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Junior A.J. Jackson jumps and strikes a pose during her floor routine, Feb. 10. Jackson, along with her teamates, will be competing at the NCAA women’s gymnastics national championship this weekend.
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My mom said, ‘Oh, let’s try gymnastics.’ The next week I was in the gym, and (I’ve) been there ever since.
-A.J. JACKSON
Once-shy gymnast finds confidence in choreography
he kneels on the ground, head almost to her knee, fingers touching the floor. An instrumental version of “Purple Lamborghini” by Skrillex and Rick Ross starts, and junior A.J. Jackson’s body already knows what to do. Rise, turn, bend at the waist, look around, rise again, extend the leg, face the audience and blow. Chalk drifts into the air, and the crowd cheers. She turns around and goes full-force into an open-tuck, full-twisting, double-back somersault. Her routine continues. Jackson, a seasoned anchor in Oklahoma’s vault and floor lineups, will help lead the No. 1 Sooners into St. Louis this weekend for a shot at their second straight national title. When Jackson first joined the team, though, she wasn’t the confident powerhouse with a bunch of personality that Baker Mayfield mimicked in a 2016 video. “She actually came into OU doing a classical floor routine — I’m talking violin,” head coach K.J. Kindler said. “She truly did that routine that was elegant and pretty, but when you watch now she seems so rough, abrupt, very hiphop, very street dance.” She carried her lack-of confidence with her from her club days, according to her high school gymnastics club coach Kim Fuchs. “She was definitely shy. In gymnastics, she was more tentative on the events she wasn’t sure of,” Fuchs said. “It was hard to get A.J. to talk to (Kindler) on the phone cause she was just incredibly shy
SIANDHARA BONNET • @SIANDHARAB
about everything. She didn’t know what she was going to talk about.” Despite Jackson’s bashful personality, Fuchs kept Kindler in the loop on the gymnast’s progress. “We were watching her as she grew up and got better at gymnastics — you could obviously see the talent was there already,” Kindler said. Jackson began gymnastics when she was about 6 years old after a soccer teammate taught her how to do a cartwheel on the sidelines of one of their games. “My mom said, ‘Oh, let’s try gymnastics.’ The next week I was in the gym, and (I’ve) been there ever since,” Jackson said. “I remember going to my first meet and I saw this girl doing a giant (rotation) on bars and I was like, ‘Wow, that is so cool. About two years later, I was able to do those skills. ... It’s so cool knowing that I’ve come from what I started at and being able to do what I thought was never possible.” From eighth grade, when Jackson went to gymnastics camp with the Sooners and met Kindler, to her senior year of high school, the gymnast grew in confidence and became a three-time Junior Olympic national champion on vault and swept the 2014 Missouri state championships. “I remember the last year she was with me, her senior year (of high school), and it was so fun to be at the meets because nobody was nervous about how she was going to do,” Fuchs said. “She was so incredibly sure of herself and so good at what she did that she was just such a joy to be around.” When Jackson got to OU, she
competed in her comfortable events, vault and floor, and tackled the uneven bars. She became a first-team All-American on vault and finished sixth in the NCAA event finals with a 9.875 as a freshman.
“They find her to be an inspiration. She sweats more than any person in there when we’re conditioning — she kills it and it’s noticed.” K.J. KINDER, GYMNASTICS HEAD COACH “She’s one step away (from being an all-arounder),” Kindler said. “A.J.’s been the alternate on either beam or bars or in the lineup on both events. ... She was a staple for us (on bars) last year, she just ran into a little glitch this year.” Last season Jackson competed as an all-arounder and helped the Sooners earn their second national title, finishing third on floor. She also scored her career high on vault with a 9.975 in a March match against Michigan. “She is not only powerful, but very quick — very quick twitch. She can explode off a piece of equipment quicker than somebody else,” Kindler said. “When she vaults, she has so much power ... she has to really jog slowly into that vault. ... If she overworks it,
she goes a little too high, a little too far and out of control.” Kindler said another big thing Jackson has had to work on this season is reigning in her power. The NCAA judges had a similar complaint, saying Jackson’s iconic chalk blow is an excessive use of chalk and could cost 0.2 in deductions off the score. “(The rules also say) in that deduction, you must first get a warning,” Kindler said. “When they first started saying things at the beginning of the season, they hadn’t given us a warning, so we kept doing it. Then they caught on to us and would give us a warning before the meet started, and obviously we’re not willing to take two-tenths off of A.J.’s score or the team’s score.” The officials might be able to reign in Jackson’s floor routine and her excessive use of chalk, but her real, explosive power shines through on vault — so much that every dismount this season ended with an extra step or hop. “I’m jealous, honestly. I think she has springs in her legs, I don’t know where they come from — who gets that high on tumbling?” senior Chayse Capps said. “There’s only a few people in NCAA who’ve ever had that height and that power, so just being able to be on a team with her is incredible.” With Capps and five other seniors leaving after graduation in May, Jackson will be able to step into the formal senior leadership role, but according to Kindler, that’s all it is — a formality. “She’s always earned the respect of her teammates, everyone looks
up to her,” Kindler said. “They find her to be an inspiration. She sweats more than any person in there when we’re conditioning — she kills it and it’s noticed.” Since the excessive chalk was banned, fans and teammates have picked up the slack. They were even joined by the crowd at the Big 12 Championships with baby powder. “I didn’t choreograph that, they did that all on their own,” Kindler said. “It’s like (Jackson) created this epic thing and people are so into it and invested in it and feel like they’re a part of what (Jackson is) doing.” This weekend, the Sooners will need Jackson’s flare as they compete for their third national championship in program history. And her teammates will be by her side in St. Louis, chalk in tow, cheering her on. “That’s why you do this, to get people involved and show your talents and show off what you’ve worked so hard for, all your years. For them to be that invested in what you’re doing, that’s really cool,” Kindler said. Siandhara Bonnet arahdnais@ou.edu
UPCOMING MEET Friday: 12 p.m. Saturday: 8 p.m. St. Louis, Missouri