All gymnasts master difficult skills. Danusia Francis likes to invent new ones.
“I really enjoy being able to push the envelope of innovation in college gymnastics,” Danusia Francis says. The student athlete from Kenilworth, England, has competed for UCLA gymnastics since 2013, her freshman year.
That year, Francis did the first-ever “side aerial” in collegiate competition — a move she describes as “a cartwheel with no hands,” standing sideways on the beam. As a sophomore, she worked with her coaches to turn the side aerial into her dismount — another collegiate first, and the punctuation mark on her first perfect 10 in March 2014.
“I want to get a few more 10s,” Francis said afterwards. And she succeeded in March 2016, her senior year. At the NCAA finals the following month, she capped her collegiate career with a 9.95, sharing the individual beam title.
But collegiate gymnastics is about more than the scores. “My favorite thing has to be the team spirit,” she says. When she scored her first 10 on beam, her teammates literally surrounded her with hugs and cheers — before the score was even posted.
Danusia Francis traveled more than 5,000 miles to join the UCLA gymnastics team. Proving once more that a UCLA optimist can come from anywhere.