Gymnast Achieves Goals Despite Adversity

PROVO -- It’s hard to stop Krysten Koval. At 10 years old, Koval’s doctors informed her that her elbow was essentially dead but after surgery, she returned to gymnastics training as soon as possible. Two years later while practicing a double front on the floor exercise Koval bailed out midway through the skill and landed on her head.

The diagnosis? A broken back.

Koval’s doctors said she should never return to gymnastics but that wasn’t an option for her.

“I couldn’t give up gymnastics,” Koval said. “I had to go back because the competitive drive in me wouldn’t let me quit. I had to comeback and show everyone that I may be hurt right now, but you can definitely count on me to be there in the end.”

Koval spent six to eight months following the surgery doing gymnastics ... in the bottom of a swimming pool.

“They put a beam in the bottom of the pool,” Koval remembered. “I did all my leaps and jumps and turns in the pool.”

Still despite her injuries, Koval continued to fight to achieve her aspirations.

From the time she began gymnastics, Koval’s aim was to go to Level 10 nationals She achieved this goal, competing five years in a row. She continued on to compete in an unlikely place for a Baptist from Texas--Brigham Young University.

“My club gymnastics coaches had several gymnasts come to BYU before me, one of whom was Jaime Mabray,” Koval said. “And they said they just loved BYU and thought I would fit in well.”

Koval, who was also recruited by Seattle Pacific, San Jose State and the University of Utah, took an unofficial visit to Provo and immediately fell in love with two things: the mountains and the BYU coaching staff. Still, she says that upon closer inspection it was something else that ultimately led her to commit to BYU.

“I really liked the moral standards at BYU,” said Koval. “Not that the other schools didn’t have morals, but it’s more uniform here and that’s how I was raised in my family and in gymnastics. I had to have that self discipline and I just felt more comfortable here because of the standards set.”

Growing up in a community with many members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, her club teammates began sharing information about the church with her as soon as they learned of her commitment to BYU. However, it was Koval’s mother who actually sought out a copy of The Book of Mormon for her daughter to learn more about the LDS faith.

“My mom said, ‘maybe we should get you a copy of The Book of Mormon. Maybe that would be good,’” remembered Koval. “So she called the number off the LDS commercials and said, ‘my child is going to BYU in a few weeks and I was just wondering if we could get her a copy of The Book of Mormon.’”

The rest is history, but Koval still beams as she remembers the support she received from her fellow teammates once she arrived at school.

BYU gymnastics team captain, McKell Merkley, was particularly influential in helping Koval prepare for her eventual baptism and it was Merkley’s husband, Daryl, who baptized Koval.

“McKell was always really funny about the church,” Koval said. “Everyday she would just randomly ask people, ‘Do you want to join? What do you think about getting baptized today?’ And so when I came and said I actually wanted to get baptized, her reaction was really funny because it wasn’t a joke anymore.”

Koval believes that being at BYU since being baptized has been a great blessing in her life.

“I think being here has helped me maintain the covenants that I made at baptism,” said Koval. “It is a really good learning environment because you can ask anyone a question and they will help you find some way to find an answer.”

Koval’s freshman season began just the way she had imagined it would. She competed in six meets on the vault, bars and balance beam; leading BYU on vault in four of her six competitions and pacing the Cougars on beam in two meets. However, the season ended with Koval in a situation she had become very familiar with: injured.

That entire season saw the BYU gymnastics team struggling with injuries. Koval was used to being hurt and used to coming back from them healed. She used this experience to help her team make it through their injury-plagued season by sharing with them something her club coach, David Bertrand, taught her.

“The greatest thing David taught me was visualization,” Koval said. “The idea that even when you are hurt, closing your eyes and visualizing your routines over and over fires the same muscles as when you are actually doing the skills. So I tried to talk to the girls and told them we can visualize our routines even if we aren’t going to be able to come back this season.”

This visualization allowed Koval to come back in time for the first meet this season after having surgery on her elbow in November.

This season, Cougar fans have watched Koval compete wearing a brace on her elbow for bars and a back brace while competing on beam. Once again not willing to let injury stop her, Koval has competed in all but one meet this season. After all, BYU still has big goals for this season.

“Our main goal is to qualify for Nationals,” Koval said. “We are always making goals along the way for each meet though. We are working really hard day in and day out. We have a whole new level of dedication this season where we will not quit until we’re satisfied and we have done everything we can to accomplish our goals.”