By SCOTT RICHEY

srichey@news-gazette.com

CHAMPAIGN — Nearly two years to the day, Rae Balthazor can still clearly picture walking out onto the floor at Chaifetz Arena in St. Louis for the 2018 NCAA championships.

College gymnastics turns what is mostly an individual sport into a team experience. That day in St. Louis, though, Balthazor was competing by herself — the only Illinois women's gymnast to qualify. But waiting in the stands right next to floor exercise where Balthazor would start her rotation alongside the Cal team was the entirety of the Illini squad.

"I believe I was the first one to start warmups," Balthazor said. "Walking out onto that floor, I looked up and my whole team was there right in front of floor. They had 'I-L-L, I-N-I' signs. I think I started tearing up with that emotion of my whole team traveling to St. Louis to support me when I was by myself.

"Having my team there supporting me meant the world to me. That whole competition was literally the best time of my life, and I wouldn't change anything about it. It was really incredible, and I'm really grateful for that whole experience."

Balthazor wound up finishing eighth on floor, earning Second Team All-American honors in the process, and 13th in the all-around. The Boulder, Colo., native was just the seventh Illinois women's gymnast to earn All-American acclaim and the first since Giana O'Connor in 2015. 

"I think that these last two years not being how I wanted them to go, I'm really happy with the way that things ended my sophomore year," Balthazor said. "It's just really special to have my name up in Huff Hall. It will be there for as long as those names are going to be there and as long as the building is there. That's something that anybody would wish for doing a sport their whole lives."

Balthazor's senior season came to an abrupt end in mid-March when all remaining NCAA winter and spring sports were canceled in light of the global health threat of the coronavirus pandemic.

Balthazor was on the cusp of her return to gymnastics when the season was cut short, having rehabbed a broken hand and torn ligament in her thumb to at least come back to compete on beam. That injury occurred just two days after she competed on Jan. 25 at Minnesota, which also happened to be her first meet following a Lisfranc fracture in her foot that cost her the end of her junior season.

"I was pretty close to being back," Balthazor said. "I was just doing beam. Obviously, I had a brace on my hand. I was just trying to figure out how to do beam with no hands. It's a little tough definitely. There's some skills I had to pull out of my back pocket that I haven't done in about 10 years. But when you're determined to do something and have goals, you're going to make it work. It definitely was a little challenging at first, but you've got to make it work."

The foot injury gave Balthazor some perspective when she was injured again this year. The Lisfranc fracture is the type of injury that can end a gymnastics career. Foot injuries as a whole provide a trickier rehab and comeback given the stress gymnasts' feet take on floor and landing skills on other events. 

"I think my whole mindset in coming back for my senior season was more just doing everything I could for the team and being grateful for the opportunity to be able to do it with what doctors and other people told me about getting back," Balthazor said. "With my second injury, it was definitely hard, but I think because I already had that more grateful attitude about every single practice and every single turn I just think that helped. … It was a lighter perspective on the whole thing and really just doing it for the team because I know my team had my back the prior year."

Balthazor used her time away from training and competing to become a sounding board for her teammates. She was still in the gym every day ready to dispense advice and thoughts on routines. She relished the opportunity to be seen as somebody that could help rather than just somebody that was injured.

"Even though she only had one full year of competition as a sophomore and a partial year as a junior and one meet as a senior, she still brought so much to the program," Illinois coach Nadalie Walsh said. "Every single day she came in she trained her heart out. She's another one that really learned the value of her voice and leadership and trying to instill in the younger generations what she wanted to leave behind when she's gone."

Balthazor's injury-plagued final two years at Illinois actually provided some clarity for her next step. A kinesiology major with a minor in psychology, Balthazor initially considered following in her mom's footsteps and becoming a physical therapist. Now she's setting her sights on graduate school and a master's in nursing, then a couple years as a pediatric nurse before returning to school for her doctorate.

"I'm moving in that direction of working in hospitals and being there to care for others and give back to people that have cared for me in my past experiences of being injured and sick," Balthazor said. "I'm really excited to move forward. …  My mom's a PT, and I really like what she did. Over the past two years, I kind of decided I wanted to be more hands on and just having close friends that are nurses, I decided that was more my path. I've always loved helping kids and loved being around kids."

Two seasons worth of injuries might have changed Balthazor's perspective on her present and future, but she's moving forward from Illinois with the confidence she gained during that All-American sophomore season. She cleared mental hurdles that year that had held her back as a freshman and gained the confidence to compete in the all-around.

"Having her just shine was so much fun, but it was so rewarding," Walsh said of that day in April two years ago. "I'll always look back on her sophomore year and know that kid grew miles and miles during that year. Even though her years were cut short, now she's making a decision to be done because that's what she wants to do. She can go out and basically start her life and take a lot of the things she learned and teach it and apply it and help the people she'll meet up with in her path."