Maya Reimers:
Life After Gymnastics
This month, GymKim Choreo has reached out to decorated former gymnast Maya Reimers to reflect on her gymnastics career and talk to us about what life is like for her after gymnastics. We asked Maya's former teammate and friend Anwen Herbert Lewis to tap into Maya's past, present, and career cut short by COVID.
Maya Reimers is a 23 year old from New York City. She started gymnastics when she was six at Asphalt Green and began training at Chelsea Piers when she was eight-years-old. Maya went to Talent Unlimited High School and soon after committed to the University of Bridgeport with a full ride scholarship for gymnastics. There she majored in business management and industrial relations with a minor in Human service. She competed in the all-around her Freshman year and won ECAC Division II Athlete of the Year and also Freshman athlete of the year. Her last 3 years she spent focusing on Beam, Vault and Floor and finished her career as ECAC Athlete of the Year. Maya is currently working at a marketing media company called Influential as an operations coordinator and spends her free time traveling and spending time with her friends and family.
Anwen Herbert Lewis was formerly a Level 9 gymnast at Chelsea Piers. She started gymnastics at the age of three years old and began competing for Chelsea Piers at the age of six. Anwen went on to be a two time qualifier for the TOPs National Team as well as a three time Level 9 Eastern National Qualifier. Her favorite events were bars and beam. Anwen graduated from the Calhoun School in NYC and went on to graduate from the University of Delaware with a Bachelor’s of Science and minor in Public Health. She is currently working with a special needs boy and is hoping to go back to graduate school to further her degree in Health Science. In her free time, Anwen loves to travel, stay active and hang out with her friends and old teammates.
AHL: Can you give us a brief rundown of your experience competing for Bridgeport? What was your favorite memory from your time competing in college?
MR: It's hard to choose one favorite memory from Bridgeport. I loved many things like getting new leotards and/or apparel, traveling with my team, staying in hotels, learning/teaching our cheers to each other, competing in different schools/arenas! Everything was very memorable but if I had to choose one memory it would be competing at UCLA my freshman year. We got to visit LA a bit, go shopping at the student store, compete in their huge arena with Olympians like Kyla Ross, Peng Peng Lee, and more! It was such an exciting experience to be on tv, see the arena packed with people and be surrounded by so many amazing gymnasts. It was especially exciting having my teammates and coaches by my side as well! Overall competing for Bridgeport was really hard physically but it also was a nice change of pace from club gymnastics. At times the seasons felt very long but it was also very fun and an experience I feel so lucky to have. I loved my teammates, coaches and friends at Bridgeport and I will always be grateful for my experience.
AHL: What was the difference in terms of the training at college gymnastics versus club gymnastics?
MR: Club gymnastics and college gymnastics are very different in my opinion. In my personal experience the coaches in club gymnastics don't give you as many options when it comes to your assignment. In college we would have an assignment and if we felt it needed to be altered we would talk to our coach and they would tell us to do whatever we think is best. They offered us so much more freedom and a sometimes let us come up with an assignment. In club gymnastics we had training after school from 4-8pm and we practice six days a week. While at Bridgeport we would practice in the morning from 8am-12pm and have double practices on Monday and Wednesday from 6-8pm. Our night practices were mostly conditioning and I have never worked so hard before! But, I also never been in such good shape! Club gymnastics season is longer than college gymnastics but their competitions are spread out while in college we compete every weekend with back to back competitions and once we did 3 competitions in a row! There are a couple things that are different between club and college and it was definitely an adjustment for me.
AHL: What was the most challenging time competing for Bridgeport? What was your proudest moment?
MR: The most challenging time competing for Bridgeport was during the Holidays and Spring break. Some of the other teams and students not participating in athletics would have a month off of school and we would only get a week to go home. Even when we went home it wasn't a full vacation because we still had to practice. It was hard to come back from home and train two times sometimes three times a day and then go into season. On another note, my proudest moment competing was my senior meet because I did well on all three of my events. I got a 9.95 on floor that meet, which made me very happy!
AHL: At Chelsea Piers we never had team captains but you were definitely a role model and leader that all the younger girls looked up to during practice. Did becoming team captain for your team at Bridgeport change your perspective on being a team leader and what did that mean to you?
MR: I've always been scared to be considered a leader, even at Chelsea Piers where we didn't have captains, I was always told I had to be a good example and it made me feel like when I had mental blocks or a bad day I felt like a bad person and I wasn't a good leader. But being at Bridgeport taught me I didn't have to be perfect to be a leader, all I had to do was work my hardest and push myself through my fears as much as I could. Even if I didn't have a perfect day, if I showed effort my coach would say how important that was and that's how to be a leader. Bridgeport showed me I didn't need to be scared of being a leader but to have confidence in myself and that inspired my teammates around me, by pushing myself it made them want to push themselves and each other to be better.
AHL: Obviously with Covid your season ended very differently than expected, but how does it feel now that you are no longer a college gymnast?
MR: Covid 19 made the ending of my gymnastics career feel incomplete. I didn't get to compete my floor routine I was working on all year, I didn't get to compete at nationals and I didn't get to finish off the year with my teammates/friends. Being done with gymnastics feels sad because I didn't get the ending I wanted nor expected. I think I was ready to be done because my body was in pain. I was always moving, and it’s nice to be at a slower pace now. I do miss gymnastics and it will always be my life! It's hard knowing that I won't compete again in a sport that I know I was good at but I am very happy with my career and all the experiences and memories that came with it.