“Am I Good at This?”: Laurie Hernandez Shares Honest Battle With Self-Doubt
August 25, 2023; San Jose, California, USA; Laurie Hernandez during the 2023 U.S. Gymnastics Championships at SAP Center. Mandatory Credit: Kyle Terada-USA TODAY Sports
August 25, 2023; San Jose, California, USA; Laurie Hernandez during the 2023 U.S. Gymnastics Championships at SAP Center. Mandatory Credit: Kyle Terada-USA TODAY Sports
Winning 2 Olympic medals was surely gymnast Laurie Hernandez’s career highlight. However, her recent confession revealed that it wasn’t easy to get there.
Starting her elite career at the ripe age of 12, Hernandez went ahead and competed side-by-side with gymnastics icons Simone Biles and Aly Raisman at the 2016 Rio Games. However, the self-doubt remained.
“A big doubt or fear that I had… was just how much performance anxiety I was having before I would get out on the competition floor,” she stated in the Olympics’ health initiative Let’s Move. “It was really easy to get in my head about that and question… Am I good at this?”
The performance anxiety was a part of her Imposter Syndrome. It was easy to question whether gymnastics was truly her purpose or if she should be doing something else, even doubting her place in Team USA in 2016.
“And there’s me kneeling on the floor sticking my tape to a chair…” she shared during a recent visit to UNC-Chapel Hill. “These are all-around Olympic champions, all-around world champions. I don’t deserve to be here. How I got in was an accident.”
But despite the odds, Hernandez returned victorious from the 2016 Rio Games, and she shared what made that possible.
Laurie Hernandez Revealed How She Won Against Self-Doubt
As the youngest member of the 2016 “Final Five,” the most decorated American women's gymnastics team in history, Hernandez helped secure a total of nine medals, including an individual silver. And she revealed what propelled that run.
“I think being able to connect with myself and just check in, find the toolbox that I need to figure out how to relax when the pressure's on,” she shared on Let’s Move. “That was the best thing that I could have figured out.”
Fearlessness isn’t the right adjective to describe her journey. Despite the anxiety, fear and self-doubt, what truly defined Hernandez was her bravery, her ability to do something she was, at times, scared of doing.
With that being said, do you find Hernandez’s journey inspiring? Let us know in the comments.
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Written by
Deblina Roy