‘HELLUVA RIDE’
Meet the Sooners’ steadying force & reason they could win NCAA title
NORMAN — Mark Williams came down the escalator and rounded the corner heading toward the security screening area at the Denver International Airport when he was stopped in his tracks.
What he saw was horrifying. “There’s blood everywhere,” the OU men’s gymnastics coach said.
Worse, the person laying in it was his senior captain, Vitaliy Guimaraes.
Not even three months have passed since that day, but as OU prepares to host the NCAA Championships this weekend, Guimaraes is the anchor. His gymnastics have long been strong and steady, but now, the same is evident in his leadership. He keeps the Sooners from drifting.
They have been tough because he has been tough.
“It’ll definitely be one of those years that I will remember forever just because of the series of events that I went through,” he said.
“It’s been one helluva year.” Guimaraes and his teammates started their season in mid-January at the Rocky Mountain Open in Colorado Springs. Their performance bested
top-ranked Stanford that weekend, leaving the Sooners in high spirits as they headed home.
But while walking through the Denver airport, Guimaraes started feeling lightheaded.
“Man, I’m about to pass out,” Guimaraes thought as he went down the escalator that led to the security lines and the screening area. “I’ll go through security and sit down.”
He never made it.
The next thing he remembered? “I woke up in an ambulance,” he said. Members of OU’s traveling party had to fill in the blanks for Guimaraes. He blacked out, and when he fell, he landed face first. The impact shattered his nose, even shifting it a bit.
Worse, Guimaraes also had a seizure. McKenzie Greenwood, the team’s athletic trainer, saw the entire episode and rushed to help Guimaraes. Airport EMTs soon joined her. Even though Guimaraes was getting aid, the Sooners were extremely concerned.
“It was scary finding him in a puddle of blood,” Williams said.
Guimaraes was taken to a local hospital. Greenwood stayed with him, and Williams contacted Guimaraes’ mom, who lives in the Denver area. She raced to the hospital, too.
Doctors determined Guimaraes needed surgery to repair his nose, and he remained in Denver for several days before returning to Norman.
He still doesn’t know exactly what caused his blackout or his seizure, but he has his suspicions. The week before the Rocky Mountain Open, he tested positive for COVID. That required a fiveday quarantine, but then he jumped right back into training before traveling and competing.
“I think my body was just on overload,” he said, “and kind of just shut down.”
By doctor’s orders, Guimaraes wasn’t allowed to do any physical activity for a week after his surgery. But even after he was cleared to resume workouts, he was concerned about pushing too far too fast.
“I didn’t want to try something and be like, ‘Oh, I felt OK,’” he said, “and then the next turn hurt my nose again or be laying on my face.”
What if he blacked out again? Might he have another seizure? “We didn’t know if it was going to keep happening,” Williams said.
Guimaraes began taking medication to prevent seizures, but he also paid extra close attention to how he felt. Before he blacked out in the airport, he felt lightheaded for about 20 or 30 seconds.
Williams told Guimaraes if he ever felt that way in the gym, he needed to immediately stop what he was doing and sit down.
“There were a couple times in the first two weeks where he didn’t feel quite right,” Williams said.
No one pushed Guimaraes.
This wasn’t a typical sports injury, after all. If he had hurt his knee or his ankle or his shoulder, the coaches and trainers would’ve had an idea how his rehab was supposed to go. What happened to Guimaraes required a day-byday, bit-by-bit approach. After a week or so, Guimaraes was able to practice fairly consistently on high bar, parallel bars, pommel horse and still rings, but even as he planned to compete in the allaround at the Winter Cup, he had lots of unanswered questions.
How would he do on floor and vault, which he had barely practiced on?
Would his preparation in the other events be enough?
Only 33 days after his accident, Guimaraes went to Winter Cup with no expectations of how he’d score or place.
But he did have expectations of himself.
“I know how to do my routines,” he thought. “I just have to trust myself, and whatever happens happens.”
What happened was almost unbelievable.
In a competition run by USA Gymnastics, Guimaraes and the rest of the field competed as individuals. They were trying to qualify for the U.S. Gymnastics Championships and land spots on the national team. That meant many of the top American men were there, including 2020 Olympian and former Sooner standout Yul Moldauer. Guimaraes bested everyone.
He won the all-around title after never having finished higher than ninth before in a senior U.S. all-around competition, and he believes not having an Imust-win attitude was his secret sauce. He simply wanted to go to Winter Cup and do the best routines possible.
“It was a matter of just trusting myself,” he said.
Winning such a major title so soon after his accident has changed Guimaraes’ attitude. Even though he’s going into NCAAs having been on a slightly different training schedule than his teammates — he represented Team USA in international competition less than a month ago — he feels good about this weekend.
“I know I’ve done this at a very high level,” he said.
“Why can’t I do it here?” Vitaliy Guimaraes knows there’s nothing easy, nothing given when it comes to NCAAs. Not in the individual or all-around events. Not in the team competition. Not even with the Sooners at home.
But when you’ve gone from a pool of blood to the top of the podium in a month’s time, just about anything seems possible.
Jenni Carlson: Jenni can be reached at 405-475-4125 or jcarlson@oklahoman.com. Like her at facebook.com/ JenniCarlsonOK, follow her at twitter.com/jennicarlson_ok, and support her work and that of other Oklahoman journalists by purchasing a digital subscription today.