When Clara Raposo first signed up for recreational gymnastics classes, she had no ambition of becoming a gymnast. She was seven years old and decided to take lessons because her friends were involved in the sport.
Her coaches, though, realized in no time that Raposo had a natural talent. After only two weeks, they tested her for a competitive program and soon afterward Raposo joined her first competitive group.
What followed looked like the beginning of a fairytale. One year after her first gymnastics class, Raposo was one of only four gymnasts to be selected to train under coach Lisa Cowan, who continues to be one of her coaches, at East York Gymnastics in Ontario, Canada. At 9, Raposo began her elite journey, moving quickly through the Aspire program (the Canadian equivalent of the United State’s TOPs), the Novice program (similar to the United State’s HOPES), and the junior and senior levels. In 2019, she represented Canada internationally for the first time at International Gymnix, and that fall she competed at the junior world championships. The future looked bright, and that winter Raposo started working on upgrades for the following season.
In 2020, however, Raposo suffered the first of a series of serious knee injuries that haunted her for the next two and a half years. In February, she tore her ACL on day two of Elite Canada. The injury left her disappointed, as her career was just about to take off. On day one she’d won the all-around title, as well as the vault and beam titles.
She had surgery in March and, despite the COVID-19 pandemic, her recovery went well. By December she was ready to resume full training. However, just before virtual nationals in May 2021, Raposo was training on beam when she experienced some pain in her knee. She decided to rest for the remainder of the day, hoping to feel better for the following one. The next morning, though, she woke up to an extremely swollen knee. A medical evaluation concluded that she’d sprained her MCL but that she should be back on the competition floor in no time.
It turned out, though, that Raposo had torn her ACL again, but she didn’t find out about it until six months later. In the meantime, she had her knee wrongly treated with acupuncture, which ended up causing a severe bone infection. Raposo spent the summer in the hospital and then at home on strong antibiotics. Her training was strictly limited, as her bones had become fragile and she wasn’t allowed to put any pressure on them.
When Raposo resumed full training in December, she believed the worst was behind her. Unfortunately, her troubles were not yet over. One day while warming up on beam, her knee unexpectedly popped, getting locked at 90 degrees. She was scared, as she realized that something undiagnosed must be seriously wrong with it. She had an emergency MRI, which revealed that she had a torn ACL and a torn meniscus. The latter had flipped and blocked the hinge of her knee, preventing it from bending. Raposo had a second surgery in January, which was followed by an additional nine months of rehab. She was cleared only in October 2022.
After nearly three years of injuries that almost put an end to her career, Raposo returned to competition at Elite Canada last month. The meet was the happiest of her career because it meant that she was finally back. “I missed competing so much, and being able to prove to myself that everything I went through was worth it was an incredible moment,” she said.
The mental fatigue stemming from her injuries, she added, was indeed taxing. “It really is hard to look ahead into the bright side when you are fresh out of surgery and have never felt so terrible,” she said. “I would say I am a very positive person, and there was no option to give up or doubt the process. I feel that my goals for the future were what helped me overcome the mental toughness.”
Raposo drew inspiration from fellow Canadian Peng Peng Lee, an honorary Olympian and NCAA champion for UCLA, as well as Brazil’s Olympic champion Rebeca Andrade, who suffered multiple ACL injuries before achieving some of the greatest feats in the sport. “When going through my first surgery, I remember telling my mom I don’t know how they managed to go through this twice and still do gymnastics. At that point I had no clue that I would face the same situation,” Raposo recalled. “It was super hard for me to take the day I found out I needed that second surgery, but knowing how amazing they are and how they were able to go through it and still be incredible gave me extra inspiration and motivation.”
Following in Lee’s and Andrade’s footsteps, Raposo hopes to be selected for the world championship team this fall and then to represent Canada at the Paris Olympics in 2024. “I really feel that Canada can do something special at this Olympics and take home our first medal,” she said. “I would love to be a part of that history.”
Like Lee, Raposo also hopes to join the NCAA, a dream she’s coveted since the age of 10. “I always felt that it was the ultimate reward for all of the years of hard work and dedication that we put into this sport,” she said. “I also just love the energy that NCAA gymnastics brings, and as a very outgoing person, I always just felt like one day I would do it.”
As the first Canadian gymnast to be rated a five-star recruit, Raposo received offers from a lot of different colleges. She ended up going on three official visits, but the moment she set food on Utah’s campus, she knew she’d found her home. “I really just loved everything about the school, the team, and the coaches,” she said. “I was lucky enough to be able to watch a meet while on my visit, and this experience just showed me the amount of opportunities I would have and also the love this team has for each other and their fans.”
At Utah, her primary goal is to help her team win the national title that has eluded the Red Rocks since 1995. Plus, she would love to score some perfect 10.0s—though “who wouldn’t,” she joked. As she prepares to become a household favorite in the Huntsman Center, she also wants Utah fans to know that she can’t wait to bring her energy, dance skills, and big numbers to the arena for all of them to appreciate and cheer on.
And yes, her signature bangs are coming to Salt Lake City, too. “They are definitely a lot of work, and I am very particular about how they are done, who can cut them, and how they have to be dried,” she explained, only half jokingly. “I always bring hair scissors with me to competitions and camps just in case I need to perform some emergency touch-up. I would say that they play a factor into my uniqueness and energetic personality.”
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Article by Talitha Ilacqua
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