Utah freshman gymnast Crystal Gilmore, a member of the 2000 Canadian Olympic team who made her debut as an exhibition performer in the Utes' last meet on Friday, is withdrawing from school and the team and will return home to Cambridge, Ontario.
Gilmore, who began the process of withdrawing on Tuesday, refused comment to the Deseret News, but she did say Thursday morning in an official comment to Utah sports information director Liz Abel, "Due to ongoing injuries, I have decided to withdraw from the University of Utah gymnastics team. I'm very happy about my decision. I've left on good terms, and I'm looking forward to getting healthy."
Coach Greg Marsden also confirmed that she is no longer a member of the team that is ranked third nationally and was to leave Thursday for Corvallis, Ore., where it has a meet on Friday night.
Gilmore, 19, had been out of the lineup all season with a series of back and leg injuries but was able to do an exhibition routine on uneven bars at Arizona, scoring 9.65. She had signed an NCAA letter-of-intent to attend Utah in April 2001 but deferred coming for a year to continue to train and compete in the Sydney 2000 Olympics with the Canadian national team. She helped Canada to its best-ever Olympic finish, ninth place.
She also competed in the 2001 World Championships, in which Canada placed 10th. She was a member of the Canadian team since 1998 and had also competed internationally in the 1998 Commonwealth Games, in France and twice in Russia. She is the daughter of Brenda and Derek Gilmore.
Marsden was somewhat vague in his comments about the situation, wary of pending new federal legislation from speaking about injuries, academics or other personal things affecting athletes.
"From my perspective, there are no hard feelings about her decision to leave," he said. "I had hoped from an educational standpoint that she would compete the year, but she felt like under her circumstances that she needed to get home.
"We accept that, and everybody here has been cooperative and will continue to do so. We wish her well in whatever she decides to go on and do and would certainly cooperate and try to be as helpful as we could with whatever."
He doubts that Gilmore might change her mind and return next year. "No, I don't see that," he said.
"I know people are going to have a million questions, and from a legal standpoint, the way things are these days, we just can't comment about much. It's an awkward situation."
As a team, "We've obviously had a discussion about moving on," Marsden said. "This is a situation that no one is upset with Crystal for making whatever decision she had based on what was going on. We've just got to be supportive of her and be supportive of any way we can, but we've just got to move on and try to get ready for Friday."
E-mail: lham@desnews.com