U.S. gymnast Skye Blakely grew up believing gymnastics came with a deadline.
“When I was younger, I had this idea of what I thought my career was going to look like. I knew, like, ‘At this age I’ll be doing this, and then I’ll be done with elite at this age, and then done with gymnastics altogether’,” she told Olympics.com in an interview Tuesday (14 July). “It was structured by how everybody else did things.”
She does not believe that anymore.
“There doesn’t have to be an end. There really is no true end,” Blakely said. “You take it into your own hands and you make it what you want it to be.”
When she steps onto the competition floor at the U.S. Classic in Hartford on Saturday (18 July) – her first elite competition since reaching the uneven bars final at last year’s World Championships – she does so as living proof of that idea, and in the company of a lot of it.
The wave that changed Skye Blakely’s mind
Blakely’s words came on a day that argued her case for her.
There are plenty of comeback stories in the U.S. Classic field: Jade Carey in her second elite competition since Paris 2024, Katelyn Ohashi back seven years after her NCAA curtain call, Leanne Wong returning to elite for the first time in 2026. There are comebacks outside Hartford, too, as Tuesday, two-time Olympic all-around medallist Suni Lee announced a return of her own.
A generation that once would have been retired is instead still competing into their twenties.
For Blakely, who tore her Achilles at 19 during podium training ahead of the 2024 U.S. Olympic Trials, those examples were more than encouraging. They rewrote what she thought was possible for herself.
“If there was nobody in front of me doing that, it could have shaped what I thought – like, ‘It’s over, I’m not going to go try again, no one does this’,” she said. “But to see so many people do it at different ages, coming back from different things – why do I have to be done? I can change my trajectory now and make it what I want.”
That is the mindset she carries into the weekend. It is also, she is quick to say, the reason she is in no hurry.
“I’m really looking at the big picture of my career. It doesn’t have to be this huge race or this rush for something,” Blakely said. “How can I pace myself to be healthy and ready at the right time?”
Blakely is writing her own timeline
Perhaps the boldest thing Blakely is doing to author her own career is happening outside the gym.
She is, and has been, taking extra courses at the University of Florida to graduate a full year early – a decision made, she said, so she can pour everything into the run toward the Olympic Games LA28.
“From high school, I had a couple of credits already, and then I took my gap year, and I had a couple more credits,” she explained. “It wasn’t really until the beginning of my sophomore year I asked my academic advisor [at Florida], ‘Can I graduate early?’ Then we started planning it out.”
It hasn’t always been easy. Fifteen credits a semester, in season and out, one extra class each term, three more in progress this summer, all of it stacked on balancing the demands of NCAA and elite gymnastics at the same time.
“It was a little bit hard trying to go to Worlds and taking 15 credits, and then compete season taking 15 credits,” she said. “But I’m almost there, so it’s worth it.”
The coursework is not light. Blakely is working toward a career in the medical field, and the classes are as challenging as one might expect.
“Anatomy and nutrition were probably the hardest classes. I had a psychology course, too,” she said. “I missed labs for anatomy. I was doing work in the airport, studying different bones and nerves and the nervous system.”
What she is buying with all of it is much more than a diploma. It is space in her own head and the ability to focus on her ultimate sporting dream.
“It gives me that freedom to have that degree behind me and not still be worrying about how I am going to finish it,” Blakely said. “The first step in that was really graduating early.”
Where that freedom takes her, she has not decided. Blakely does not yet know where she will train once she graduates – Gainesville, home to Texas, or some of both.
“I have the flexibility to stay in Gainesville, go back to Texas, or do even a little bit of both,” she explained. “That’s something I’m still putting all together.”
She is content to leave it open for now.
A recent change in NCAA eligibility rules – five seasons to compete over five years – means her collegiate clock is not making the decision for her, and she could return to the Gators for a fourth season after LA.
“It kind of all fell into place at the same time,” Blakely said. “It just gives me so much more freedom to look at what I want to do and make those decisions.”
READ MORE: https://www.olympics.com/en/news/us-gymnast-skye-blakely-goodbye-to-everyone-else-rules-exclusive
