Accidental Champion

AT LAST FALL'S South American Confederation of Gymnastics Championships in Bucaramanga, Colombia, Adri Silva, C’24, listened as the arena’s loudspeaker crackled to life. It was hard to follow exactly what the announcer was saying, what with the noise of the crowd and the echoes within the venue. Plus, it was all taking place in her second language, Spanish. She heard one thing perfectly clearly, however: her own name. Silva stepped forward, signaled the judges, and prepared herself to flip and twist on the biggest stage she had ever encountered in her nascent gymnastics career.

Just a year earlier, Silva had never formally competed in any gymnastics event, let alone a major international one. But an unpredictable chain of events, kicked off by a chance encounter while on vacation and sustained by a fortunate coincidence, ultimately led her to study abroad in Ecuador and represent her host country in the competition of a lifetime—and to a spot atop the podium with a gold medal around her neck. 

Yet Silva would find that the experience brought her more than just competitive success, as she returned to the United States having formed deep friendships and cultivated a new perspective on what it means to connect across cultures.

“I consider myself a gymschooler,” says Silva.

The junior from Nashville, Tennessee, came up with the term to refer to two defining aspects of her childhood. One, that she was homeschooled until the 10th grade. And two, that her parents owned a gymnastics gym where she spent the majority of her time. Thus, at an early age, Silva’s academic and athletic undertakings were inextricably intertwined, establishing a theme that would extend through the years to come.

The gym served as the backdrop for most of Silva’s early memories, first as a playground and later as a site for training as a gymnast. She would eventually apply her gymnastic skills to competitive cheerleading at a different gym, but always considered that first gym to be home.

As a homeschooled student, Silva studied the traditional math, reading, and writing that one might expect. But with so many hours spent at the gym, she also learned about athleticism, competition, and being part of a team—all lessons that would prove valuable in her future pursuits.

Her unique homeschooling experience afforded Silva the opportunity to explore a wide array of interests, one of which was foreign languages. Silva had been exposed to Spanish as a child thanks to her family—her grandfather is Peruvian and her father, while not fluent, is a heritage speaker—and decided to pursue formal study of the language when she started attending a traditional high school.

Thanks to that early exposure at home, Silva found she was able to pick up the language and advance her fluency quickly. “It opened up the world for me,” says Silva, noting how studying Spanish introduced her to new cultures and opened up new travel opportunities. Perhaps most significantly, she adds, “I was finally able to really speak with my grandfather.” 

When it came time to choose a college, Sewanee emerged as a favorite because of the wide array of opportunities built into the liberal arts curriculum. After an early educational experience shaped by an ability to pursue her passions, Sewanee seemed to be a great fit. And for an avid language learner itching to explore the world, the University’s bounty of on- and off-campus opportunities to immerse herself in her studies—from living in language houses to studying abroad—sealed the deal for Silva.

As her junior year approached, Silva began looking into study abroad opportunities. She knew she wanted to study in a Latin American country, and was delighted when her study abroad advisor directed her to a program at the Universidad San Francisco de Quito (USFQ) in Ecuador. In a remarkable coincidence, it was a campus that she had already visited once—and to which she had hoped one day to return.

Silva’s grandparents live in Ecuador, and she had visited them during the prior summer. Looking to keep up her gymnastic fitness during the trip, Silva began working out at the USFQ campus gym. One day, a member of USFQ’s gymnastics team approached her. “She’d seen me training some skills and said, ‘You’re really good. You need to join our team.’” Silva and the young woman exchanged numbers and stayed in contact, though Silva did not expect anything to come of it. A year later, however, Silva would find herself preparing to return to USFQ to study abroad. And this time, there was a whole team waiting to welcome her.

Knowing that she would do gymnastics at USFQ, Silva began a new training regimen before even leaving home. For starters, she had to learn some new events. Silva would compete in power tumbling and the double mini trampoline; previously, she had never competed in the former, and had never even practiced the latter. In power tumbling, the gymnast performs a series of eight skills across a large floor, which for Silva was an increase over the four or five skills she was used to competing in cheerleading. In double mini trampoline, the gymnast sprints down a runway and rebounds off of two small trampolines into one skill.

