After conquering worlds, Skye Blakely chases NCAA titles with Gators

JUST HOURS AFTER arriving back in the United States after her triumphant showing at the world championships, Skye Blakely was in the University of Florida dining hall on Tuesday morning. It was her first stop back on campus -- even world champions have to eat, after all -- and she quickly found herself surrounded by well-wishers. Several of her Gators teammates rushed to hug and congratulate her, as did athletes from other sports. The attention still hasn't slowed down. In the days since, Blakely, 21, has been stopped by classmates, passers-by and even some of her professors around the Gainesville campus. Even if she's never spoken to them before, they all share a similar sentiment: They know how much she's overcome and they are so proud of her. After her Olympic dreams were derailed in 2021 and 2024 due to injuries, including a torn Achilles at trials two years ago, Blakely has fought tirelessly to return to elite competition. And last Friday, some 28 months after the rupture, Blakely had the meet of her career. She took the lead in the all-around competition following stellar routines on vault and uneven bars, and after an impressive set on beam, she had all but secured the world title. When her final score came in on floor, her final event of the day, everything she had experienced rushed over her. She cried as she hugged her coach Owen Field. "It was just so surreal," Blakely told ESPN over Zoom on Thursday. "I mean, I was just emotional knowing I had a good day at the meet before I even knew my floor score. I was just happy to be there, grateful to be there. But seeing the result, I was just overcome with emotion because I was so excited and just reflecting on how far I had come from injury, from emotional hardship, just to work so hard to even be at that meet and to win gold, it just really meant so much to me." With less than two years until the start of the 2028 Olympic Games in Los Angeles, Blakely -- who also earned bronze medals on vault and uneven bars, as well as a silver medal with the team -- has firmly cemented her status as a key member of the U.S. team. But first, she'll turn her attention to the upcoming NCAA gymnastics season, aiming to help the Gators repeat as SEC champions and improve upon their third-place finish at the national championships. She will return to practice on campus on Monday to start working on her routines for 2027. Blakely remembers the first time she believed she could become one of the best in the world. It was 2012, and she was seven years old, watching Gabby Douglas win Olympic all-around gold at the London Games. She was already a talented gymnast herself but to see the 16-year-old Douglas stand atop the podium changed everything. "It really opened my mind, seeing her, someone who looked like me, and her just succeeding being so young as well," Blakely said. It was like, 'Wow, she's amazing. I want to do that too.'" Immediately Douglas' achievement became Blakely's dream too. She remembers poring through every issue of "Inside Gymnastics" magazine to see pictures of Douglas and other national team and world gymnasts. She loved looking at the newly crowned world champions, including Simone Biles, and imagining what could be. "To think that I now get to be one of those people, it's truly insane," Blakely said. While seven-year-old Blakely was fully convinced of her ability to become a world champion, the doubts began to creep in the more she progressed in the sport -- and with every sidelining injury she sustained. After success in the junior ranks, and a strong start to her senior career, Blakely had the unexpected opportunity to contend for a spot on the team for the Tokyo Olympic Games after they were postponed for a year due to the pandemic. At just 16, she qualified for the Olympic trials but tore the ulnar collateral ligament in her left elbow while warming up on vault at the event. She returned to competition in 2022 and made the U.S. team for worlds. She helped lead the team to gold, but fell off the balance beam in her only individual event final. She made the team again in 2023, but fell off beam during qualifying and didn't make any individual finals. The team won another gold, but Blakely only competed on bars in the final. In 2024, Blakely finished in second place in the all-around at national championships, behind only Biles, and seemed to be a near lock to make the Olympic team. But she ruptured her right Achilles on floor during podium training at trials. "I'm devastated and heartbroken but I believe everything happens for a reason," she wrote on Instagram at the time. "I was so close to reaching my dream but this injury was unavoidable." Blakely leaned on her faith throughout the lengthy recovery -- but said that she wouldn't have believed back then that she could become the world all-around champion just two years later. "I mean, I still can't believe it," she said. Blakely also has found support over the last two years from her Florida teammates, including Leanne Wong, the 2025 world all-around silver medalist, and Kayla DiCello, a fellow member of the 2023 world team who also ruptured her Achilles at Olympic trials. Blakely previously called DiCello her "support system" during their shared recovery. DiCello agreed. "Having Skye through this whole process was something that I really loved," DiCello told ESPN during the 2026 season. Blakely was only able to compete on bars during her freshman season, but made enough of a recovery to return to elite by the summer of 2025 and even make her NCAA all-around debut in 2026. She earned two perfect 10.0s last season -- on bars and beam -- and was the runner-up on bars at both the SEC and NCAA championships. But in college gymnastics, the team is everything, and after winning the SEC title in March, the Gators had high hopes for the NCAA championships. In the final, though, Florida found itself trailing Oklahoma and LSU early, and could never make up the difference. The Gators finished in third place. Despite training for elite and two weeks away for world championships, Blakely hasn't missed a single team activity during the fall semester. Now a junior, it's important to her to help lead and share her experiences with her younger teammates. During the team retreat in August in Sarasota, the Gators established goals for themselves, and updated "The Promise" -- a mantra they introduced last season, inspired by former Florida quarterback Tim Tebow's legendary 2008 speech. "We refined it and defined it and what it means to us and [we were] getting the freshmen on board [with] what that means," Blakely said. "If we can truly hold ourselves to that promise, it's like we're showing love and respect for all the girls on the team and are just really giving it our all because we do say that a win for one is a win for all." Blakely said the team isn't focused too much on the trophies or titles, but instead the day-to-day process and improvement as the season continues. But, she admitted, "We want to win everything." Blakely will continue to train elite throughout the NCAA season, spending additional hours in the gym long after team practice has ended. But she's more motivated and confident than ever and believes the best is yet to come. Her childhood Olympic dream -- and joining Douglas and Biles atop the Olympic all-around podium -- remains, and it feels more in reach than ever. "I've learned a lot about myself," Blakely said. "I feel like [worlds has] given me a foundation of mental strength and also gymnastics, especially knowing that this is my first year back to all-around and elite since my Achilles surgery. But still knowing that I have more to give and there's still more difficulty and more to improve is also exciting and that encourages me. So I'm just taking this year as my building foundation as I continue to get stronger and add difficulty. I feel like I'm in a great place and I'm just going to keep the same mindset and push each day." But for now, the world champion just needed to get back to the swing of things on campus. Just hours after her interview with ESPN on Thursday, Blakely was back in the classroom taking her nutrition education midterm. A microbiology lab exam awaited her on Friday morning. Stressful? Sure. But Blakely seemed unfazed. "It's a lot of hard work but it's not that overwhelming," Blakely said with a smile.