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Three years after being named an alternate to the U.S. women’s gymnastics team for the Olympic Games Tokyo 2020, held in 2021, Kayla DiCello knows what it will take to be an Olympian.
For her, that meant a return to a familiar environment and even bringing her longtime coach Kelli Hill out of retirement.
“I decided to come back [home] because I know that’s the kind of environment that I need for elite gymnastics,” DiCello told a small group of reporters including Olympics.com at U.S. training camp in February.
From the fall of 2022 to May 2023, the Maryland-native had been training and competing in Gainesville, Florida, as a standout member of the University of Florida’s women’s gymnastics team.
Unlike fellow Tokyo alternate and current Gator teammate Leanne Wong, DiCello wanted to focus solely on her elite career ahead of the Paris Olympic Games.
“College is… it’s fine and all, but for me personally, I needed to be back home in my own gym,” she explained. “[I needed to be] with my own coach and just have that structure.”
As a 17-year-old in her first Olympic season, DiCello says she never thought she’d try for a second Olympic cycle.
But her stint as an alternate for the Tokyo Olympics left her feeling like she had some unfinished business.
“I was like, ‘I think I want to go for 2024, I want to go to the Olympics, because… I’m very grateful that I was an Olympic alternate at 2021, but I wasn’t satisfied with that,” DiCello said. “I wanted to go back and do everything that I could so I can make this team.
“This was a very, I would say, a very late decision because I decided to comeback after my [2023] college season. That’s when I called Kelli, and I asked her, ‘Can you come out of retirement and coach me?’” recalled DiCello. “She said, ‘Yes,’ and then, a week later, I went back home and we started training.”
She made quick progress, getting back into elite form. DiCello was the replacement athlete for the U.S. team at the World Championships. Weeks later, she led Team USA to a win at the Pan American Games in Santiago, and was also the individual all-around gold medallist.
With more international experience – including an all-around bronze medal win at the 2021 worlds – DiCello can feel a difference.
“I think my confidence is a lot better than it was in 2021,” she said. “Just going through college and being able to compete every weekend and then finishing off this year with Pan Ams and just learning how to take a step back whenever I get frustrated and make the next turn count and not get so worked up.”
Three years and one collegiate season later, confidence isn’t the only thing changed for DiCello.
“We – me and Kelli – communicate more than we used to, just our interactions are better,” she explained. “It’s kind of my own little thing and this is something that I want, she knows it’s a big goal of mine. She knows that I’m going to push myself and that makes her being able to coach me a lot easier.”
While DiCello says she’s pushing herself in this 2024 run, she says that’s changed from even three years ago after learning from a different approach at Florida.
“I used to just never want to stop and just keep going so I could get better,” she said. “But when I was at school, I learned that if I back off and take care of [my body], then I won’t create a bigger issue later on.”
It’s all forming a more mature DiCello that includes a changed mental approach.
“I try not to put as much pressure on myself,” she says. “If I do find myself adding pressure, then I realize it and I’ll usually just take a step back so that I can just go in with an attitude of ‘this is something I want to do,’ and not adding the stress of other people and what they are saying.
“I know that this is something I want to do, so I’m going to push for it.”
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