Amelie Morgan was all smiles.
They may have been tired smiles, the kind that take just a little more effort to pull off, but they were genuine, stretching from ear to ear.
Back at the University of Utah this week after a month overseas, a month spent at home in her native England, Morgan had every reason to be glad.
During her hiatus from Utah’s gymnastics team, Morgan competed at both the English and British gymnastics championships, and successfully so.
At the English championships in early March she finished third in the all-around competition while also finishing third on balance beam and vault, fourth on floor exercise and fifth on uneven bars.
Then last weekend at the British championships, she finished fourth in the all-around competition while also earning a second place finish on beam and a third place finish on bars.
In totality, it was about the best that Morgan could have hoped for, considering she was coming off a more than two-year break from competing Elite-level gymnastics, her last Elite-level competition being at the Tokyo Olympics in the summer of 2021.
“She was exceptional over there,” Utah head coach Carly Dockendorf said, “and to think that she really hasn’t trained nearly as many hours as all of those other athletes who’ve just been focused on training Elite and training for the Olympics.
“She’s been balancing school, competing for us and training Elite. For her to go back and perform the way that she did, I don’t think she could have asked for any more from herself.”
Morgan agrees.
“It went really well,” she told the Deseret News. “I was honestly really pleased with how it went, considering I’ve had to prepare for both NCAA and Elite gymnastics.
“I think the results I ended up with were amazing, and at this point in time, I think that was the best I could’ve done. I still see a lot of room for improvements that I can make for hopefully the next few upcoming months, but for now I think that was a great starting point and I was proud of my performances.”
It was a difficult month, though. Morgan readily concedes that. Though she made the conscious decision to return to England with a hopeful eye on making the British national team for the Paris Olympics, that didn’t make the process of competing two different types of gymnastics easier, and during the middle of the NCAA gymnastics season no less.
“I was definitely an adjustment,” she said. “Training in a few different gyms, traveling around the country from week to week, adjusting to new equipment was definitely interesting. I had a lot of help while I was there and I was still in contact with the team and coaches here (at Utah) which was really useful.”
Making the challenge easier was she was able to compete alongside former teammates, plus her twin brother, Finlay, who was also competing on the men’s side.
“Obviously it was very nerve wracking. I’m not going to lie,” Morgan said. “I wanted to do the very best that I could do. I wanted to go and show what I have been working so hard for, but at the same time, I really did try to have fun.
“I hope you could see out there that I was having fun trying to take it all in. I would be lying if I said it wasn’t a challenge. It definitely was. There was a lot of things that I wasn’t expecting or had to adapt to, but ultimately I did have fun and it was good to be competing out there with my old teammates and my brother, too.”
While overseas Morgan did try to stay up to date with what was going on with Utah gymnastics. Without her, the Red Rocks managed multiple season-high scores, as freshmen Camie Winger and Ella Zirbes stepped up, and junior Grace McCallum also took a step forward.
And Morgan was cheering them on the whole time, though not always as Utah was competing. The time difference can be brutal.
“The first meet, Stanford, I actually accidentally woke up in the middle of the night because of the jet lag and I made the mistake of checking my phone and I ended up watching the whole meet,” Morgan said with a laugh. “After that, having a really bad night, I thought I’d take my sleep over watching and I just woke up in the morning and watched the meet back. I was able to support them, but took my sleep first.
“... It was very weird (watching Utah). I would say weird. It was strange, seeing season continue and I’m not even in the same country. It was very strange being like an outsider watching it, even though I’m not an outsider. They continued to do amazing without me. We have the depth, we have the strength of our team that I am able to do that, which is amazing.”
Watching her team compete on television gave Morgan some perspective that she doesn’t normally have, namely that it is hard to know what is going on when you are not there with the team itself, but she also noted that the care her teammates have for each other was obvious in a way that isn’t always the case in person.
“You really feel the sense of team spirit, how close everyone is, that you maybe wouldn’t see when you are in it,” she said.
Utah is thrilled to have Morgan back ahead of this weekend’s Pac-12 championships, although how much Morgan will compete Saturday night remains to be seen.
Dockendorf joked that Morgan, who flew back Monday, has been trying to negotiate more training than the coaching staff had in mind for her. She will be at podium practice at the Maverik Center on Friday.
No matter how much she does or doesn’t compete, though, Utah is better of with Morgan around, Dockendorf said.
“The whole team is excited to have her back,” Dockendorf said, “and of course her scores will be important for us on a few events, but more important she brings a level of confidence and stability, not just to the staff but to all the athletes.
“She is really that grounded person, that balanced person that everybody goes to, and when she is out there she keeps everybody confident and feeling good about what they are going to do. Having her personality and presence will add more than any score she will be able to bring us this weekend.”
As for what’s next in Morgan’s quest to make it to another Olympics, that will have to wait until the end of the NCAA season, and even a little longer after that.
“We are not totally sure (what’s next) at the moment,” Morgan said. “... Selections for European championships are in May. We will see about that, and towards the end of May is the Olympics selection. We will just have to wait and see. It is unknown at the moment. I think it is too soon to say.”
Make it to the Olympics or not, Morgan has been wildly successful in her return to Elite gymnastics. That much is clear. All you have to do is look at her at smile to understand that.