There aren’t many gymnasts who can catch your eye like Haleigh Bryant does, and if you’ve ever watched her performing, and let’s be real, which gymnastics fan hasn’t? – You will understand the wow factor I’m talking about! Such is her prowess that even gymnasts from competitor teams cannot help but admire her breathtaking moves and the person she is on and off the mat. Need proof? Well, a look at her career highlights should suffice!
Well, let’s put that into words, and these aren’t hyperbole by any means; When Haleigh steps onto the floor, you can feel the energy shift. Her power on the vault? Explosive. Her grace on the beam is mesmerizing, and the way she flies through her tumbling passes is like gravity’s just a suggestion. What makes her special isn’t just the height of her releases or the precision of her landings; it’s the confidence. Speaking of confidence, how could she forget her semifinal performance last year? Yes, the same year she won the 2024 all-around championship? That’s the pedigree I’m talking about! She scored 39.7125 in the NCAA Semifinals… a score that was the third highest in program history at the NCAA Championships. This made her only the second gymnast in LSU history to be crowned an NCAA All-Around Champion, joining Susan Jackson in that elite club.
Well, guess what? Haleigh is back for her last season with LSU, and she just can’t stop turning heads before the NCAA Championships. And this time? The attention has come from Jordan Chiles’ teammate. Brooklyn Moors, the UCLA gymnast who has been with the program since 2021, didn’t hesitate when asked on the “On The Floor” podcast with Liv and Cor about which gymnast from another team inspires her.”You know what, since we were just talking about her, I’m going to say Haleigh Bryant,” Moors revealed. “I feel like we’ve kind of been through a little bit of the same journey with mental blocks and things like that, but her gymnastics is just absolutely stunning, and she’s an even better person.”
Frankly, the mention of mental blocks might surprise fans who have witnessed both athletes perform impossible skills with apparent ease. But beneath the surface of their successful careers lies a shared struggle that few elite gymnasts openly discuss. In a 2024 interview, Bryant herself opened up about her own journey with mental blocks. When asked about why she’s always done front handspring entries onto the vault table and front tumbling on floor with no back tumbling, Haleigh revealed on All the Things Gymnastics podcast. “So in level seven, I kind of started having a fear of going backwards a little bit, and like it was nothing serious really at the time,” she explained. “And then it kind of started progressing, like getting worse and worse.” The situation became so difficult that Bryant, like Moors, nearly walked away from the sport entirely. “I sat down with my coaches and was like, ‘I don’t want to do gymnastics anymore—I can’t,’ because I couldn’t do back tumbling at all.”
Then the coaches’ creativity that neither abandoned their dreams. Instead of giving up, they reimagined what their gymnastics could look like.”I really had to sit down with my coaches and they were the best and we figured out what skills would work for me, and the rest is history,” Bryant reflected, adding, “Mental blocks are something that a lot of athletes go through, but I feel like not many people talk about it.”
Same for Brooklyn Moors, she has spent most of her career avoiding backward tumbling, back handsprings froze her with fear, even as a kid. For years, she’s struggled with a mental block of going backwards. “Adding the back handspring in my series has been very helpful with my confidence, but it’s still a battle everyday, just to go through my mental block of going backwards,” Moors said to Inside Gymnastics Magazine last year. she further added, “I can have a full week of training with no problems, and then I can run into issues again where it’s just hard for me to go for the skill mentally. I have a really good support system with my teammates and Lacy, and we’ve figured out what works for me.
Haleigh Bryant and Brooklyn Moors gear up for Nthe CAA Championships
Haleigh Bryant and Brooklyn Moors are in the NCAA finals with their teams, and honestly, was there ever any doubt?
Bryant, the defending all-around champion, led LSU to their 15th regional championship with a blistering 198.050 team score at Penn State. Frankly, the Tigers are on another level right now with six straight 198+ performances, the second-longest streak in NCAA history! At regionals, Bryant anchored vault with a rock-solid 9.900 and proved once again why she’s the one to beat.
Meanwhile, Moors helped propel UCLA to a second-place finish at their regional with a jaw-dropping 9.950 on the floor. C’mon, have you seen her floor routine? The artistry is simply ridiculous! The Bruins posted a season-high 49.475 on vault en route to securing their championship berth.
What makes this showdown extra spicy? Remember when Moors appeared on “On The Floor” podcast and called out Bryant as her inspiration? “Her gymnastics is just absolutely stunning,” Moors gushed, “and she’s an even better person.”
The stage is now set for April 17-19 at Dickies Arena in Fort Worth.
The post Amazed by Haleigh Bryant, Jordan Chiles’ UCLA Teammate Opens Up on LSU Tigers’ Star Ahead of NCAA Gymnastics Championship appeared first on EssentiallySports.