From Camper to College, Gaies Continues Michigan Connection
11/5/2019 2:31:00 PM | Women's Gymnastics, Features
Freshman women's gymnast Abbie Gaies has been connected to the University of Michigan most of her life after moving to Ann Arbor with her family when she was 5 years old.
She was born in Boston while her father, Michael, was doing his medical residency and moved to Ann Arbor after her father got a fellowship at C.S. Mott Children's Hospital. That move would lead to Abbie becoming a lifetime Wolverine.
Abbie was put in gymnastics classes soon after arriving in Ann Arbor and her mother, Elissa, discovered her climbing on the bookshelves at a Barnes and Noble. The signs were always there; Abbie said she was very flexible and would walk on the skinny back of the couch before she could even run.
She loved gymnastics and started going to U-M gymnastics camps the first year she could and never stopped going.
"I think I went to 16 total camps," said Abbie. "When I was 8 years old, I said I was going to do gymnastics at Michigan. As I got older, it seemed more apparent that I was going to come here."
Whether it was learning her first flyaway at 8 years old from now-associate head coach Scott Sherman or discovering the meaning of "smize" (smile with your eyes) from Reema Zakharia, Gaies made countless memories at Michigan camps.
"Recently, when I was packing and going through photos, I found one of me and Reema and realized that she was a big part of why I decided I wanted to go here when I was younger. As I got older, I realized the gymnasts at Michigan were the types of teammates I wanted to have. The energy here is pretty magical."
Gaies (left) with Zakharia
Gaies committed to Michigan during her senior year at Community High School in Ann Arbor. She spent five minutes looking at one other school online and said, "OK, I am still going to Michigan."
Now that Abbie has achieved her dream of becoming a gymnast at the University of Michigan, she will get the opportunity to experience what it is like to be that gymnast she grew up watching in Crisler Center.
"We went to almost all the meets when I was younger," said Abbie. "I would stand at the tunnel and hang over to try and get high fives and then take pictures with the gymnasts after the meets. I loved watching them."
One of her favorite memories was from 2011, when Kylee Botterman scored a perfect 10.0 on vault in a meet against Stanford and Nebraska.
"At level 5, a 10.0 doesn't happen, so me and my friends were freaking out," said Gaies. "We talked about that for weeks after it happened."
Gaies trains with Sherman at a U-M gymnastics camp
Gaies plans to major in premed at Michigan. Her father ended up staying on at Mott full time and now works in the pediatric cardiology intensive care along with being an associate professor at U-M. Not only is her father a doctor, but her mother, Elissa, also was in medical school before taking time off to raise Abbie and her sister, Taylor. Elissa finished up her residency at nearby St. Joseph Mercy and now works at a private practice named Partners in Internal Medicine. With Abbie growing up around doctors, she became very interested in becoming a doctor herself. However, she joked that it was really "Grey's Anatomy" that made her want to be a doctor.
"I know the show is not what it is really like to be a doctor, but I like watching videos of surgeries," said Abbie. "My plan is to be a heart surgeon."
The summer before her senior year of high school, Abbie attended a science camp at Harvard where she had a chance to hear guest speakers and watch a live surgery. It just sparked her interest even more. She still has at least four more years in Ann Arbor, but who knows? Maybe her career will keep her at the University of Michigan in the future.
Players Mentioned
