Armour: Gymnast driven by career of 'almosts'
HARTFORD, Conn. — Chris Brooks describes the last 20-plus years as “the career of almosts.”
A perennial alternate. The guy whose enthusiasm and dogged determination gives everyone else the push they need to reach the podium. The one who is right there, just never at the right time.
With Father Time lurking over his aching shoulder, the 29-year-old gymnast could have been forgiven for calling it quits after last year’s world championships. But with the Rio Olympics looming, almost has never seemed closer.
“I felt like I owed it to myself … and then it was injury after injury and whatever,” Brooks said. “Then I was like, fine. At this point, you’re old, you’re broken, this is all you’ve got. So give it everything.”
No one can dispute he’s doing that, standing third after Friday night’s preliminaries at the U.S. Gymnastics Championships. Scores from here and the Olympic trials will be combined and used to select the five-man team for the Rio Games.
While the selection committee is looking for the group that can score the highest in team finals, not who can post the highest individual scores, Brooks was the only one of 47 competitors to score in the top 14 or better on all six events. He was third on both high bar and parallel bars, and also scored 15.05 or higher on vault and still rings.
“Getting this day under me is definitely a confidence booster going into Sunday and, hopefully, trials,” Brooks said.
Talent-wise, Brooks is one of the best and most consistent the U.S. men have. Dating back to 2010, he has never been lower than fifth at nationals or Winter Cup, the annual ranking meet.
But to have a shot at a medal at the Olympics or world championships, a team has to be able to post three big scores on each of the six events. Because Brooks’ two best events are also the ones where the Americans are strongest, and his worst is where they are weakest, he has often found himself the odd piece out in the U.S. jigsaw puzzle.
At the Olympic trials in 2012, for example, he was fourth in the all-around and also had the fifth-best scores on floor exercise, vault, still rings and parallel bars. But Brooks wound up as an Olympic team alternate because the U.S. had two other guys who also were weak on pommel horse but could put up bigger scores on vault, floor and still rings.
It was a similar scenario last year, when Brooks finished third at nationals only to be named an alternate for the world team.
He would wind up competing in Glasgow, Scotland, after Sam Mikulak injured his ankle about two weeks before worlds. Brooks even did the all-around in qualifying — with a bum shoulder, no less.
“Just pushing through that pain and trying to get some kind of numbers under me before we went was painful. Horrible. Not fun, basically,” Brooks said.
Doctors told him afterward that he should have surgery to remove a bone spur that had broken off, but Brooks said he didn’t have time for the three-month recovery. Instead, he has tweaked his parallel bars routine, removing the skills that would make his shoulder howl in pain and leave him unable to train for a few days afterward.
“I took a couple of tenths in start value and was just like, `I’ve got to do what I’ve got to do,’” he said. “Maintenance, as long as you stay on top of it and it doesn’t get too bad, then I can push through.”
Eternally cheerful, Brooks says this without a hint of bitterness or terseness. Rather than lament what he’s missed, he chooses to appreciate what he's experienced.
“It’s been amazing every step of the way,” he said. “I’ve had my ups and downs, but we live and die by this, so the opportunity to just be out here has been amazing. At my age, and all the injuries and all the problems, just to get here and have even one good day, it’s kind of emotionally overwhelming.”
Yes, Brooks' career has been one of almosts. But it's better than one of what ifs.