Published on Show Me Mizzou Dec. 19, 2024
Story by Alex Schiffer, BJ ’17
When Helen Hu came back to Columbia for a former Mizzou gymnastics teammate’s wedding, she believed her athletics career was behind her. By the time she left town, she was a Tiger once again.
Hu had finished her redshirt junior year in 2023, and the All-American and all-SEC all-around performer was thinking as much about her future as she was her achievements. With career highs of 9.975 on the balance beam and 9.950 on bars, she had established herself as one of the program’s top scorers. During Hu’s career, Missouri had also risen as one of the conference’s premier gymnastics programs.
“When I graduated, I felt that I just had these two options of either taking that fifth year right away or being done,” Hu says. “Where I was at the moment, I thought I was done, and I was just going to be content with what I had achieved.”
Instead, former MU gymnast Adalayna Hufendiek-Schrimpf’s wedding in mid-June 2024 set the stage for Hu to resume her career. While in Columbia, Hu went to see Tiger gymnastics coach Shannon Welker. As they caught up, Hu told him she was thinking about returning to school.
Hu had spent the past year backpacking across Europe and Asia, and the trip gave her a change of heart about her career. She’d graduated with the intent to go into occupational therapy but now wanted to pursue physical therapy. While visiting Columbia, she stepped on the balance beam for old times’ sake to see if she could still do her routine. “Man, that looks good still,” Welker said to himself as he watched Hu.
“You know, you still have that year (of eligibility),” Welker told Hu. “You could come back.” Hu spent the next week lying awake at night pondering a return. Her recent travels had taken her to 15 countries with her sister on a voyage that started in Japan and ended in Finland. She hiked, learned yoga and how to surf and worked at a hostel during her year abroad. When reflecting on her trip, Hu said surfing was the highlight because it took a while to figure out and required some of her gymnastics skills.
“For four straight weeks, I was just face-planting into the water, getting absolutely wrecked by these waves,” Hu says. “It was really humbling.”
Returning to gymnastics was not on her radar. She already had an apartment lined up in Chicago, her hometown. While abroad, she hadn’t considered returning to the sport. She thought she’d moved on. “I pretty much shocked myself even considering this as a real option,” Hu said. “But I just couldn't let it go. Of course I missed competing, and I missed doing gymnastics, but I kind of fully closed that book in my brain.”
Within a week of her visit to campus, Hu realized she didn’t want to leave her final year of eligibility unused. She told Welker she was back, and the two began discussing the logistics of her return. Despite her prowess on the bars, Welker says Hu will compete primarily on the beam for the 2025 season, which Hu believes is the right call given her hiatus and an injury history with her knee and back.
Hu couldn’t fully join the team and compete until the Fall semester ended in December. Despite being a fifth-year senior with a degree from MU’s School of Health Professions, she has enrolled as an undergraduate to take additional prerequisites for physical therapy school. Hu was able to practice with the team twice a month before December since she’s technically a former student-athlete, in line with NCAA regulations.
Last semester, Hu trained out of her club gym in Chicago with her club coach and remotely with Welker and the team.
While Hufendiek-Schrimpf didn’t plan her wedding with Hu’s comeback in mind, Hu said the two events are forever intertwined.
“If her wedding was another year or even a few months later,” Hu says, “this probably wouldn't have happened.”
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