Shane Wiskus has battled through adversity and is now ready to battle for Olympic hardware
COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (BVM) — It was just a little over a year ago that Shane Wiskus was training in his backyard and in gyms that had their heating turned off in March in Minnesota because COVID had put everything on hold.
“I was scrolling through my camera roll reminiscing on the days where I was swinging pummel out in the grass,” Wiskus said.
Training in sweatpants and joggers to stay warm, Wiskus prepared for both his senior year of college and for the Olympics which were pushed back to this summer. Wiskus was reminiscing about those days because it had finally come full circle, and after an impressive showing at the U.S. Olympic Team Trials for men’s gymnastics, Wiskus had earned a spot on Team USA.
“I achieved my lifelong dream and in a couple weeks time I’ll be in Tokyo, Japan representing Team USA on an Olympic stage,” Wiskus said. “It’s a crazy realization.”
That realization didn’t really sink in until later as Wiskus was quickly thrown into everything that goes along with making Team USA.
“After last Saturday when they announced the team it was kind of like 72 hours of pure chaos and we were doing photo shoots and interviews,” Wiskus said. “There was no time to breathe even, but then when I got to my apartment in Colorado and we were just hanging out for a day, went to practice, our teammates out here congratulated us and got home that night. It really kind of sunk in then.”
It was finally a chance to reflect on not just the last year but Wiskus’ entire career leading up to this final culmination of all his hard work. Wiskus says, like many who compete in Olympic sports, that making it to the Olympics was always his dream, especially after watching Team USA bring home a bronze medal in the 2008 Beijing Olympics.
However, getting there was anything but easy, especially after this past year in which Wiskus faced adversity all the way up to the Olympic Trials that began on June 24.
“There was so much inconsistency and it was getting really frustrating but we persevered and a couple months later made an Olympics team so I would definitely say it was worth it,” Wiskus said. “I’m just really happy I have the support group that I do because without my family or my girlfriend or my coaches even none of this would have been possible. My motivation was so low in the middle of last year and everything was kind of falling apart so I’m really glad that I have the support group that I do. I was able to persevere and make this dream come true even with the year that I had.”
Leading up to the pandemic that cut Wiskus’ junior season at the University of Minnesota short and postponed the Olympics for a year, Wiskus had set himself up well to achieve his dream. He had competed well the year before at the 2019 U.S. Gymnastics Championships and had earned a spot on the 2019 World Championships team, helping the U.S. take fourth at the event.
That is why when the Olympics were pushed back a year, Wiskus had some concerns about what that would mean for Olympic aspirations.
“When it came to the gymnastics, that was actually a huge worry for me because I set myself up pretty well last year,” Wiskus said. “I was really looking forward to the Olympic trials and nationals, getting to show off all my hardwork and then everything just shut down. My initial thoughts were just kind of like, ‘man I was in such a good spot,’ and you never know you’re going to be able to be in that position again.”
It was even more upsetting as Wiskus had finally felt like he was back on track to making the Olympics after going through a rough patch during his sophomore season. After joining the Gophers as the No.1 recruit in his class, Wiskus had had a great freshman year that included a national runner-up finish in all-around, being named CGA Rookie of the Year, and earning first team All-Big Ten honors. Wiskus felt like he was on the right path to getting to the Olympics.
However, at the 2018 U.S. Gymnastics Championships, Wiskus said “I kind of bombed a little bit,” and then at the 2019 Winter Cup Challenge, he had another poor showing. Throughout his career up to that point, he had always felt like he was on the right trajectory, but his struggles at these two events which led to him missing the national team twice had Wiskus wondering if he had lost the path to the Olympics.
“This is the year before the Olympic games and I’m thinking to myself man I was on this path and so quickly I find myself kind of veering off down a different road,” Wiskus said.
That is why when the 2019 U.S. Gymnastics Championships were approaching in August, Wiskus planned on foregoing the event to give himself some time to regroup and get back on the right path. But Wiskus said his coach nudged him “very aggressively” to compete at nationals. It turned out to be his breakout moment that led to his participation on the U.S. World Championships team.
Once he had accepted that he would have to wait a year and try to keep the momentum he had gained from 2019, Wiskus was hit with another bombshell going into 2021. Last fall, University of Minnesota Athletic Director Mark Coyle announced that they would be cutting men’s gymnastics and the over 100-year-old program would cease to exist after the 2020-21 season.
Wiskus has been outspoken and an ardent defender of the program he not only competed for but grew up cheering for. It’s a program he has idolized since childhood, but the decision forced him to make his own.
“The hardest part was coming to the realization that after NCAAs everything was going to be gone at the U of M,” Wiskus said. “Realizing that and remembering that my season doesn’t end at NCAAs, it’s like two-three months after. That is when I came to the conclusion I need to find a place as soon as possible.”
After a serious conversation with his teammates, their support for him gave him the ability to think about his choices logically. Wiskus moved out to Colorado Springs to train at the Olympic Training Center while attending school and competing for the Gophers remotely. He didn’t travel alone, however, as former Gophers assistant coach Kostya Kolesnikov came out with him.
Kolesnikov had been Wiskus’ primary coach at Minnesota and is the one that he credits for making him the gymnast he is today. Kolesnikov’s selfless act of joining Wiskus out in Colorado made all the difference and helped Wiskus make the transition quickly while also keeping things somewhat familiar even if they weren’t training and the U of M facilities.
“I couldn’t have done it without him by my side,” Wiskus
The 22-year-old finished his collegiate career strong, winning a national championship in still rings and parallel bars, but he still had one more obstacle to overcome. Less than a month before the Olympic trials at the 2021 U.S. Gymnastics Championships, Wiskus fell all the way from second to ninth place in all-around after falling three times on the high bars.
With little time to regroup before Olympic trials, Wiskus worked with sports psychologists and even talked with fellow Team USA member and training partner Sam Mikulak, allowing Wiskus to have a different perspective on what happened at nationals.
“I was obviously very nervous, a lot more so because of my performance at nationals,” Wiskus said. “But talking to different sports psychologists and just trying to put the pieces back together mentally I was able to see Nationals as a success in the sense that I hit 11 of 12 routines that I did in that competition and the only one that missed was high bars.”
The nerves never got to him and Wiskus finished the trials in third place in all-around with a total of 168.150 points, and with his ticket punched for Tokyo, Wiskus can now see how a tumultuous year has prepared him for the Olympics.
“Looking back on it I feel like it was necessary to be able to handle the pressures of Olympic Trials and even the Olympics,” Wiskus said. “I anticipate the nerves are definitely going to be there in a couple weeks so being able to keep yourself grounded even in the most intense scenarios is crucial to having a good competition.”
Having a good competition is extremely important to not just Wiskus but the whole men’s gymnastic team. What happened to Wiskus’ program at the University of Minnesota is something that is being seen across the country and Wiskus reiterated what teammate Yul Moldauer said.
“My goal is I want to bring back hardware to bring some respect to men’s gymnastics again,” Wiskus said. “It’s been a while since we brought home a medal and I feel like doing something like that would inspire a generation. I mean that’s what it did for me back in 2008 watching that Olympic team go out and win a bronze medal is kind of what sparked the initial dream for me.”
In his first-ever Olympics, the path that Wiskus has had to take just to get there has certainly put him on the correct trajectory to bring some hardware home from Tokyo.
