{"id":2442403,"date":"2019-04-01T11:12:21","date_gmt":"2019-04-01T17:12:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.aspentimes.com\/?p=302877"},"modified":"2019-04-01T11:12:21","modified_gmt":"2019-04-01T17:12:21","slug":"glenwood-springs-gymnast-credits-sport-for-helping-her-battle-with-lukemia","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/local-news\/glenwood-springs-gymnast-credits-sport-for-helping-her-battle-with-lukemia\/","title":{"rendered":"Glenwood Springs gymnast credits sport for helping her battle with lukemia"},"content":{"rendered":"
Juliet McGill attacks her balance beam routine in competition last week.<\/strong>
Special to the Vail Daily<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

GYPSUM \u2014 Ever since she found the sport at age 4, gymnastics has been a sanity savior for Juliet McGill.<\/p>\n

But last year, gymnastics may have actually helped save the 17-year-old Glenwood Springs girl\u2019s life.<\/p>\n

\u201cI started gymnastics when I was little and I just fell in love with it. I haven\u2019t ever really stopped,\u201d said the Glenwood High School junior. \u201cGymnastics has always been an escape from the real world for me.\u201d<\/p>\n

But the real world came crashing into the Gypsum Recreation Center last spring.<\/p>\n

Becky Johnson, the gymnastics manager for Mountain Recreation, has been coaching McGill for about four years. Last spring, both athlete and coach noticed something was off.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe had these bruises that didn\u2019t\u2019 really go away,\u201d said Johnson, \u201cand it seemed to affect her energy.\u201d<\/p>\n

McGill and her parents decided to have a doctor take a look at the injuries. On April 3, 2018, she was diagnosed with leukemia.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe day before I was diagnosed, I came to practice,\u201d said McGill. \u201cThen I spent the whole month of April in the hospital.\u201d<\/p>\n

The news came as a huge shock at the gym.<\/p>\n

\u201cJuliet texted me and all she said was she wasn\u2019t going to be able to compete for the rest of the season,\u201d Johnson said. \u201cThen her next text was that she was at Children\u2019s Hospital and she had been diagnosed with leukemia. I couldn\u2019t believe it. She had just competed a couple of weeks prior.\u201d<\/p>\n

Comeback kid<\/strong><\/h2>\n

For nine months, McGill underwent a course of treatment that concluded in November of last year. During her treatment, Johnson and McGill\u2019s teammates visited and kept in touch. As she grew stronger, McGill would stop by the gym to say hi. She counted the days until she could return to training.<\/p>\n

\u201cI am about three or four months into remission now,\u201d McGill said. She knew that she would really feel she had reclaimed her life until she returned to the gym.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf I don\u2019t go to gymnastics, it just messes with my whole groove,\u201d she said. \u201cI just wanted to exercise and be back with all my teammates.\u201d<\/p>\n

Juliet McGill launches into her vault during a March 23 home meet. The 17-year-old Glenwood Springs girl trains in Gypsum because it\u2019s the closest Excel program at her skill level.<\/strong>
Special to the Daily<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Her doctors didn\u2019t object and her parents supported her decision. Shortly before Christmas, McGill began a comeback that continues to this day.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe didn\u2019t even think twice. She was like \u2018I want to do this,\u2019\u201d Johnson said. \u201cI tried to make her ease into it and she was good at listening to her body.\u201d<\/p>\n

But Johnson noted that gymnastics is a sport that requires constant training. After losing nine months of training time, getting back to competition fitness was a battle for McGill.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was really hard at first, coming back. I had lost a lot of weight and muscle mass that I had before,\u201d McGill said. \u201cEven some of the basic skills were hard and challenging.\u201d<\/p>\n

But she gradually built up her stamina and at her first, post-diagnosis meet in Denver two weeks ago, she took first place in vault.<\/p>\n

\u201cI feel like, not even before long, she was doing the skills she was doing before she was diagnosed,\u201d Johnson said. \u201cThat was pretty impressive.\u201d<\/p>\n

Truly committed<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Last weekend marked another big step in her journey when McGill competed in her first home meet since she was diagnosed last spring. McGill is a proud member of the Gypsum Rec Center\u2019s Excel program Diamond squad. The team took second place honors at the March 23 competition.<\/p>\n

While she didn\u2019t place as well in individual events last weekend in Gypsum, McGill said the meet was great nonetheless.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe had a whole cheering section and we got really pumped and had a lot of fun,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Gymnastics is already a tough sport, but in McGill\u2019s case, simple logistics are even a challenge. The Gypsum Rec Center program is the closest competitive gymnastics option for her, which means she has to travel from her Glenwood Springs home to train.<\/p>\n

McGill demonstrates her gymnastics dedication by traveling to Gypsum to train two to three days a week and then making the trip a fourth day each week to help coach younger gymnasts.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe is kind of athlete that every team wants,\u201d Johnson said. \u201cJuliet has an amazing leadership ability that she takes on without even thinking about it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Now that she is back in the gym, McGill has a clear goal in mind.<\/p>\n

\u201cI am hoping to learn a bunch of new skills over the summer so I can compete at a higher level next year,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Ultimately, she would like to earn a college gymnastics scholarship.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat girl, when she puts her mind to something, she really works hard at it. If that\u2019s her goal, I can see her reaching it,\u201d Johnson. \u201cShe is a pretty remarkable young woman. I just can\u2019t say enough about her. She is definitely one of a kind.\u201d<\/p>\n

via:: The Aspen Times<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Juliet McGill attacks her balance beam routine in competition last week.Special to the Vail Daily GYPSUM \u2014 Ever since she found the sport at age 4, gymnastics has been a sanity savior for Juliet McGill. But last year, gymnastics may have actually helped save the 17-year-old Glenwood Springs girl\u2019s life. \u201cI started gymnastics when I […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[49],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-2442403","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-local-news"},"acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-06-16 02:22:59","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"distributor_meta":false,"distributor_terms":false,"distributor_media":false,"distributor_original_site_name":"KSPN The Valley's Quality Rock","distributor_original_site_url":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn","push-errors":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2442403","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2442403"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2442403\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2442403"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2442403"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2442403"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}