Injury after injury, Victoria Nguyen was losing faith in herself. After competing all-around just once during her freshman year at Georgia, Nguyen injured her ankle early in the season, keeping her out of the vault and floor lineups for the rest of the year. The following year she injured her other ankle, once again hampering her ability to contribute. Following her sophomore season at Georgia, Nguyen entered the transfer portal and was picked up by a strong Florida team. Unbeknownst to her, this move started her journey of returning to her all-around potential and regaining the confidence she had lost during her time with the GymDogs.
Heading into her junior year at Florida, Nguyen was recovering from her injuries. The mental stress that came with the physical setbacks kept thoughts of self-doubt in the back of her mind. But with more competitive lineups to make, Nguyen knew she had to spend time during the summer rehabbing not only to get stronger but also to have a real chance of seeing competition time.
Even in her elite gymnastics days, Nguyen described herself as “fragile” and wanted to make sure she could be physically prepared for the season. She made a plan and worked closely with her strength coach and athletic trainer to do extra physical therapy and rehab three days a week. “It was an interesting time because, during my elite days, I never did any strength conditioning with weights and stuff, but I think doing that has just helped my overall strength,” she said.
After making progress over that summer between sophomore and junior year, the foundation was set for Nguyen to rebuild her confidence. “I really tried to work on my self-confidence, and my coaches and teammates really helped support me, and I think that made a huge difference,” she said.
Head coach Jenny Rowland was excited about the prospects of Nguyen’s work ethic and motivation. In phone calls prior to her transfer, they had talked about how bars and beam would be the main events she trained, and while vault and floor could be a possibility, they were mostly an afterthought.
Things weren’t too serious at first. During Nguyen’s very first day of practice, associate head coach Adrian Burde encouraged her to play around on vault and floor. “I was doing layouts, fulls maybe, and he was like ‘you can vault!’” Nguyen said. With those opportunities to experiment with different skills, she gradually regained her skills and confidence on vault and floor, and even picked up a few new ones like the Yurchenko one and a half.
During her elite days, Nguyen would toggle back and forth between competing a Yurchenko full and double. “My air awareness is not the greatest, so once I started doing doubles I couldn’t go back to a full. So I would warm up layouts and just go straight to double,” Nguyen said. “I think I was just unsure of myself… I didn’t really understand the one-and-a-half timing.” She worked really hard on getting the skill, paying close attention to the entry, and making sure she didn’t rush.
Nguyen began the 2023 season competing bars and floor at nearly every meet, consistently putting up 9.9+ scores. Eventually, she was added into the beam lineups and began putting up solid routines at every meet throughout the regular season. “I think physically that was the best I felt in a long time,” Nguyen said. “I was so surprised I told my strength coach I’ve never felt this good at 10 weeks into the season and she told me it was because of all of the hard work I had put in.”
As post-season neared, Nguyen had plans to debut her new Yurchenko one and a half. In a dual meet against Oklahoma, she was put into the anchor spot ready to compete the new vault for the first time in her career. She barrelled down the runway and launched towards the table but as she reached back to block, both of her hands slipped on the table, causing her to just narrowly complete a single back tuck off the table to avoid completely landing on her head. It was not an ideal first outing but she didn’t let it deter her.
At the NCAA semifinals that year, Nguyen made her vault debut in the anchor spot. “Going into it [championships] I didn’t think I would be put in vault, I was just training it because I wanted to get more numbers in because it’s a new vault for me and vault is my least favorite event,” Nguyen said. “Come time at nationals doing all the warmups,[Coach Burde] decided to give me a chance and that day I remember running down to the vault table and I was like ‘I can do this, I can do it’ and landing it felt so amazing.” Her vault scored 9.8625, enough to help Florida clinch a spot in the finals. Nguyen said this moment was particularly special for her because it proved to her that she could overcome her adversities and hardships. She was able to put her botched vault from Oklahoma behind her, turning the page for a new chapter in her career.
Day two of 2023 nationals was special for Nguyen because it marked the beginning of her all-around debut at Florida, and her first time competing all-around since her freshman debut at Georgia. Nguyen was kept out of the beam lineup on day one, but was added in at the last minute on the second day of competition. “I remember I was just warming up as an alternate and in the 30 second touch, Jenny walks over to me and she points at me and she’s like ‘you’re going in sixth’ and I’m counting and realizing I’m in the lineup,” Nguyen recounted. Nguyen doesn’t really like waiting through the lineup to compete beam, but seeing the confidence from her other teammates reassured her. She hit a routine for a 9.875. That momentum carried her through the rest of the meet. She hit all her routines, finishing with a huge 39.55 in the all-around which helped Florida finish in second, just 0.15 behind Oklahoma. “I don’t think it actually hit me until after the meet and I was like ‘oh my gosh that’s the first all-around meet I’ve competed in like two years and I was just really good.’”
Heading into the 2024 season and Nguyen’s senior year, Rowland noticed Nguyen’s blossoming confidence. “I think the biggest piece is that V believes in herself and has grown,” Rowland said. “Her confidence has grown so much that you know when she steps out with this team, she’s leading this team and if anybody didn’t know better, you would have thought she’d been here since she was a freshman.” That season, Nguyen competed 11 times in the all-around, earning the second-highest point total for Florida, just behind freshman phenom Anya Pilgrim.
Nguyen graduated with an education sciences degree in summer 2024. With one year of eligibility left, she had arrived at a fork in the road: should she use her last year of eligibility? Or should she move on to the next chapter? At first she was unsure if she wanted to take the fifth year, unsure if her body could handle the demands of another year of gymnastics. But after a successful senior year and her body feeling stronger than before, the idea became more appealing. “I wasn’t looking to take the fifth year anywhere else, Florida feels like home to me,” she said. “Last year at the alumni meet Jenny comes up to me, gives me a big hug and she goes ‘can you believe you’re going to be one of them soon? [alumni]’ and I just thought I want to come back for one more year.”
When it finally came to the end of year meeting, Nguyen had finally decided that she wanted to take the fifth year, but was worried there might not be a spot on the team. “[Jenny] goes ‘so the big question we’re waiting to hear is what does next year look like for V?’” and Nguyen blurted out what she wanted, telling Jenny she would love to be back for a fifth year. To her relief Jenny responded, “Oh good! We were waiting for that!”
In her final year with the Florida Gators, Nguyen is focusing on being present with her team. “I’m really emotional when it comes to this type of stuff, so I try not to think too far ahead because I always start tearing up when I think about it,” she said. “I don’t really have any expectations other than just having no regrets, having fun, and being present with my team.” For her studies, she chose to pursue an MS in management, inspired by a slime business she used to operate on Instagram with her siblings and cousins.
Nguyen says a lot of the progress she has made as an athlete and as a person were because of the community that supported her and believed in her every step of the way. Despite setbacks and injuries, she is proud that she pushed through the most difficult moments. “It’s kind of cliche, but never give up because you’re capable of a lot of things. I was really doubtful of myself during club and elite because I never got to the position where I knew I could be,” Nguyen said. “I’m really proud because I never thought I would ever see myself in this position.”
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Article by Daniel Rothwell
