The fourth-year gymnast discusses the multiyear success of the gymnastics team, her love of the sport, her favorite place on campus, some off-the-mat activities, and why Penn was her dream school.
5 min. read
The gymnastics team kicked off their quest earlier this month for a five-peat: their fifth GEC championship in five years.
Penn Today sat down with Oniki to discuss the multiyear success of the gymnastics team, her love of the sport, her favorite place on campus, some off-the-mat activities, and why Penn was her dream school.
How long have you been doing gymnastics? For a while, since I was about 3 or 4 years old. My mom put my older sister and I in classes and it just came really easy to me, so I stuck with it.
When I was little, I always had a lot of energy. I was always escaping my crib, jumping all over the place, and I had pretty good coordination, so gymnastics seemed like a good path for my mom to put me in.
What do you enjoy about the sport? There are so many things that I enjoy about it, but one of the main things is the discipline that I have learned from the sport and the friends I have made along the way. There are so many good lessons that you learn: You have to have really good time management, you have to be very disciplined, and then on top of that, you have to spend so much time in the gym that you get to know your teammates really well, and you really can come to support them and rely on them for things. I love that aspect.
What’s your practice schedule like? Right now, we practice in the mornings, mostly Monday and Wednesday morning, and then we lift on Tuesday morning. We have Thursday off and then we’ll practice and lift Friday afternoon, and then Saturday morning we’ll practice as well. We’re at practice four days a week right now and lift twice a week.
I read an interview you did in high school where you said Penn was your dream school and the only school you applied to. Why Penn? What stuck out? I’m from California and I knew I either wanted to go to school on the West Coast or the East Coast. After my junior year of high school, I came on a visit to Penn and I did a camp at Penn and I just absolutely fell in love with the school. I got to work with the coaches and some of the current team members and I really felt a connection. And on top of that, I’ve always been pretty driven in school so I knew I wanted to go somewhere with a high caliber of gymnastics and academics, and I think Penn was honestly the perfect blend for me.
What’s your favorite place on campus? There’s this bench outside Fisher Library that I really like. It’s under construction right now so you can’t see really see Fisher as much, but it’s really good for people-watching. If sometimes you want to take a break and sit with your thoughts for a little bit, I think that’s a great place to do it.
Your favorite event is balance beam. Why the balance beam? I feel like I can get really into a flow and it’s really satisfying and it definitely builds your confidence when you’re able to do something like that. It kind of makes you feel like you can do other things that are difficult as well.
What is the key to performing successfully on the balance beam? I think it’s part physical training, but also part mental training. I think I got really lucky because all of the beam coaches I’ve had growing up have been really good about emphasizing that, so I’ve learned some pretty good techniques. Before every single beam routine that I show, I’ll sit down in the corner and visualize my routine. I’ve been doing that since I was like 7 years old.
The gymnastics team has won the GEC championship each year you’ve been here. Why do you think the team has been so successful? I think, honestly, a lot of it is we have to have a one-team mentality. I think I’m really close with all of my teammates. Everyone is super close with each other, so I think that helps, and we have one common shared goal. When you come in as a freshman, it’s pretty apparent that we introduce them to the standards and the mentality that we have on the team so everyone has that buy-in. No matter what your role is on the team—if you’re a manager, if you’re hurt, or if you’re competing in all four events—everyone has the same mindset, and everyone knows that their role is valuable to helping us get there. I think that’s something that’s been really helpful for us.
You are very involved off the mat: You are a member of the Student-Athlete Advisory Committee, the Women’s Athletic Association, and the Penn Athletics Wharton Leadership Academy. Why were you interested in being in those organizations? I think gymnastics is obviously a big part of my story here, but I’m in the gym doing gymnastics-lift-meetings around 20 hours a week, and you have a lot of time outside of that. When I came to Penn, one of my biggest goals was I wanted to find my purpose outside of gymnastics, especially because after this year, I’m going to be done with gymnastics. It was really important for me to find some passions that I care about.
Growing up, I was exposed to community service, community involvement, other women’s clubs, and just being a leader in general, so it was kind of a natural progression. It’s been really fulfilling to be a part of these clubs.
Who are some leaders you look up to? My favorite gymnast is Aly Raisman. She’s awesome for so many reasons. She was a two-time Olympian, but she was also super vocal in standing up for what she believed in and igniting positive change within the sport and the culture of gymnastics in general. I wrote a paper about her my freshman year of high school, and it still holds true to this day. She’s just done so many awesome things for women in general and the gymnastics community.
What are you looking forward to during your last gymnastics season? I’m looking forward to a lot of things. I think the biggest thing is just enjoying every moment and spending time with my teammates because they really are my best friends. I think I just need to remind myself that I achieved the goal of what I wanted to do for so long, so I should just enjoy it rather than stressing out about every single moment. I think that’s the biggest thing I want to focus on.
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