American Brenna Dowell finishes floor routine despite music glitch

GLASGOW, Scotland — Last year, Brenna Dowell watched as her U.S. teammates won gold in the world championships.

After serving as the alternate, she finally had a chance to compete here in the qualifying round Saturday. Positioned on the floor for the first event, Dowell heard her music come on.

But it was cued to the wrong spot, and when she walked off the floor all she heard was national team coordinator Martha Karolyi shouting from the stands for her to go before she ran out of time.

In an unusual situation that neither Dowell nor her teammates could remember seeing before, she performed her floor routine without music.

“That’s not exactly how I wanted to start,” said Dowell. “(I was) definitely hearing my music in my head just as I go through the dance. Just doing it normal and thinking what I’m supposed to do.

“I’ve done that routine so many times that I knew exactly how to do it.”

The crowd at The SSE Hydro came in with an assist, though, clapping in unison throughout. Ultimately, while her score of 13.966 did not count toward the Americans’ first-place total in the event, Dowell was happy to get through her routine.

“It was definitely a strange start to the meet,” said teammate Madison Kocian, “but we just tried to clap along and cheer for her. I knew it’d be hard, especially since it’s her first worlds. She did great.”