Utah Gymnastics Posts Video With Gymnast’s Parents’ Reaction To Her Perfect 10
Mar 17, 2024, 11:21 AM | Updated: Mar 18, 2024, 2:45 pm
SALT LAKE CITY – There were a lot of great moments on Senior Night for the Red Rocks that were tear inducing and crowd erupting including a perfect 10 that was years in the making.
Abby Paulson earned a 10 early on in her career on beam as a freshman against UCLA at Pauley Pavilion before getting one on Friday night. Since then, the talented beamer has flirted with perfection many times, but finally pulled off another to end her time performing in front of the Huntsman crowd.
Utah gymnastics’ video team was on hand to not only capture the moment on the floor, but up in the stands where Paulson’s parents were and it’s very touching to say the least.
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Perhaps the sweetest reaction of all came from Paulson’s dad (in the red jacket) who is a former Olympic silver medalist wrestler.
Abby Paulson’s Fairytale Ending At The Huntsman
Paulson’s dad wasn’t the only one in the building having an emotional reaction to Abby’s perfect 10 on beam.
Teammate Maile O’Keefe who anchors the event for the Utes and has a reputation as a Perfect 10 Machine on beam couldn’t help but break her concentration before her turn to shed a few tears for Paulson too.
“She’s an amazing beam worker,” O’Keefe said. “It’s just been a matter of time till she gets it. It was quite special to- me doing my mental set and focusing on myself, but also rooting for her very intently while I’m doing it and it was just amazing to hear the crowd go wild. To turn around after my mental set and see her breaking down and being super happy- it made me so happy.”
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Paulson is notoriously known amongst Red Rocks fans and her teammates as the ultimate Swiftie with both her beam and floor routines using Taylor Swift’s music. For Senior Night, Paulson decided to switch her beam song from Timeless (Taylor’s version) which it has been all year to Never Grow Up (Taylor’s version).
“I really felt like it a good ending to getting to pick my beam song,” Paulson said. “I remember, I was graduating high school and me and my best friend used to cry to that song a lot because we were moving across the country. She was moving to Canada, and I was coming here, and I felt like it was very fitting to finish out my career in the Huntsman with the same song.”
As for how it felt to finally get another 10 on beam in her career and to finally be able to do it in front of the Red Rock faithful, Paulson says she had nothing but gratitude for the moment.
Pure magic for @AbbyPaulson on Senior Night.#Perfect10 on beam 🫶🏽 pic.twitter.com/RHmhe5KN7b
— Michelle Bodkin (@BodkinKSLsports) March 16, 2024
“Honestly, I’m just really grateful,” Paulson said. “I’ve just had a really emotional week. I came in today trying to not put too much pressure on myself to hit and Carly [Dockendorf] was like, ‘what are you going to do?’ I was like, ‘I’m going to be calm and confident’ like I do every single time. When I was up on the beam I was trying to focus on my routine, focus on singing my song instead of focusing on the fact it was my last beam routine in the Huntsman. I couldn’t really hold it together- I’m just really grateful for the fans and my teammates.”
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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