Olympics
Father's inspiration brought Olympic gymnast full circle
Shilese Jones is trying o fulfill her Olympic dream back home where it all started.
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Shilese Jones is trying o fulfill her Olympic dream back home where it all started.
It's pretty cool. When she first came to the gym as a young kid, she was probably four years old and this little thing just walking in with her finding Nemo backpack every day. We knew she was talented and we had a lot of fun training her early on. I remember when she was maybe 11 or 12 years old, her father bought her a white board and he said, you know, this is a board that you could put your goals on and she put on that white board. I am going to the Olympics. That was the only one here that had made a lead. So I didn't really have any older teammates to look up to. So we picked up our whole immediate family and then moved just to pursue gymnastics with my 12 year old boy saying that I wanted to go train with Olympians. The beginning of January of 2021. I got hit in a car accident, broken ankle and broken back was devastating. I didn't really feel confident in myself, but I wanted to go out there and do the best I could. It's 10th place for Shyly Jones tonight here. At the Tokyo Olympic trials. You know, I never really looked at trying for a second time. It was actually my dad. He was like, I'm gonna believe in you that you can go to 2024. And that's kind of when it clicked in. And I was just like, you know what dad like I can, her dad has dealt with a number of different very serious health issues and that's a floor routine that she says is dedicated to him. He had diabetes. So he had a kidney and pancreas transplant because those had both failed. He actually had told me shy, I'm not gonna make it. My dad always told me Seattle is where it's meant to be, you're more comfortable there. That's your home. Unfortunately, it didn't click till after he passed away. I was just like, this is what he wanted for me and we're gonna take those steps and move back home and pursue the dream. It was pretty surreal actually because he wanted to build the team here so that if we ever had chaise or, or a kid like that, that we'd be able to help them reach their ultimate goal. Dad, he would just be ecstatic, just say, knew this all along. I knew this all along and I'm so proud of you. It just feels great to be at home and finish it where I started