Morgan Hurd smiles while talking about her most disappointing moment in gymnastics. It’s the 18-year-old’s way of deflecting the pain — more mental than physical — that was tough to shake after she failed to make the 2019 world championship team.
A shaky first day at the selection camp last October left her scrambling. She never caught up. When the six-woman team was announced, and Hurd found herself named as a non-traveling alternate, she couldn’t get home to Delaware fast enough.
“My coach was like, ‘We need to leave,’ and I was like, ‘All right,’” Hurd says, before adding with a laugh, “And then, this was after my breakdown of course.