Alec Yoder has accomplished a lot in gymnastics. From winning Big Ten championships to representing his country around the world, the Indiana native has been engrained in the sport’s fabric for a while.

However, when Yoder looks back, there was no guarantee he would end up where he is now. In fact, the odds were not on his side.

“Five, 10 years ago I was not that great of a gymnast,” Yoder said. “I was still coming up, but I knew I always wanted to go to the Olympics, but everyone kind of says that. I just wanted to be a college gymnast. I never thought I would be in this position right now, and every single day I wake up grateful.”

One of the reasons Yoder is so grateful is because of how far he has had to come back from an injury in 2016 that looked like it could have ended his career. After his freshman season, he had surgery on his shoulder.

“I remember tearing my shoulder at a big championship my freshman year and then having to rehab it,” Yoder said. “A moment like that, it's just like coming back from an injury and realizing that I did it because I love the sport. It ignited my fire for my team and it ignited my fire for myself, so that changed everything to me.”

In the spring of 2018 Yoder returned to international competition for Team USA for the first time in four years and finished with a bronze medal in pommel horse and a fifth-place finish in the high bar at the Doha World Cup in Doha, Qatar.

Yoder says whatever success he has accomplished, he owes to the people who believed in him when he wasn’t performing like an elite gymnast.

“So many people over the years have believed in me and invested in me and I think that's what's gotten the job done," Yoder said. "I have so much work left to do, but I'm so blessed to be in the position I am right now. Hard work, man. It's been a hard journey, but I loved every minute of it.”

And Yoder's not done. After a busy offseason that saw him compete at the World Championships, he is currently in his final season at Ohio State.

“I just want to do the best I can for my team. That's No. 1 priority is putting opportunities for my team, and hitting what I put up for my team,” Yoder said. “That's my No. 1 goal. I want to get better every single day, every single competition. I want to be better. I want to be a better teammate, a better leader, a better gymnast. Still a work in progress, but I'm hoping to be better every single day.”

Yoder began the 2019 campaign like a rocket. At the Rocky Mountain Open, he snagged two individual titles on the pommel horse and parallel bars.

On Saturday with his No. 8 Buckeyes visiting No. 1 Oklahoma, Yoder had a limited schedule. He competed in only the pommel and earned OSU’s lone event win of the night. His 14.750 was enough to hold off longtime friend and fellow Team USA member Yul Moldauer (14.200).

“Me and Yoder wanted to go to the same school,” Moldauer said. “We took all our recruiting trips together, but we ended up choosing different schools. We've always just kept that brotherhood friendship, and last year in November, we got to go to Worlds together and that was a dream come true. It was so exciting to finally compete together, because that's what we wanted.”

The rest of the youthful Buckeyes struggled in the atmosphere of a top 10 matchup as Oklahoma rolled to victory 423.950 to 395.400.

While Yoder was limited, OSU coach Rustam Sharipov said his senior was doing work behind the scenes. Sharipov is expecting to have Yoder do a lot of that most of the year.

“Alec is preparing for the Winter Cup, but he’s going to be our key guy,” Sharipov said. “He’s our key guy. He’s a senior. He has the most experience [of] anybody. ”

Despite a stellar collegiate career, Yoder has yet to win an NCAA title in any event. The closest he has come was a second-place finish on the pommel horse during his freshman campaign. But it’s the team success that Yoder says he will remember the most, like when OSU won the Big Ten title in 2016. 

“That was really big," Yoder said, "because me and Sean Melton went last on floor and we came out with a win and that was incredible ... But anytime I get the opportunity to step out on the floor with my boys, win or lose or draw, whatever it is, I'm proud of these guys. I'm proud of being an Ohio State Buckeye and I always will be.”

Michael Kinney is a freelance content provider who handles sports, news, entertainment, culture, and lifestyles. You can find him on Twitter, Instagram, and on his blog.