Amelie Morgan Temporarily Departs Utah Gymnastics In Pursuit Of Olympic Dream
Feb 20, 2024, 4:08 PM | Updated: 4:12 pm
SALT LAKE CITY – Amelie Morgan competed in her last meet for a while with the Red Rocks Monday afternoon before hopping on a red eye flight for London to pursue her 2024 Olympic dream.
Morgan is no stranger to competing on the world stage having helped Great Britain to the bronze medal in the 2021 Tokyo Olympics before arriving at Utah her freshman year.
Now a junior in college and a team captain for the Red Rocks, Morgan hopes to compete in the Olympics again, putting her college career on a brief pause to start the process of qualifying.
Amelie Morgan comes up big on vault with the 9.90!
📺 ESPN2#WeOverMe | #RedRocks pic.twitter.com/fraxtmiUHp
— Utah Gymnastics (@UtahGymnastics) February 19, 2024
Amelie Morgan On Her Decision To Head Home To Bristol
The decision to try again for the 2024 Paris Olympics was not an instant one for Morgan who initially felt very satisfied with the mark she and her fellow Great Britain teammates made in Tokyo back in 2021.
“I think a lot of people kind of thought based off the last Olympics that I had decided I wouldn’t do another one for the next cycle,” Morgan said. “It definitely wasn’t my first initial thought. Because I went to Tokyo, I felt so accomplished- it was the pinnacle of my career, and I was kind of finished there. I wasn’t really planning on coming back for another one.”
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Those feelings began to change over the last year for Morgan who ultimately came to the conclusion she would regret not giving the Olympics a try- even while still competing for Utah.
“In the last year or so I was thinking about it,” Morgan said. “Just that if I didn’t try again, I would regret it afterwards, so I just wanted to give myself a shot and see what happens- whether it works out or not.”
Amelie Morgan’s Legacy Already Cemented With Great Britain
Morgan has already cemented her legacy making history with her British teammates in Tokyo. The rush of feelings she described in that moment makes it understandable why she wants to pursue it one more time.
“I think going into the Olympics- we knew that there hadn’t been a team that had won for 90 years,” Morgan said. “Medaling wasn’t really on our minds. Obviously, it’s in the back of everyone’s minds- everyone wants an Olympic medal, but for us, going into it as a young team- we just wanted to show all the hard work we had done and the preparation leading up. We knew we had put in so much work and put together such good routines that we just wanted to show our best performance. That’s what we did. We ended up medaling which was so surreal and more than we could have imagined.”
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Amelie Morgan’s Thoughts On Balancing Utah Gymnastics, Olympics
Last time Morgan trained for the Olympics, Elite Gymnastics was all she had to worry about. This time around she has the Red Rocks whom she’s a team captain for to go along with her Elite training.
Morgan says the path hasn’t been easy, but she has received a lot of support from her teammates and coaches as she’s figured out how to balance both worlds.
“It’s been a massive difference in preparation,” Morgan said. “Definitely a lot of mixed emotions when making all of these decisions- especially as a captain. I don’t want to spend any time away from the team, but at the same time everyone has been super respectful and supportive of my decision. If it doesn’t work out, it doesn’t work out. Although I can’t put all of my time and priority into one thing or the other- NCAA or Elite Gymnastics- they both complement each other pretty well and we’ve done a really good job of balancing my time and efforts into both things.”
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Utah head coach Carly Dockendorf helped clarify how Morgan is using her time to prepare. Per NCAA rules Morgan can only be required to perform 20 hours of gym work but can volunteer as many as she would like on her own time.
“You’re still limited to the 20 hours of required work,” Dockendorf said. “You can volunteer as many as you like.”
Dockendorf called Morgan’s drive to prepare for the Olympics while still being a key factor for the Utes inspiring to watch not just for her as a coach, but for Morgan’s teammates as well.
“I think she is just such an inspiration to the team,” Dockendorf said. “Just watching her train her Elite routines on top of her college routines and to be able to go pursue her goals is really inspiring to everybody.”
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Amelie Morgan’s Olympic Timeline
Don’t fret Red Rocks fans, Morgan’s plan is to be gone for just a few weeks starting with the Stanford meet this Friday and be back in time to help Utah make a run for a National Title starting with the Pac-12 Championships on March 23.
Morgan’s first competition- the English Championships will take place on March 2 while the Red Rocks head to Berkley to take on Cal. If all goes well Morgan will then compete in the British Championships from March 14-17 meaning she will also potentially miss Utah’s meets at Arizona and their Tri-Meet with Stanford and Utah State to wrap up the regular season.
“I will be here for UCLA and then go home,” Morgan said. “I’ll have a week to get used to the equipment and then I will have the English Championships and then hopefully the British Championships too. Then I will fly straight back after that and do Pac-12’s.”
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As for how Morgan thinks she will fare going across several time zones to compete in such a short amount of time? She’s unsure but is trying to remember that while the circumstances are a little different, this isn’t the first time she has competed in different countries.
“Even for me, this is uncharted territory,” Morgan said. “I’ve never done this before. I know not many other people have done this before either. That’s something I think I will have to figure out when I get there. I’ve competed internationally before- to fly to a different country and have a few days to adjust and then compete. I’m just going to try and remember that. I have done that before and have the experience of going to a new country even though this isn’t a new country, but I haven’t been back in a few years. I hope to get back there, take a few days adjust to the time difference and the equipment.”
Michelle Bodkin is the Utah Utes Insider for KSLsports.com and host of both the Crimson Corner Podcast (SUBSCRIBE) and The Saturday Show (Saturday from 10 a.m.–12 p.m.) on The KSL Sports Zone. Follow her on X, Instagram, and Threads: @BodkinKSLsports
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