The summer Olympics are right around the corner, with athletes competing in events like swimming, soccer and gymnastics. For a local gymnast, she’s back on the balance beam after an injury last year.
Sixteen-year-old Kyanna Gropper has had a love for gymnastics ever since she was a little girl.
“I’ve been doing gymnastics since I was 2, and have just stuck with it,” Gropper said.
From balance beam to bars, she’s continued with that passion into high school.
“When I got to seventh grade I was able to compete on the high school gymnastics team and ended up on varsity competing on bars at state that year, along with my eighth grade year and then my freshman year started competing all four events,” said Gropper. “I just like being able to flip and twist and be in the air and doing things that most people can’t do.”
But last August, she ended up with a serious injury.
“I was on beam, I was doing a cartwheel with no hands which is called an aerial, and it was like my fifth turn already. I’d done some really good ones before that and my foot just landed the wrong way and my knee snapped and I just couldn’t walk on it and I knew something was wrong at that moment,” said Gropper.
The next day she made sure to get it checked out.
“I went to the orthopedic office and got it looked at and they did some tests and then I got an MRI later that afternoon,” said Gropper.
That confirmed she had torn her ACL and would need surgery.
“We decided to proceed with reconstruction so we did a reconstruction with an autograph, we took her own tendon using her quadriceps tendon and proceeded with surgery,” said orthopedic surgeon, Brian Kampmann, MD. “ACLs have significant rehab so after the surgery we did have her on crutches initially, let her start putting weight on it with a brace when she was comfortable, got her into rehab right away to start working on range of motion and quad function. As she progressed we were able to do more and more throughout rehab.”
Part of that recovery process has included physical therapy for eight weeks and then weekly Avera Return to Competition sessions.
“From that point have worked our way closer to what we call acceleration which is our speed and performance program and just bridging that gap to get her ready for this upcoming season,” said Strength and Conditioning Coordinator with Avera Sports, James Dougherty.
“Each session we are going to have a treadmill day, which is when we are going to be working on speed and after that we will have our weightlifting session to complement what we did for movement patterns that day, that will be about another 45 minutes. Her second day will be a plyometric day where we are jumping on those platforms, we’re working on footwork and agility,” said Dougherty.
And the hard work is paying off for Kyanna. She was cleared to go back to competition about five and a half months post-surgery.
“She did great, sometimes when we have additional injuries it can slow things down but she primarily had her ACL torn so we were able to move right along with her rehab,” said Dr. Kampmann.
“I’m pretty much back doing everything, just soft landings and really paying attention to those landings,” said Gropper. “They really set me up on each step that I’ve had to take and motivated me that I can actually be back to my sport.”
