There was a time when Ondine Achampong sat on her living room floor, unsure if she’d ever be able to lift her leg off the ground again — let alone return to gymnastics.
Just three months before the Paris 2024 Olympics were set to begin, Achampong — a European and world medalist, and one of the brightest stars for Team GB — tore her ACL while landing a bar dismount ahead of the European Championships. The moment she stood up, she knew her dream was slipping away.
“My teammate Jess [Gadirova] had torn her ACL as well, like, months before,” Achampong said. “I watched her, and she just got up and walked. So I knew that if I could get up and walk, it was probably my ACL.”
Doctors later confirmed her fear: her Olympic hopes were over.
In the gym, she stayed strong for her teammates — but behind the scenes, watching them live out their Olympic dreams in Paris without her was heartbreaking.
“I didn’t really let myself think about the Olympics, because I kept thinking I might not make the team. But after British Championships leading into Europeans, it was more on my mind,” Achampong said. “Me and [Georgia Mae Fenton] had really talked about it — like, ‘We’re gonna be on that team together, we’re gonna have fun this summer, go to Paris, and it’s gonna be this amazing experience.
“I was so happy for all the girls who went, but just seeing — especially that [Georgia] was there without me — I was like, ‘Oh… they looked like they had so much fun. It was pretty hard.”
With a long road to recovery ahead, she packed her bags and moved across the globe to start a new chapter at Cal Berkeley.
Expectations were uncertain heading into Achampong’s freshman season. While hopes were high for her NCAA career, she was coming off one of the most serious injuries a gymnast can face.
When she arrived on campus, with about five months to go until season, she couldn’t even run or jump.
Determined to do things right, Achampong took a patient, disciplined approach to recovery. She refused to rush back, committed to waiting at least the full nine months her doctor had recommended before even considering a return to competition.
“The surgeon had said nine months is the absolute minimum recovery before you start competing again,” Achampong said. “So I said to the coaches, ‘I don’t want to do any competitions until nine months, because I want to make sure that my knee is fine.’ I was like, ‘I’m not re-tearing my ACL… I’m not doing that again.’
The strong support system and resources at Cal, combined with her own patience and determination, led to her return to competition on the balance beam in late February — exactly nine months to the day after her surgery.
She exceeded all expectations — including her own — and laid a strong foundation to build on for her sophomore season.
But in May, another hurdle emerged. Justin Howell and Liz Crandall-Howell, the longtime co-head coaches at Cal, accepted a job at Clemson University.
The move, Achampong said, was totally unexpected.
“I found out the night before it was announced,” Achampong said. “I think it must have been posted on social media somewhere, and then we had our meeting after it was posted. So, I think a lot of us found out on social media, which was kind of hard.”
Yet as recruits flipped, teammates transferred and new coaches took the reins, Achampong said she never doubted where she wanted to be.
“I’ve gone across the world for an education,” she said. “I mean – it’s the number one school. I wouldn’t want to go anywhere else.”
As she and the Golden Bears gear up for the 2026 season, Achampong sees new faces all around her — but more importantly, she sees pure joy.
“It really has been good, just coming into the gym and having a staff who’s really invested in us as people, as well as gymnasts, because happy people make happy gymnasts, and then happy gymnasts – we’re going to do good work,” Achampong said. “Just looking around the gym, everyone seems to be in a really good, positive mood and really motivated to do gymnastics.”
Team goals for the upcoming season — Cal’s second in the ACC — are still taking shape, but individually, Achampong has high hopes for her sophomore campaign.
She aims to compete in the all-around and is focused on elevating her beam performance to become a consistent 9.8-plus contributor.
“Maybe just being less of a 9.7 girlie on beam and more of, like, a 9.8 to 9.9 girlie,” she said, “I’m just trying to be like Mya Lauzon on beam.”
And when it comes to those Olympic dreams — Achampong is proof you can never say never.
“I’m trying to just take it as it comes,” Achampong said. “In the summer, I went to a GB squad, which was nice to see all the girls. It had been over a year since I had seen everyone, and it was just nice to be back in an elite setting as well … I haven’t completely closed that door.”