Striking a Painful Balance Clifford Ready to Lead Titan Gymnasts After Brushing Off Ankle Injury, Untimely Falls

The pain sometimes was jarring, a thunderbolt ripping through her body from her left ankle. It was almost as though Cal State Fullerton gymnast Cristi Clifford had slammed her foot on a nail.

It was so bad at times that she could only shudder, and her eyes would mist with tears.

The pain was the result of pounding her ankle has taken in a gymnastics career that began when she was 4, doing handsprings and somersaults with her older sister in the front yard.

The soft tissues became damaged so badly after years of competition that arthroscopic surgery was necessary last October. But even now, the pain persists.

“It’s not so bad now that I can’t live with it,” she said. “But it is still there.”

Clifford already has received the three cortisone shots allowed by her doctor in one year for such an injury, but she’s determined it won’t keep her or Cal State Fullerton out of the national championships April 20-22 at Georgia.

The Titans compete Saturday in the NCAA West Regional at Oregon State, where Clifford will try to qualify for a third consecutive trip to the finals. The Titans will try to advance for the first time since 1990 after making it 13 times in the program’s first 15 years.

Clifford will have to play a key role for that to happen. She has the experience of two previous performances in the nationals, finishing 28th in the all-around as a freshman and 34th as a sophomore.

She was the team’s top performer this season until she fell from the beam, one of her best events, in each of the last two meets. The fall in the Big West Championships probably kept her from winning the all-around, although the Titans still won the team title.

“It’s almost like she’s been snake-bitten,” Coach Lynn Rogers said. “It would have been easy for her to grab on to a few excuses because of her ankle, but she hasn’t done that. I appreciate that about her. Her character has developed a lot since she’s been here, and this will make her tougher too.”

Clifford says she’s trying to put those falls out of her mind. She has always believed in visualization techniques to prepare for competition, and she’s embracing them even more now.

In practice, with classical music in the background, she thinks only about doing her beam routine flawlessly.

“The classical music is something new that the coaches added this year,” she said. “At first we didn’t like it, but now if we don’t have it, we miss it. I think it does help me focus, although I still can’t say I’m a big fan of classical music.”

Clifford regards the falls as an aberration.

“If you start thinking about it, it’s all over,” she said. “But I’ve really been consistent throughout my college career, and I don’t think the ankle was a factor. It feels pretty good now. It’s constantly being treated with ultra-sound and stuff like that, and I’m taking good care of it.”

The ankle is heavily taped, and Clifford wears a laced boot to reduce the stress.

Fullerton assistant coach Julie Knight said the ankle has reduced Clifford’s practice repetitions on the beam. “We had to drop back on the numbers, and they say you perform to your average in practice,” Knight said. “The thing that we’ve tried to do since the conference meet, however, is emphasize the quality of each attempt. We’re trying to make every routine count, while slightly increasing the numbers.

“The ankle is probably more of a factor on the beam than the other events. There’s just a lot less margin of error there.”

But Knight said Clifford is a stronger gymnast than she was in her previous two seasons.

“Cristi is very driven, which makes her such a good competitor, and that’s what will see her through this tough time,” she said. “I expect her to have one of her best performances in the regional.”

UCLA will be favored to win the team title, but the Titans have a realistic shot at being one of seven teams with the highest non-winning scores around the country that also qualify for the nationals. Fullerton is the fifth-seeded team in the West, but potentially is stronger with all its top gymnasts healthy.

The Titans narrowly missed a spot last year, taking fourth in the regional. The second and third place finishers advanced.

“I think at least three teams from our regional will go again this year,” Clifford said. “And I want to do well for the team as much as myself, although it’s important to me personally to get back to the nationals again. I’d like to have a chance to be an All-American, and you have to be in the top eight to do that.”

She also wants to repeat as an Academic All-American, and should be a top contender with a 3.6 grade-point average. She is majoring in kinesiology, and wants to become an athletic trainer. Her injury, Clifford said, has made her appreciate what trainers can do.

Gymnastics has been a big part of her life since she began competing in Smithville, Mo., a small town north of Kansas City. That was well before she saw the bright lights of Puyallup, Wash., when the family moved there when she was 13 and competed for the Puget Sound School of Gymnastics.

“I’ve really enjoyed college gymnastics more than I did club gymnastics,” she said. “You really feel you’re part of a team. At the club level, everything is on an individual basis. But it’s the kind of sport where you have to practice all year to keep improving, and that can create a lot of stress emotionally.”

No matter how the rest of this season goes, and regardless of her discomfort, Clifford said she will be back competing next year.

“I know I’d really think about all the ‘what-ifs,’ if I didn’t compete my senior year,” she said.