed four now i know she's not happy with
what's going on but she is not letting it get her down i do that in regionals i'm done punch tight
squeeze hollow that's better squeeze i always hit my hand stand i think i'm just in my head today
okay do it exactly like your drills you know how to do it come on holding her handstand has been
a real challenge for salish today so it's all up to her if she can get it just right at the
competition just lean squeeze good push down tight hollow snap block it out squeeze let it girl say
yes that was it you did awesome we're gonna do this okay we'll do your best
going to salt lake city the whole family is going to salt lake city to root on salish
but since my wife is camera shy she's doing the filming we are at the hotel and you would never
know she has the biggest competition of her life tomorrow it's the big day and salish is practicing
her beam routine before getting ready i've never known salish to be nervous before a competition
but today might be different okay i'm really tired it's like 6 a.m
um i hope that i play some bars or beam so those are the two things that i would place
on i would not place on the floor and definitely not fall and i'm not sure if i'm going to do the
back handspring on beam i'm still deciding i'm excited but i'm also a little nervous salish is committed
to winning a medal not because she wants to show off but because it represents years of sweat and
determination and it will remind her every day to never give up on her dreams ever since she started
competing she's always had her teammates to root her on but today she's competing all by herself
the wait is finally over it's time for regionals salish will compete in four events today first up
is vault this is the event that salish struggles with the most three weeks ago she unfortunately
strained her knee in practice so it's really hard for her to get speed when she runs
she will need at least a 9.1 to meddle in vault but her score is 8.7 unfortunately salish will not
meddle in vault today next is bars her best event and where she's most likely to win a medal she has
a beautiful bars routine but her falls during her last practice are still fresh in her mind
and she might be having downs it comes down to this moment she needs to hold the cast handstand
if she's going to get a medal on bars hold it hold it hold it nice
she's gonna be disappointed about that this is actually the first time she's ever fallen on
bars in competition and it happens at regionals despite her frustration she finishes her routine
she is not going to quit but she just lost the best chance she had to meddle at regions
now there is even more pressure on her beam routine she waits alone the biggest moment
of her career and she doesn't have her teammates to cheer her on she starts her routine aware that
everything comes down to her back handspring if she nails it she has a great chance of meddling
this is the moment where she must decide does she go for it
she chooses to do an easier skill instead that is going to be a big deduction and she will be
extremely disappointed despite her frustration she made the right decision never risk your
safety if you're unsure of your technique but she has lost the chance to meddle on beam
floor is her final event of the season her mother pulls her aside and tells her to remember what
she loves most about gymnastics and focus on that we are both so incredibly proud of her
as she starts she knows that she will have to get her best score of the year to meddle that
seems almost impossible today but sometimes the best results come when you least expect them i've
probably done more than 114s in my life and this was one of my favorites i've been doing gymnastics
since i was two and it means so much to me it's like my favorite thing to do in the entire world
and guess what i got the best score of my life on floor
a nine five seven five and that got me two medals one for floor and one for all around i know
and even if i hadn't gotten any medals the years of hard work were worth it