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Not your Model Minority Winning Against Yourself: Aidan Cuy ‘23 By Andrea Dalagan ‘22 | APIA Major & Staff Writer At the height of the pandemic, Aidan Cuy ‘23 and the W&M gymnastics team saw their academic and athletic lives in peril with the team among the sports that were canceled and then reinstated (at least until 2021-22) after community protests and advocacy, with athletes like Aidan at the forefront. To illuminate their experience, we are featuring Aidan’s story here. Mask-cladded on a November night, Aidan took a study break for our quick interview. While now relieved, this wasn’t how he felt months earlier. Aidan disclosed his feelings about the abrupt news in September. Arriving at William and Mary from Rhode Island with the expectation of being a student athlete for the next four years, it felt like the rug was pulled from under him. “I just had that mindset that this is what it’s gonna be, that I’m gonna have a solid foundation to build off of…” Aidan has been a competitive gymnast since he was six years old. Spirited and a climber, his parents decided to place him in gymnastics as a way to release his energy in a safer way. As the years went by, gymnastics became a mode of bringing himself to another level. He saw himself as the competition and pushed himself to be better. He simply wanted to see how far he can go even without a clear-cut path to walk on in front of him. “That’s kind of like how it is on a day to day basis too when you first start, you kind of just throw yourself into the fire a bunch of times, and you kind of just hope something comes out of it.” While it has always been a part of his life, it wasn’t until high school that he saw potential in gymnastics as something beyond an after-school activity. In his first year of qualifying for national championships, Aidan did better than he had anticipated. Even years and years after this, Aidan found himself coming back to these competitions. It was only then that he saw a future in gymnastics.
“You start to see all the pieces that have been building up from the years kinda start to come together and it’s very rewarding at that point…bringing yourself to new heights, like winning against yourself.” This sense of accomplishment and bringing himself to new heights continues to push Aidan in gymnastics to this day. For a while, however, the combination of the abrupt news in September 2020 and the different structure of life during the pandemic took a toll on him. Aidan sees all of this as an opportunity to involve himself in things beyond school and the gym while staying positive, patient, and resilient--just as he was when his parents first brought him to the gym.
