Sydney Ewing has been a stalwart for the LSU Tigers this season. The senior has competed in all 13 meets this season on vault, beam, and floor and has scored below a 9.800 on just six occasions.

The Tigers boast one of the best vault lineups in the country heading into the NCAA Championships on Friday in St. Louis, with as many as six vaults starting out of a 10.0. One of those vaults is Ewing's Yurchenko 1 1/2, which she has competed well this season. She has posted six scores of 9.900 or better. The senior is a solid leadoff competitor for the Tigers on floor, where she has scored a 9.825 or better in 12 routines this season.



LSU, which finished as the national runners-up in 2016, faces off against a trio of Southeastern Conference rivals in Florida, Alabama, and Georgia as well as Big Ten teams Michigan and Nebraska in the second semifinal session on Friday night.  

FloGymnastics: What is your favorite event to perform on and why?
Sydney Ewing: My favorite event to perform on is floor just because I have so much fun doing my floor routine, and it's where we can show our personalities. It's just always been one of my favorite events. I love to tumble.

What is your favorite skill to perform on any event?
My favorite skill to perform would be my vault just because it's so quick. Running down the runway as fast as you can and flying off the table, there's nothing like it. I think it's the closest you can get to flying as a human. It's just so much fun, and it's a dynamic event. It's really exciting for me.

What is the most challenging skill that you've learned and what made it challenging for you?
Again, I think that my vault is the most challenging skill I've learned just because it took me a really long time to learn it. There's a lot of different progressions [in] adding the one and a half after the full. It's a different landing, and it really did take me a long time to learn. I think that's part of the reason why it's my favorite skill to perform as well, because I've worked really hard on it since I was little. I love performing it.

What is the best piece of advice you've been given during your gymnastics career?
To never give up and to go for any goal or dream that you have for yourself. I've been dreaming of being an LSU gymnast since I was 7 or 8 years old, and there was a time where that probably seemed crazy to some people. But I kept working every single day and never gave. Here I am, and it's just been a dream come true. I'm so thankful for every opportunity that I've gotten.

What was the biggest takeaway that you had coming out of regionals that you'll use heading into nationals?
Regionals was a really good meet for us, but it also reminded us how good we are even when we have mistakes. It's about putting a full meet together and staying within ourselves. It was a very exciting meet because of the six teams, and that's how it'll be at nationals. We really just learned how to stay together [and] focus on our routines one routine at a time. We've really come into the gym and worked at getting better at the details. We're so excited, and we feel so ready.

Your team has been incredibly consistent this season. What do you attribute that consistency to?
Our hard work in the gym, our mindset, the pressure sets we do in the gym that mock a meet format and the support from each teammates and the coaches. Really just working on the mindset in practice that we want to use when we compete. I think that's translated really well, and we've seen so much consistency this year. We're just going to continue to do that as we go into nationals.

How does the adversity that your team faces during the season help prepare you for the postseason?
I think every team goes through adversity here and there. It's just about knowing that adversity can be overcome. We have a lot of depth on this team so whenever we do face adversity, the next person's there to step up. That's always so encouraging and so comforting for us that no matter what, we have a lineup that's going to be able to go out there and get the job done. Just pushing through it and getting better each week and leaving adversity behind us whenever we do encounter it is really important to just keep moving forward.

How do you bounce back from a fall?
Yeah, I did fall at regionals, but it's in the past. I came into the gym and my coaches and my teammates are encouraging that they believe in me, they trust in me, I've done that skill so many times. It's just not harping on it, not thinking about it, not overtraining it [and] just training it like I have for any other meet. Again, it's all about the mindset and not living in the past and knowing that it doesn't define me or anyone who makes a fall.

How would you describe yourself in three words?
Energetic, outgoing, and enthusiastic.

What are you most looking forward to about competing at nationals this week?
I've never been more excited for a meet in my entire life, and it's because we're so ready. We've had such a good year, and we're so ready to go out there and just show everyone who we are, who the LSU Tigers are. I'm so excited about the whole thing. Just going out there with my teammates and my coaches, we're a big family and have the most fun competing. I'm just excited to go out there in that energetic environment with our amazing fans cheering us on. And just having fun. That's really what we've been talking about--going out there and having fun and the rest will come.

After a program-best second-place finish last year and such an incredible season this year, do you feel that this is your year to grab the title?
Oh, of course. We don't talk about the end result that often, but we do know that's what every team going there is striving for and that's definitely something that we want. I think we're very, very capable of it this year more than ever. Last year was a good stepping stone finishing second, and now the only place to go is first. We're just really aiming to go out there and do our gymnastics, and if we do that, I think we'll be pleased with the end result.