Team USA gymnast Dulcy Caylor: Why I needed a 'major wake-up call' 

By Scott Bregman
5 min|
Dulcy Caylor competes in the floor exercise
Picture by Reuters/USA Today Sports

U.S. gymnast Dulcy Caylor had an inkling what the red, white, and blue balloons coming toward her during practice two weeks ago could mean.

But it still came as a bit of surprise.

“I had the thought because it was red, white, and blue balloons, but really, I was like, ‘Oh, maybe, it’s just, ‘Hey, you did good [at Winter Cup]’ or something like that,” Caylor told Olympics.com. “When I read the whole paper, there weren’t many thoughts in my head. I was just very grateful. I’m very happy I get to compete for Team USA and get that experience as many meets as I can.”

The balloons, of course, signaled that she’d been named to the U.S. women’s gymnastics national team. Her joyous reaction to that news can be seen in a video shared on social media by her gymnastics club, World Champions Centre, which is the training home to Olympians Simone Biles, Jordan Chiles and Melanie de Jesus dos Santos.

Along with being added to the U.S. squad, Caylor, who finished fifth in the all-around at the recent Winter Cup, is part of the U.S. delegation at the DTB Pokal Team Challenge and Mixed Cup, scheduled for 15-17 March in Stuttgart, Germany.

She will be joined by Addison Fatta, Nola Matthews, Fuzzy Benas and Kai Uemura in the Mixed Cup event on Sunday (17 March).

Caylor will be making her senior international debut in Germany.

It will be just her second international event after having taken part at the 2022 Pan American Gymnastics Championships as a junior. There, she took team and all-around gold medals, as well as silver on vault and bronze on the balance beam.

“I think my biggest goal is to have as much fun as I can,” Caylor said of her goals for the event. “This is something I dreamed of. I train seriously so I can have as much fun as I can at the competition.”

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A wake-up call

Fourth place in the all-around two seasons ago as a junior at the U.S. Championships, Caylor says her first season as a senior elite competitor in 2023 was somewhat jarring.

“I really tried to work harder this summer because this first senior elite season was a major wake-up call for me because I didn’t work smart enough, I didn’t get the upgrades I needed,” admitted Caylor. “I was doing almost the same routines that I did in my junior year, which doesn’t translate well to senior elite. I think really [U.S.] championships, when I saw where I placed, I was like, ‘I have to change this. I can’t… I don’t want to do this again.’”

Her fourth place as a junior had turned into 20th as a senior.

So, after the 2023 U.S. nationals, Caylor got to work with coaches Cecile and Laurent Landi on a new game plan.

“Cecile and Laurent are very, like, let the athlete drive themselves,” explained Caylor. “They’re not going to force somebody to do something that they don’t want to do. I think they could tell that I was really ready to do something different and just start working as many upgrades as I could, change how I worked, instead of doing so many turns that are… I call it mindless because I’m just trying to do it instead of actually think about what I’m doing.

“I think that helped a lot,” she concluded.

The changed approach manifested itself at last month’s Winter Cup where Caylor scored a 52.300, eight tenths of a point better than either day of competition at last year’s nationals.

Dulcy Caylor: Learning from the best

With Biles, Chiles and de Jesus dos Santos, among others, alongside Caylor each day at World Champions Centre, the 16-year-old has no shortage of examples from which to learn.

She’s taken advantage of it and used it as motivation.

“I know I will never be on Simone’s level,” says with a slight laugh. “But I don’t want to seem like I am so far behind them. I want to not show that I’m tired when the girls that have done my dream are not. I need to show that I am also up there with them as close as I can.”

The atmosphere is part of what drew her to Houston after moving to Texas from her native North Carolina.

“I love it because getting to see how Olympians train… they have done what my dream is and they help me all the time,” Caylor said of her training mates. “Simone will help give me pointers, and Jordan helps like crazy. She helps me get a little looser and not as tense.

“[Being around this caliber of athlete] is one of the reason why I did want to come down to this gym,” she continued, “because training alongside people like that is going to help me out, too.”

This season, it’s also giving her perspective.

While Caylor says her biggest dream is the Olympic Games, this season her goal is to make the U.S. Olympic trials.

But watching her teammates go for their second (Chiles, de Jesus dos Santos) and third trips (Biles) to the Olympic Games has shown Caylor that time is on her side.

“I know that this year is probably not going to be the year for me,” Caylor admits. “But I want to go as far as I can and do as much as I can.

“I definitely have thought about 2028,” she continues. “I will only be 20, turning 21, so I could do 2032, I guess, if you really think about it.”