After year of loss, gymnast Shilese Jones wins silver at world championships | Opinion

The loss Shilese Jones experienced would knock most people off their center. Instead, it helped her regain hers.

Almost a year after the death of her beloved father, who had spent much of her life battling severe kidney disease, Jones won silver in the all-around at the world championships Thursday night. Having thought not long ago that her Olympic dreams were behind her, she’s now established herself as a contender for the Paris Games in 2024.

“Speechless. I’m literally so speechless,” Jones told reporters after the meet in Liverpool, England. “I’ve been dreaming of this moment for so long so I’m just super proud now and so stoked.”

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Talent and skills have never been an issue for Jones. Consistency, that was a different story.

She was passed over for the 2018 world team after dropping from fifth at the national championships to eighth at the selection camp. She wasn’t even in the running in 2019, finishing 12th at nationals.

Last year, a mistake on floor exercise left her in 10th place at the Olympic trials. The top five made the Olympic team while the women who finished sixth through ninth went to Tokyo as alternates.

The U.S. women could have taken five alternates, as the men did, but chose not to.

“Not all things go as they should have. To be so close to your dream and yet falling short AGAIN off of someone’s decision hurts," Jones wrote in an emotional Instagram post that has since been deleted.

In an interview with the Olympic Channel earlier this year, Jones said she’d always told her parents Tokyo would be the end of her elite career, whether she made it or not. She would do college gymnastics – she’s committed to the University of Florida – and move on with her life.

But coming up just short made her think differently. When her father, Sylvester, died in December, it sharpened her focus.

“I knew that wasn’t the ending,” she said Thursday. “I knew I was capable of more.”

Jones and her family had moved from their home outside Seattle to Columbus, Ohio, when she was 12 so she could train. Her father would undergo dialysis and then pick his daughter up from training.

“He devoted anything and everything to my gymnastics,” Jones wrote in a GoFundMe post after his death. “There was nothing he wouldn’t do to support my gymnastics.”

The next month, Jones returned to her original gym in Seattle and began working with coaches Sarah Korngold and Brett Wargo.

The difference was apparent almost immediately.

“She does the work every single day. She trains hard,” Korngold said of the change. “To compete, you don’t need to be extra, you don’t need to be special. You’re already special. So just go out and do what you do and be normal.”

Jones was second at the U.S. Classic, a qualifier for the national championships. Second at nationals, too, after battling Konnor McClain to the very end.

With McClain sidelined by a back injury, Jones locked up her spot on her first worlds team by winning the all-around on the first day of selection camp. She also posted a score on uneven bars that would contend with anyone in the world.

(Her Instagram handle is Shicanfly, after all.)

Worlds would be Jones’ first major international competition, and there’s no telling how someone will handle those nerves and adrenaline until they’re there. But Jones has performed like a seasoned veteran.

She posted the second-highest all-around score in qualifying, then helped the U.S. women win the team title and qualify for the Paris Olympics.

On Thursday, Jones was simply sublime.

She was slightly off-center on the landing of her vault, leaving her behind Rebeca Andrade and U.S. teammate Jade Carey. But she was dazzling on uneven bars, flying effortlessly from high bar to low and holding her handstands as if she was a statue. She had to take a step forward to control the landing of her dismount, but it was a minor flaw.

Her score of 14.366 was the best of the day on the event, and it moved her past Carey.

On balance beam, Jones did her standing Arabian – a back aerial somersault with a twist – more easily than most people walk on flat ground. She then closed her night with a solid floor routine that ensured she could finish no worse than second.

Though Andrade won, becoming the first Brazilian all-around champion, this was nothing less than a victory for Jones, too.

“This was a big steppingstone, and something I needed underneath my belt,” she said.

Jones could have given up after missing out on Tokyo. She could have let the grief from her father’s death overwhelm her.

But she chose a different path, and it's led her to the medals podium.

Follow USA TODAY Sports columnist Nancy Armour on Twitter @nrarmour. 

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Her path altered by loss, Shilese Jones on course for Paris Olympics