The team at USFQ had given Silva a list of routines, which she took to her gym and started training. Beyond learning the new combinations of skills, however, Silva also had to translate what she already knew into a new language. For example, a tuck—when the gymnast flips with their knees pulled up to their chest—is agrupado in Spanish. “I would jump on the trampoline at our gym and do very basic routines just to practice the vocabulary,” says Silva. “I’d do a tuck and yell out agrupado to try to get it set into my brain before going down there.”

After arriving in Ecuador and attending the team’s practices, Silva quickly saw her Spanish skills pushed to the next level. There were times when she would have to pause and look up a new term that her coach used. And there was also the confusion at the slang that her teammates would throw around, which taught her the words that are not typically found in textbooks.

In addition to giving her new skills and an expanded vocabulary, Silva’s involvement with the team also gave her a new athletic experience: the chance to compete internationally. Along with her teammates, Silva represented Ecuador at the Confederación Sudamericana de Gimnasia (CONSUGI, or the South American Confederation of Gymnastics) championships in Bucaramanga, Colombia. It marked the first time that Ecuador had entered a full team into the competition.

For Silva, it was an experience that was at once thrilling and nerve-racking. There was, of course, the typical pre-competition jitters and adrenaline rush. But there was also an added layer of having to navigate a new type of athletic contest in a second language—and in an environment that was decidedly removed from the classroom. The combined din of the crowd, background music, and the distortion of the microphone and speakers often had Silva scrambling to figure out what to do next. “I could understand my name,” says Silva, “but then some of the announcements would be muffled. I couldn’t tell if they were calling me to wave and present myself, or if I was supposed to go!”

The championships also served to expand and complicate Silva’s newly global perspective on athletic competition. For instance, there were several South American countries that had not sent a single athlete to compete. Among the multiple reasons for the absent competitors was a lack of access to the appropriate equipment, an issue with which Silva’s team also had to grapple. “I don’t believe there is a gym in Ecuador with a full-size tumbling track, and ours only had a half-size one,” she says. “So, we could practice the skills and execution, but not the endurance.” Despite the challenges, Silva made the most of the opportunity and left the competition with two medals: a gold in power tumbling and a bronze in double mini trampoline.

While the medals made for a fun souvenir, they represented just a small portion of the rewards Silva would take from her experience studying and competing in Ecuador. More impactful, she says, were the deep connections and friendships formed in the context of the team. Being around people who shared her interest and spending time in an environment where her background did not matter as much as her capabilities made all the difference. 

“It was a new environment and a new culture,” says Silva, noting some of the challenges she faced in getting to know peers from her classes, including confronting stereotypes about American students and concerns—on both sides—about the language barrier. But in the gym, she says, “I found a group that could understand me for my passion, my drive, and my commitment.”

As a participant in a direct-enrollment program, Silva had traveled to Ecuador on her own rather than with a group of American peers. Though occasionally intimidating, Silva found the experience to be a fulfilling and transformative one—and very much of a piece with the liberal arts experience she sought at Sewanee. Just as her coursework in a variety of disciplines coheres into a greater overall whole, so too did the combined pursuits of finding her place in both a new university and gymnastic community. She improved her language skills, of course, but also developed her intercultural abilities and found a new sense of independence. “If I had just completely forgotten about gymnastics and only focused on one thing,” she says, “I wouldn’t have had the amazing experience that I did competing abroad.”

In reflecting on that experience, Silva harkened back to some advice she got from her friend Naomi, the gymnast who had invited her to join the team in the first place. Naomi, she said, had insisted that Silva try new things as much as possible and “live the kind of life that you see in the movies.” So that’s exactly what Silva did.

“I made the most out of every opportunity presented to me,” she says. “And as a result, I accomplished more than I could have ever imagined.”