The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
Sports
Friday, March 22, 2019 — 7

A Perfect 10: Natalie Wojcik and the joy of gymnastics

In observance of Women’s 
History Month, The Daily’s sports 
section is launching its second 
annual series aimed at telling the 
stories of female athletes, coaches 
and teams at the University from 
the perspective of the female 
sports 
writers 
on 
staff. 
We 
continue the series with this story 
from Shira Zisholtz.
It was 2002. A young, blonde, 
wide-eyed three-year-old girl 
sat in front of the TV watching 
professional athletes in sparkly 
leotards defy gravity as they 
threw themselves into the air, 
flipped, 
twisted 
and 
landed 
perfectly on two feet. The girl, 
ambitious and intrigued, figured, 
“Why shouldn’t I try that?” She 
took a cushion off her sofa, took 
a breath and threw herself into a 
back handspring. 
She landed on her head, 
assured her mom she was OK, 
and shortly thereafter, her mom 
enrolled 
her 
in 
gymnastics 
classes.
And, as they say, the rest is 
history. 
Fast forward to Feb. 23, 
2019. The Michigan women’s 
gymnastics team is competing 
at the Big Five Meet to claim 
the regular-season title. That 
young, blonde, wide-eyed girl is 
standing in front of thousands, 
donning her own sparkly leotard 
of maize and blue. She mentally 
reviewed 
her 
routine 
“key 
words,” took a breath and took 
off. 
She ran, propelled herself onto 
the vault, pushed off to complete 
a Yurchenko 1 ½ — and stuck the 
landing. 
The crowd went crazy. Her 
team ran to her with tears of joy. 
The last time the Wolverines 
performed to this caliber on 
vault was in 2011.
The score flashed. 
10.000.

Natalie Wojcik, the freshman 
phenomenon, had her first career 
perfect 10. 
Wojcik has had an incredible 
career at Michigan thus far, with 
31 career event and all-around 
victories, earned Freshman of 
the Week honors five times and 
Gymnast of the Week eight. 
When she was being recruited, 
she visited only one school – the 
University of Michigan – fell in 
love and never looked back. And 
it’s safe to say the Wolverines 
haven’t looked back, either.
“Natalie is really the whole 
package,” said Michigan coach 
Bev Plocki. “People always ask 
you the question, ‘Have they 
lived up to your expectations? 
Or, did you expect her to be this 
good? And my sense when I get 
asked that question is that it’s 
kind of a loaded question … but 
this is a case, with her, where we 
expected her to be outstanding, 
and she even exceeded the 
outstanding expectations that 
we had for her.”
Wojcik 
has 
proven 
her 
excellence in her individual 
performances. 
But 
to 
her, 
competing as a Wolverine means 
so much more – it means being 
part of a team. 
“The team honestly gives me 
so much energy and just helps 
me feel confident knowing that 
I have them behind me,” she 
explains. “When it’s a tough day 
they cheer you on and when it’s a 
good day they cheer you on, too. 
So just being able to have each 
other’s backs and being there for 
each other day in and day out has 
been really special.” 
Despite her stellar record, 
it isn’t always perfect 10s for 
Natalie. She falls in practices, she 
won’t stick her landings at meets, 
she’ll hyperextend her knees 
after a challenging floor pass. 
She will spend hours in practice 
trying to perfect a new routine, 
a new skill, and will push herself 
until she gets it right.
And yet, with all of the 

frustration, challenges and push 
to perfection, Wojcik still wants 
to do what she does.
In doing so, she follows sound 
advice that she would give to 
others.
“You have to do it for the pure 
joy of the sport, not just what you 
are trying to get out of it,” Wojcik 
said. “You have to enjoy every 
single day and be able to pour 
your passion into it. And if you’re 
focused on attaining one goal 
that’s great, but you also have to 
remember to have fun and enjoy 
it.”
***
Like 
Natalie, 
one 
of 
the 
greatest pieces of advice I have 

ever gotten is “If you don’t wake 
up every day excited that you do 
what you do, you’re not doing the 
right thing.”
That piece of advice has 
stuck with me, lingering in the 
back of my mind when someone 
inevitably questions what I could 
possibly want to do in sports, if 
I have a backup plan in case it 
doesn’t work out, what studying 
“sport 
management” 
even 
means. 
Plocki, who is in her 29th 
season as head coach for the 
Wolverines, 
gives 
the 
same 
advice to her athletes. 
“Understand that there will be 
days that you don’t enjoy it, and 

so never base any decision off of 
a bad day,” Plocki said. “You have 
to enjoy what you’re doing every 
day to be able to put the kind of 
passion and work ethic into it. 
And to somebody like Natalie, 
or anybody that’s on our team, I 
tell my athletes all the time that 
you’re here because you have a 
passion to want to do this, and 
part of that passion is continuing 
to grow and excel.” 
This advice, though simple 
and 
pretty 
common-sensical, 
has gotten me, an excessively 
ambitious and optimistic student 
and sports fan, through barrages 
of skepticism and doubt. It 
has also gotten an extremely 

accomplished gymnast through 
the days of failure, of injury, of 
uncertainty. 
As women pursuing careers 
in sports, be it as an athlete, a 
journalist, a CEO of a franchise, 
an analyst, a broadcaster, we 
have gone through years of 
questions, the metaphorical falls 
and hyperextensions. 
So, if you are a Natalie Wojcik 
 
— an aspiring athlete — or 
someone who is pushing for that 
proverbial perfect 10, Plocki has 
one last piece of advice for you:
“Go after your dream. If you 
want to do something in your 
heart, then find a way to go do it.” 

KATELYN MULCAHY/Daily
Freshman Natalie Wojcik posted a perfect ‘10’, the 28th on vault in Michigan program history and the first such accomplishment since the 2011 season.

SHIRA ZISHOLTZ
Daily Sports Writer

