Boise State Gymnastics gears up for an emotional Senior Night on March 14, where the Broncos will face No. 22 Southern Utah in front of their home crowd. It’s a night filled with nostalgia, pride, and a chance at redemption. Just a week ago, they clashed with the same opponent in Cedar City, Utah, only to suffer a heartbreaking 0.600-point loss (196.300-196.900). The sting of that defeat still lingers, especially for the seniors, who had poured every ounce of their spirit into making their last collegiate away match unforgettable. Among those seniors stands Elaina McGovern, a gymnast from Richmond, Kentucky, whose journey has been anything but ordinary.

On March 7, she seized her opportunity in the floor exercise event against Utah, delivering a stunning 9.850 performance. Though her score wasn’t enough to push Boise State past the finish line, it served as a personal triumph—a reminder of her resilience. But Elaina’s true test of confidence didn’t unfold on the gymnastics mat. Instead, it loomed over her future beyond the sport she had dedicated her life to. Want to know how?

The unsettled road away from the gymnastics mat 

For years, gymnastics was Elaina McGovern’s comfort zone, a place where she controlled every movement, every landing. In fact, she was a Level 10 Olympic National Championships qualifier in 2018 and 2019. But when it came to choosing a professional path, the certainty wavered. What would come after gymnastics? Was she ready to trade in the chalked hands for a career where the rules weren’t as clear? These questions gnawed at her confidence in ways no failed routine ever had. Need evidence? On March 13, Boise Sports’ official website published an article on Elaina’s years in the program. In the article, the gymnast explained her primary emotions when she visited the Boise State gymnastics camp in 2019.

Before wearing Boise State’s leotard, Elaina McGovern envisioned a future in engineering, drawn to blueprint designs and problem-solving. But during a guided tour of the program, reality hit. Watching students immersed in complex equations and technical projects, she felt a sinking realization—this wasn’t her passion. In just hours, the career plan she had meticulously built in her mind came crashing down. Overwhelmed, Elaina bolted to the nearest bathroom, where she broke down in tears. Her mother, sensing her distress, followed and found her daughter in an emotional spiral. “I had the realization engineering is not really what I thought it was at all,” Elaina later reflected. “I ended up crying in the bathroom with my mom because my entire career plan had been ruined in the span of 30 minutes.” That was the end. Soon, she shifted to her current path, mathematics. And see, she has covered summits in the subject. How? That’s another story. 

There’s always room to display one’s achievement 

Can gymnastics and mathematics intertwine? Absolutely. They already have in Elaina McGovern’s journey. How? Well, that’s the story.

According to the Boise State senior, her love for math sparked back in fifth grade. It all started with a project on the Fibonacci sequence—a pattern found everywhere from sunflower spirals to hurricane formations. The beauty and logic behind it fascinated her, and from that moment on, numbers weren’t just equations on a page; they were a puzzle waiting to be solved. Since then, her passion for math has never wavered. Just like gymnastics, it became a world where precision, patterns, and problem-solving ruled.

During Elaina McGovern’s time at Boise State, the Kentucky native has excelled in both athletics and academics, seizing every opportunity that came her way. In 2023, McGovern dove into a four-week biostatistics and applied research program at the University of Iowa’s College of Public Health. Last spring, she earned her bachelor’s degree in applied mathematics, and in just two months, she’ll add another impressive achievement to her resume—a master’s in mathematics with a concentration in statistics. But she’s not stopping there.

Up next? A PhD in biostatistics at the University of South Carolina, where she’s ready to take her passion for numbers to the next level. Elaina didn’t know it at the time, but that moment of devastation would set her on a different course. Instead of formulas and circuits, she would find confidence and purpose elsewhere—on the competition floor and the board of numbers, where she was destined to shine.

Now, as she prepares for Senior Night, Elaina stands not as the aspiring engineer she once imagined, but as a gymnast and a mathematician who discovered that sometimes falling can lead to the perfect landing.