Goldsmith ready to show out at Rutgers
Gymnastics is a GHSA sanctioned sport, although it has yet to make its way into the extreme upper corner of northwest Georgia.
But that hasn’t stopped Ringgold’s Elliot Goldsmith.
The senior, who trains and competes for Gymnastics Center of Chattanooga (GCC), finally made her college choice official on Nov. 9 as she signed a full scholarship to compete in the sport at Rutgers University of the Big Ten.
Goldsmith, who first got into the sport at the age of six, competes in the all-around, which consists of the vault, the balance beam, the uneven bars and the floor exercise.
She said she initially dismissed Rutgers as a college option.
“I thought they were an Ivy School and that just wasn’t in my interest,” she explained. “But when I found out that they weren’t, I decided to send them an email with all my information. I got a response back from the head coach and
she wanted to have an online meeting. She told me all about the school and at the end of the call, she invited me on an official visit.
“So I talked it over with my parents and we decided to take the visit. We went up there and it was at the top of my list for a while. I really liked all the people and the coaches there and it just seemed like an atmosphere that I wanted to be in.”
Over the next few months, Goldsmith said she continued to talk to people at Rutgers, from the coaches to other team members. This past December, Rutgers’ coach decided to fly to Chattanooga to
see Goldsmith train in person and on Jan. 20, 2022, she was offered a full scholarship.
“I took about a week or two to talk it over with my coaches, just to make sure it’s what I wanted to do,” she added.
Goldsmith said that floor exercise is probably her favorite event, but that she is hoping to find ways to contribute as soon as possible once she gets on campus.
“I think my floor exercise is one of the biggest things that interested them, just because I’m able to perform it really well and really please the crowd, because that’s gymnastics,” she said. “Rutgers’ coach told my
coaches down here that I really looked confident out there and she hadn’t seen many wobbles from me and she thought I could do really well.
“I know that their current incoming freshman class is going to have a couple of newer vaults that will have 10.0 start values and I hope to be able to bring one of those to the team.”
Goldsmith said she is looking forward to attending the school, even if New Jersey is a dramatically different than small-town northwest Georgia.
“There’s a lot of different rules up there and the people are really different, but I just really love the campus and I like the
atmosphere,” she explained. “My parents are from Michigan, so I’ve been up north a couple of times. I kind of like how it’s similar (to Michigan) and it’s really close to a big city, but not too close to where you’re overtaken by everything.
“I really like the people there and I thought it was a place I could fit in well, almost like making a new family for the next four years.”
Goldsmith said she is currently undecided on a major, but said she is leaning toward something in science. She said she has currently applied to two different science schools at the university.