Senior Ava Banks cherishes the moment she masters a new skill. Whether it’s cartwheels or back handsprings, Banks has been perfecting her routines and competing on local gymnastics teams since she was just eight years old.
Stuck between a decision of continuing soccer or focusing solely on gymnastics in elementary school, Banks chose to dedicate the next decade to growing and perfecting her skills in the gym.
“I moved to Gold Star Gymnastics, a recreational type of gym,” she said. “I think that’s what made me kind of fall in love with gymnastics, because it was more light-hearted and easy going.”
Two years later, Banks grew more serious about gymnastics and moved to Bayshore Elite Gymnastics. She has been a part of her current gym, San Mateo Gymnastics, since 2021 and spends around 24 hours at practice each week.
In addition to practice, Banks attends meets every three weeks from December to May, where she competes in vault, beam, floor, and bars.
“There was a lot of growth I could see in myself and new skills I wanted to learn that pushed me to continue with the sport,” Banks said.
Banks’ parents played a crucial role in supporting her journey. “They’re always there and always making the time for me to go to practice, coming to my home meets, and flying me to all these different places for gymnastics,” she said. Banks’ coaches and teammates have also helped her excel in her skills, and she has built lifelong friendships with other girls on the team.
Banks broke her foot and tore multiple ligaments during a vault at a competition meet in March 2024. “It was the last event of the meet and I landed short on my vault, completely shattering my foot,” Banks said.
Injuring her foot during junior year—in the middle of college scouting season—proved to be a major challenge for Banks, who felt pressured to speed up her recovery in order to perform for recruiting coaches. “It was physically and mentally challenging because I wanted the recovery process to be faster than it was,” she said. “It definitely taught me that you really just have to trust the process and allow yourself time to properly heal so you can come back to be even better.”
Within weeks, Banks sprang back into the gym, working twice as hard as recruiting season rolled around. “The injury really tested me as a person and as a gymnast. It made me want to come back stronger and even better, giving me motivation to push myself,” she added.
At first, Banks was unsure about continuing gymnastics past high school. “I kind of just saw it as a happy-go-lucky thing that I was doing for fun, and then I realized, ‘What am I going to do in college?’”
“With the amount of time I already put in, I wanted it to be a bit more meaningful and have the sport go towards something later in life,” Banks said. “Doing it in college would let me keep being a student-athlete and also help my parents financially with college in some way.”
Throughout the end of her junior year and the next summer, she worked on solidifying her skills and eventually began the long online process of emailing and calling coaches and visiting schools.
Banks committed to the University of Illinois on April 1. Banks shaped her decision around the college-town nature of the campus, the size and location of the school, and the diversity of the girls’ gymnastics team.
“I’m looking forward to the bigger competition sizes and having more of an audience, since meets are going to be more of a school thing,” she said.
Banks’ advice to student-athletes looking to compete in college: “Focus on yourself and just work every day. Put in effort, show up to practice, and have confidence in yourself. Know your worth and know that you’re going to find somewhere that is right for you.”
“Don’t care about other people’s opinions or what they’re going to think of you based on what school you decide to go to,” she added.
