When Brooklyn Moors started gymnastics at the age of three, she could have never imagined she’d be where she is today.
She’s an Olympian, a World Championship finalist, and a gold medalist on floor from the 2019 Pan American Games. Now, in her final season as a UCLA Bruin, she adds another impressive accolade to her resume: Big Ten Champion.
“I was honestly speechless after this weekend,” Moors said just three days after winning a share of the individual Big Ten floor exercise title, which she clinched with the first perfect 10 of her career. “I knew we had it in us as a team, and I knew we could do it — but the 10 was just the cherry on top.”
Her flawless routine not only marked a personal milestone, but propelled UCLA past the 198 mark for the first time this season, securing the Big Ten Team Championship in the Bruins’ first season in the conference.
While getting that long-overdue perfect 10 had been in the back of her mind all season, it was her team that was on her mind in that moment.
“I wasn’t really thinking about the 10,” Moors said. “Obviously, I wanted it, but I was really just thinking about getting a good score to get over that 198 mark.”
As the gymnastics community rejoiced in the team’s success and Moors’ personal achievement, few realized the battle she was facing behind the scenes in the days leading up to it. A mainstay in the beam lineup all season, Moors was noticeably absent from the lineup that day.
Since she was 4 years old, backward elements have always given Moors trouble. In her final year of gymnastics, just before her last conference championship meet, the mental block resurfaced.
“I always had that fear of going backwards,” Moors said. “I was able to work through it and then when I hit around the age of 10, I just wouldn’t go backwards, no matter what I did. It was the worst mental block ever … It was the biggest fight of my gymnastics career.”
The fear of going backward prevented her from progressing through the levels as quickly as some of her peers, but eventually she was able to find ways to move forward – literally!
Moors got creative, constructing routines that featured forward-moving skills on vault, beam, and floor. For events like beam, she met the backward requirement with a simple back walkover. While it may have seemed easy compared to her competitors, Moors had mastered the art of playing to her own strengths.
A breakthrough moment came during her junior elite career, when that very beam routine helped her qualify for nationals.
“That was a really big jump for me, realizing I could do my routine with a skill that looked like that,” Moors said with a laugh. “That was my back requirement!”
Despite her fear of going backwards, Moors went on to reach the pinnacle of the sport, competing at the Olympic Games in Tokyo. However, one of the proudest accomplishments of her career came four years later, as she headed into her senior season at UCLA.
Heading into season, Moors decided to play around with the back handspring – a skill she had successfully avoided since the age of 10.
“In the preseason I was playing around, being like, ‘I’m so tired of trying to do this front aerial + front handspring series,’” Moors said. “I just wanted something I could do consistently.”
She worked hard on it all summer, and the moment she finally put it back on the high beam was one of the highlights of her career.
“I don’t think I’ve ever seen Janelle [McDonald] be prouder of me than when I did a backhandspring on beam,” Moors said, adding that she’s proud of herself too. “I always joke that I don’t care about the Olympics or whatever – I just did a backhandspring on the beam! That’s a bigger deal for me.”
In her senior season, Moors has contributed consistently for the Bruins on vault, beam, and floor, where she has an NQS of 9.85, 9.87, and 9.96 respectively. This final year of gymnastics is the “reward” for persevering through all the battles of her career. For the first time in a long time, she feels like she’s truly been able to enjoy gymnastics.
But the silent battles continue to persist for even the very best in the business.
“It’s still a struggle for me to do [the back handspring] every day,” Moors said. “Right now I’m going through a little bit of a mental block with it again. I couldn’t do a backhandspring on the floor yesterday … I get really frustrated at times because I want to do it and sometimes my brain just doesn’t let me.”
Over the years, she said she has learned that it’s OK to take a step back. She’s learned to be gentle with herself, and most importantly, she knows that those moments of frustration do not define her career.
For the next generation, Moors said she hopes to be the example she never had growing up in the sport and show athletes that they can push through any mental obstacle to achieve their dreams.
“I want to be able to share my story and have them know that you can still go to college, make a national team, or go to the Olympics,” Moors said. “There’s always a different path to get there.”
As she heads into the final month of her gymnastics career, Moors is embracing every moment as she and her team – who are undefeated so far this season – eye a trip to Fort Worth with a real shot at the NCAA title for the first time since 2018.
Up until this point in her career, Moors acknowledges that the journey has been anything but easy. In fact, she wasn’t even sure she wanted to do college gymnastics until she stepped foot in Westwood, but now she couldn’t imagine her journey going any other way.
From an abrupt coaching change after her freshman year to occasionally falling short of team goals, Moors said she built character through it all. Still, she and her fellow upperclassmen were determined to ensure this season ended on a higher note than the last.
They gathered with UCLA alumni over dinner, reflecting on what the program needed to regain its strength. That conversation reignited Moors’ passion for leaving the program stronger than she had found it — instilling confidence in her teammates and reinforcing the ‘UCLA legacy’ that continues to draw top talent from across the country.
“It was always there — we always had it,” Moors said. “But we really wanted to bring it out and make sure the team understands what it means to be a Bruin and carry that forward in the years to come. We want to rebuild that culture, and I think that’s exactly what we did this year — and will continue to do.”