Just last week, gymnastics fans were talking about the NCAA All-around champion, Haleigh Bryant. Speculation was rife about her return before the NCAA competition started this new year on 3rd January. Soaking that fans’ hype in, Haleigh and her teammate Lexi Zeiss dropped a hint on Instagram of her return in a playful manner. Replying to Lexi’s queries about her favorite leotard, Haleigh wrote that she will wear her favorite gymnastics uniform this coming weekend. 

In addition to that, LSU’s head coach, Jay Clark, confirmed Haleigh’s return to the mat. “We’ve made some significant progress, she – depending on how this week goes and yesterday went well, um – she will be available at least on balance beam.” Well, in a last-minute addition to the Tigers, Haleigh Bryant not only returned but dazzled the spectators with her floor routine, sealing a 9.900 score. And the competition results? The Tigers took down the No. 7 Florida Gators inside the Pete Maravich Assembly Centre. So, what has Haleigh Bryant said about her last-minute addition?

Haleigh Bryant sprang up her skills after the injury

It happened during the warm-up. Haleigh was eager to help her team. During a press meeting, Haleigh Bryant replied, “Well, I warmed up and like the warm-up touch, like the 15 minutes, 20 minutes, however, long we get, I don’t remember. And then Cora came up to me, and she was like, how are you feeling? I was like, ‘Good’. And she was like, ‘Are you ready to go?’ And I was like, ‘Of course, whatever this team needs’. So [it happened] right before, kind of, in our before touch.” And then, with her team, Haleigh performed a significant feat as part of the LSU Tigers to clinch the victory against the Gators. 

The Tigers and the Gators competed against each other amid a sea of more than fifteen thousand. The event was so nail-biting that it brought a lump to the throat of Tigers’ fans. The No. 2-ranked LSU Tigers achieved victory over the No. 7 Gators by a 0.100 margin. In the final score, the Tigers made 197.550, and the Gators ended at 197.450. But that is seemingly not possible without Haleigh Bryant’s electrifying floor routine and Aleah Finnegan’s all-around performances. 

The Tigers also won thanks to Haleigh’s speedy recovery from her last year’s misfortune injury. In December, she fell flat while trying her routine on the vault. Haileigh’s leg met sheer pain in the form of a UCL injury. When she was asked about her injury by the reporter, she promptly expressed,  “Well, I didn’t really think about the past.” And added, “[I] trusted in my training, trusted that my teammates had my back. And just took it one skill at a time, and didn’t want to rush through the routine and try to be perfect. Because Jay always says, don’t try to be perfect.”  Yes, the head coach of the LSU Tigers always trusted Haleigh Bryant’s potential.

Before the injury, Haleigh came with  a unique skill issue

Jay Clark noticed a skill issue when Haleigh Bryton visited LSU. Haleigh did her forward flips with a little backward motion. Back then, the head coach was the legendary D-D Breaux, but Jay didn’t utter a word. Clark said, “But I didn’t tell D-D that. I felt like it would either correct itself or time would tell. I just didn’t think we could take a chance on missing on the potential of this kid.” It, kind of, ended Haileigh’s LSU career at that point but Jay let her do the course. 

After seeing her performance, Jay decided to provide D-D with positive feedback. He asked DD to look at her while in action, seeing which, DD said, “You’re right. We need that kid.” And from there on, the rest is history. The LSU fan got their all-around champ. And till this year, Haleigh Bryant has proved herself a key player among the LSU marvels.