Through coaching changes and injuries, Republic’s Taylor Houchin never gave up on gymnastics. Now, she’s a Junior Olympics national all-around champion.
Competing in her last meet before joining the team at the University of Nebraska, Houchin turned in her best-ever overall score to capture the all-around title. She scored a total of 38.475, edging out Kimberly Tessen (Utah) and Paige Williams (Texas), who tied for second at 38.125.
Houchin turned in her best score on the vault, where her 9.75 earned her a tie for 2nd. She tied for 3rd on the balance beam––typically her best event––with a 9.70. She scored a 9.625 on the uneven bars, tying for 5th. Her 9.40 on the floor exercise earned her a tie for 15th in that event.
The all-around championship is the culmination of a long road for Houchin, who began gymnastics around the time she started school. She climbed the competitive ladder, winning state all-around titles in 2006 and 2010. She finished ninth in the all-around at nationals as an eighth-grader, before suffering an injury that made her reconsider her goal of competing in the Olympics.
After returning from the injury–her sights still set on a college gymnastics scholarship–Houchin’s gymnastics career suffered another blow when her coaches at Gold Medal Gymnastics, Cash and Sara McGowan, moved to New York. She began to doubt whether she would achieve her goals at all.
“I always wanted to go to college for gymnastics. Once they decided to move…I thought maybe I can’t do that anymore. Maybe I should just pick something else. I didn’t know what to do. I was just really lost,” Houchin remembers.
Eventually, Houchin would actually move to New York to re-unite with the McGowans. The move rejuvenated her, and when the McGowans returned to southwest Missouri, it set the stage for Houchin to make one last run at a Junior Olympics all-around title.
With her all-around championship in hand, Houchin will compete at one of the top gymnastics universities when she travels to Nebraska in the fall. Houchin received letters from several university gymnastics programs, but ultimately settled Nebraska after meeting an assistant coach and taking a visit to the campus.
“I was introduced to the assistant coach at a gymnastics camp and I just liked the way he coached. He was very kind and helpful at the same time,” she says. “I really liked the campus a lot. It was really cool there. All the teammates that I’m going to have were really awesome. They offered me and it felt silly not to say yes.”
But for Houchin, the allure of Nebraska goes beyond the gymnastics mat.
“For me, it’s the self-value they have. They’re really big about not only being a good gymnast, but being a good person. I like doing good things not only for me, but for other people,” she says. “They always volunteer and always help out with the community. That really spoke to me.”