Nichols aims for NCAA title
Maggie Nichols has been a fan favorite in the gymnastics community, and she enters the NCAA Championship weekend as a favorite to win her first allaround title Friday night.
Maggie Nichols walked into the conference room at Oklahoma’s Sam Viersen Gymnastics Center carrying a small padded mailer Monday afternoon.
The sophomore gymnast sat down and ripped open the envelope addressed to her in softly rounded letters.
Inside was a blue-green bow bedazzled with clear rhinestones and a letter handwritten on two pages of lined notebook paper. At the bottom, it was signed ‘Beth.’
Nichols doesn’t know Beth, but that doesn’t matter. She’ll still add Beth’s gift and letter to a growing pile in her room, and write the young fan back to thank her for the encouragement.
“They took the time to write to me, so I should take the time to write them,” she said with a quiet smile.
Since competing in the 2016 Olympic Trials, Nichols has been a fan favorite in the gymnastics community, and she enters the NCAA Championship weekend as a favorite to win her first all-around
title Friday night.
But in her second year at OU, her impact has extended beyond the mat.
A week before opening the 2018 season, Nichols became a household name when she revealed she was sexually abused by former Team USA doctor Larry Nassar, and she was the first to report the abuse to USA Gymnastics in 2015.
Friday night, Nichols will attempt to cap off a remarkable season with her first NCAA all-around title as the Sooners pursue their third consecutive national title.
But in a year where she earned the No. 1 ranking in her sport and came forward with her story of abuse committed by a monstrous doctor, she doesn’t need to win a medal to validate her spot at the top of collegiate gymnastics.
“Being the only (current) NCAA athlete who has come out — and there are probably more — I think she’s been an inspiration,” OU women’s gymnastics coach K.J. Kindler said. “To have her have
that impact on people, you can’t quantify it.
“It’s something super special, and kids are going to grow up saying, ‘She was my idol. She was my role model. I looked up to her. She was special to me. She pushed me. She inspired me.’”
For the first time since arriving at OU in 2016, Nichols entered the season physically healthy. A right knee injury sustained before the Olympic Trials was finally healed — the result of an offseason surgery and six weeks off of her leg following Oklahoma’s 2017 national championship.
But mentally, Nichols struggled.
As more gymnasts came forward with their stories of Nassar’s abuse, Nichols, her family and the OU gymnastics staff began discussing the possibility of going public with her personal story in September.
But each time Nichols got close to speaking out, she decided to push it back.
Finally on Jan. 9, Nichols’ attorney released the letter. It was just a week before the Sooners opened the season at Georgia.
“She felt a responsibility to stand up and own that part of her life, and I think she knew she could be an inspiration to a lot of those kids, that the same thing maybe happened to them,” Kindler said. “The fact that she was the first to report it, at least, per USA Gymnastics, ... she probably saved a lot of kids from the same turmoil, same experience.”
With the release of the letter came a relief that Nichols could start fresh with the new year. But it also opened up more worries that manifested in sleep deprivation and stress through January, Kindler said.
But as the season progressed, Nichols, who isn’t doing interviews about Nassar, grew stronger. Week by week, she pushed through emotional chaos and took solace in her sport.
“I feel like I’m pretty good at distracting myself,” Nichols said. “Just staying in myself, just staying in my bubble.”
After not competing in the all-around during the first meet, Nichols went on to win the all-around in every single meet the rest of the regular season. She capped it off with a Big 12 and regional all-around title.
She also recorded six 10.0s during the season, earning the perfect mark on every element except bars.
“After January was over, I felt a lot of weight lifted off my shoulders,” Nichols said.
Her high marks make her the favorite entering the Super Six.
Friday, the team will work to qualify for Saturday’s championship meet, but the scores from preliminary round will determine the individual champions.
A year ago, Nichols was one element away from an all-around title when she fell doing a routine skill on the beam.
This time around, she wants to redeem herself with the title.
But to Kindler, Nichols doesn’t need to win anything else to prove she’s the best at what she does.
“I think that her impact is more than just gymnastics, and that’s what makes her stand a little bit taller,” Kindler said. “Personally, does it matter to me if she wins the all-around? Not at all. To me, just what she does every single day, the way she lives her life, the way she leads, is everything.
“Adding another medal around her neck won’t matter a bit.”