Jacobs' Riedel overcomes the odds to reach state

Broken bones are never a good thing.

But in the case of Jacobs senior girls gymnastics standout Allison Riedel, bad was taken to another level.

During the Fremd sectional her sophomore year, Riedel broke her foot - as in really broke her foot.

"I broke 8 to 15 bones in my foot," she explained. "It's the area that makes up the arch in the foot. Everything snapped when I landed. My entire arch was basically destroyed."

The general prognosis she received was even grimmer. "They told me they weren't sure if I would ever walk normally again," said Riedel.

Thankfully that prognosis was far from the true final outcome for Riedel, who has worked her way back to state finals form. She will wrap up her high school career this weekend at the IHSA state meet at Palatine High School.

Riedel will compete on vault and bars as well as in the all-around competition. She will leave Jacobs as a four-time state qualifier (she had already qualified sophomore year before being injured) and will try to become the third girl in school history to medal in girls gymnastics (trying to join Jamie Grabowski and Laura Sommerville in that category).

"Getting back to state is one of the best feelings ever," Riedel said. "Someone told me I might not ever do gymnastics again. That was kind of heartbreaking. I've been so determined to make it happen no matter what I was facing. I was going to come back as hard as I could. I am so proud of what I've done. I wanted to make the best comeback I could. I'm very happy with it."

When she got back on the mat, Riedel said there was little trepidation on her part concerning possible reinjury.

"It wasn't that scary," she said. "I was never too nervous. I like to go out and try things. I was doing a double pike when I broke my foot. The first thing I wanted to do when I was medically released was a double pike. The hardest part was I didn't have a lot of strength at first because I couldn't do a lot of physical therapy because my range of motion was so low. My mind was ready but my body wasn't yet."

Riedel has made key strides in her two individual events. She's added a pike and layout to her vault routine.

"Last year I still was getting into the swing of things and now I am a little stronger," she said. "I'm doing a layout Urchenko, which gives you a tenth or two tenths more. It's not a huge difference. It's more of a wow factor. Not as many people do layouts. It's more the showy part of it."

Riedel said her advancement on bars has been even more pronounced. "Bars has always been one of my worst events," she said. "I've improved a lot. I've put in a lot of work with my routines and have become much more consistent. I'm able to hit my handstands more, which is a huge thing on bars."

After state Riedel will continue to train and compete with her club team based out of Lake Zurich. But after this club season, she plans on closing the book on her gymnastics career.

"Hopefully I can make it to nationals," she said. "Club will be my last go of everything. It's not only wanting to focus on academics in college, but my foot still bothers me. It's been really hard on my body This injury also happened late in the recruiting process. I still came back from the injury strong. It was a hard decision to make but it was for the best."

Instead, Riedel earned an academic scholarship to Central Michigan University. She would like to study physical therapy.

"I've always been interested in helping people," she said. "I also want to be active. My mom said I should look into physical therapy. I had the injury and I saw how much physical therapists do. It was an eye opener. Ever since I was injured I've wanted to do this. Being able to help others really interests me."

Riedel, a Level 9 gymnast, said CMU is one of the few institutions that offers a graduate program in that field of study. "To get an actual doctorate you need a graduate program and they have that," she said.

Riedel added that she doesn't plan on abandoning the sport completely. "Gymnastics has been my life," she said. "I plan on coaching. I want to give back. It will be hard not competing but it's something I have to do."

Heading into the state meet, Riedel has a much different mindset this year.

"I definitely feel better about this year," she said. "Last year it was more to go and have fun because I wasn't even sure if I would get there. Last year I didn't worry about scores or places. This year I am there to place. This is my last year and I want to hit it good. I want to medal."