Age: 20
Occupation: LSU gymnast and Olympian
Hometown: Bristol, England
Ruby Harrold. Photo by Chris Parent / Courtesy of LSU Athletics.
Signature: Ruby Harrold
Age: 20
Occupation: LSU gymnast and Olympian
Hometown: Bristol, England
Ruby Harrold was ready.
She’d been doing this for 15 years. She trained hard as a senior international elite gymnast, and it earned her the chance to serve in the 2012 London Olympics as an alternate gymnast for Great Britain.
Fast forward to 2016, and she was racking up medals. She won bronze on bars and beam at the British Championships and Great Britain team silver at the European Championships—not to mention the team gold, all-around silver and bronze on bars she won in 2014 at the Commonwealth Games.
She was ready to compete as an Olympian again—this time as a star and member of the official five-gymnast team—for Great Britain at the 2016 Rio Olympics.
Her group performed well, reaching the women’s team gymnastics final and placing fifth. It was the country’s best women’s team finish since winning bronze in 1928.
“It was an experience to say the least,” Harrold says today, laughing. “It was everything that I’d ever imagined it to be. We were able to compete and take in Rio. It was just insane.”
Though she had been training and working toward that moment since she was 5, she didn’t want her career to end with international competition.
So after the Olympics, Harrold was ready for her next challenge: college. She retired from elite-level competition after accepting an offer to compete at LSU, with Rio marking the end of her international career.
“College is kind of a nice round-off to your career, compared to elite gymnastics,” Harrold says. “It’s more concentration on perfection rather than throwing big tricks and skills. It’s a different style than what we do back home.”
At first, Harrold wasn’t totally sure about collegiate gymnastics. A few years ago, when she got the call from LSU gymnastics, she didn’t know if it was the right path for her. It was so different from what she spent her whole life training for, so far away from her home, and she’d be on her own.
She was eventually persuaded to take a visit. She saw those stately Louisiana oaks and broad magnolias, and she was sold. She verbally committed in 2013.
“It was yes from the word ‘go’ after the visit,” she remembers.
Harrold’s proud family are an ocean away back in Bristol, and she misses them and the green rural countryside where she grew up.
But here in Baton Rouge, she is busy embarking on her first collegiate season with a historic LSU squad—the nation’s top team on vault last season—that took the sport to heights never seen before at the university. At this year’s NCAA Super Six, No. 3 LSU earned second place as a team, the best finish in program history.
“I’m 20, and most normal freshmen are 18. So, I’ve had to wait a little bit longer than most people just because of the Olympics,” she says. “I’m so happy to finally be here and be part of the season this year.”
It will be a challenge to keep that momentum, to perform even better than last year’s epic run.
But, as usual, she will be ready.
This article was originally published in the December 2016 issue of 225 Magazine.
