I went to U20 World Trials in 2024 and finished eleventh. I went back in 2025 and finished fourth. Same girl, same event, completely different result. Here's what I'd tell you about the gap.
After the 2024 trials I sat down with my coach and we watched the tape together. Every jump from the meet, every jump from the season. The hardest part was the honesty. I wasn't slow. I was inconsistent. My takeoff was strong on three out of every six jumps, and that wasn't going to win an international final.
The fix was small and brutal: 30 minutes of approach work, every single practice, for ten months. Same checkmarks. Same rhythm. Mark, mark, mark, takeoff. Boring on purpose. Repeated until the inconsistency was gone.
Trials in 2025, I went six for six on legal jumps. Fourth overall. The crowd doesn't see the boring part. They see the result. I'm fine with that.
What I'm taking with me to UCF: the boring work is the work. Approach. Approach. Approach.
