BREAKING: LSU Tigers Key man has announced he is set to leave for dream team.
A third LSU gymnastics senior announces decision to return to Tigers for 2025 season.
Alyona Shchennikova just couldn’t let it end this way.
A preseason Achilles tendon tear left her a cheerleader for the entire 2024 season as her LSU teammates captured the program’s first NCAA gymnastics championship.
Now, as the Tigers turn their sights to 2025, Shchennikova plans to be not a spectator but a participant once again. The school on Wednesday announced her decision to return for a sixth year next season.
“I have so much more to give,” Shchennikova said. “The hardest part for an athlete is knowing when to hang it up and I just had a gut feeling. I was like, ‘This isn’t how the story can end.’
“There’s a lot of goals. But ultimately, I just want to do gymnastics one more time, end it the way I want to end it, and not have it forced to be ended.”
Shchennikova is the third fourth- or fifth-year senior to decide to return for the 2025 season over the past couple of weeks, joining Haleigh Bryant and Sierra Ballard.
Still to announce their plans are Kiya Johnson, Olivia Dunne, Chase Brock and Elena Arenas, who also missed the entire 2024 season because of injuries.
A native of Evergreen, Colorado, Shchennikova competed in all four events for the Tigers in 2023 and appeared in the all-around 11 times. She averaged 9.754 on vault, 9.807 on bars, 9.816 on beam, 9.893 on floor, and 39.382 in the all-around. She was an All-American on uneven bars in 2021 and a three-time member of the SEC Academic Honor Roll.
Shchennikova said being part of the team but not competing gave her a different perspective.
“This year has definitely helped me grow as a person,” she said. “I saw gymnastics from a different point of view.
“I was definitely a lot more nervous for my team, watching on the side since I wasn’t doing it. I wanted them to succeed. Being their biggest cheerleader was an amazing role, and I’m really glad I got to do it, but it also made me realize that it’s a position that I don’t want to be in again.”
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