Coach Brett Nelligan watched the first day of Maryland gymnastics’ 2022 summer camp alongside assistant coaches JJ Ferreira and Erinn Dooley. In the second rotation, the coaches knew they had something special.

The staff had their eyes on Gianna Ruffing, a rising high school senior from Marlborough, Massachusetts, whose persistent ankle injuries limited her to a zero-star ranking. Despite that, Nelligan recognized her skill and character immediately.

“When camp’s over, we’re going to offer her a spot on this team,” Nelligan said.

Ruffing decided to commit to Maryland on the spot after one day at the camp if given the opportunity. Nelligan broke the news to Ruffing and her mother in the locker room after camp ended, prompting tears of joy from both.

Ruffing walked out of the locker room and announced her commitment to her new teammates, who swarmed her with hugs and excitement. Though she began to talk to Maryland in the final few months of her recruitment, she called the offer a dream come true.

Ruffing eventually recovered from injuries and earned a spot in Maryland’s floor lineup late in her sophomore year.

“I knew it was just going to take a lot of work once I got to school [my freshman year],” Ruffing said. “But I’ve put in the work and I know I can prove myself.”

Ruffing had a few shaky floor routines at her first collegiate competition, the GW Tri Meet, but Nelligan chalked them up to temporary nerves.

The sophomore quickly gained control.

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Ruffing scored 9.800 each at the Big Ten Championships and Maryland’s NCAA Regionals First Round matchup against West Virginia. Both meets featured top-five performances from the floor unit this year.

Before she broke into Maryland’s top six on floor, Ruffing was a talented yet scared gymnast brimming with ambition.

“You could see [Ruffing] wanted a little bit more from [gymnastics],” Elite Gymnastics Academy coach Tara Pasiakos said. “She wasn’t there just to do it and fill her time. She had some big goals.”

Ruffing credited Pasiakos and Elite Gymnastics Academy, a Massachusetts-based club she spent about five years competing with, for improving her mental resilience and realizing her potential as a gymnast.

“[Pasiakos] really helped me get over all my mental blocks and being scared,” Ruffing said. “My old gym, they kinda shaped me as a gymnast, and [Elite Gymnastics Academy] kinda perfected me as a gymnast.”

Lingering ankle injuries stunted certain areas of Ruffing’s physical development for years, but allowed her to strengthen other abilities. Since she couldn’t practice tumbling or vaulting, she worked on her strength, flexibility and bars routine.

Even as she battled injury, Pasiakos said Ruffing’s sight remained on her goal after club gymnastics — contributing to a Division I gymnastics program.
“You can’t predict the future, but [with] her determination, you could see that she’d end up at least somewhere,” Pasiakos said.

When Ruffing committed to Maryland after her junior year, she still had a long road to establish herself in the program.

Injury struck again and forced her to undergo ankle surgery, shortening her senior year to four meets.

Ruffing said she knew about her status as a low-ranking recruit, but didn’t pay much attention to it. She knew the injuries that deprived her gaining recruiting prestige were unavoidable, so she chose to “control the controllables.”

Rather than holding a grudge because of her low rank, Ruffing took the opposite approach.

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“We have a saying … ‘don’t prove people wrong, prove people right,’” Nelligan said. “The people who have your back and who have believed in you for the whole time, prove them right.”

Ruffing’s recovery from surgery limited her involvement on floor her freshman year at Maryland. She spent much of that season preparing her ankles for the rigors of college gymnastics, and grew healthy enough to compete in the exhibition slot on bars, an area she specialized in entering school.

Ruffing’s recovery was accelerated by a platelet-rich plasma shot, an injection derived from a patient’s blood to stimulate healing, that she called “life-changing.”

Ruffing began to craft her floor routine after receiving the injection, starting with a pass she borrowed from Maryland’s former all-arounder Emma Silberman.

“[Silberman] had a really cool floor pass, and I was like, ‘JJ, can I try that?’” Ruffing said. “I tried it, and it clicked for me, and it was so much easier than my previous tumbling pass.”

Ruffing was healthy enough by her sophomore year to compete in exhibition on floor. The experience allowed Ruffing to build confidence and grow acclimated to the larger Xfinity Center stage, where they often compete in front of thousands of fans.

The exhibition slot also gave Ruffing a chance to build trust with coaches, which eventually helped her crack the starting lineup on floor.

Fifth-year Alexa Rothenbuescher injured her ankle at the Yale Tri Meet on March 9 and was out at the GW Tri Meet five days later, opening the door for Ruffing’s debut.

Nelligan called the decision to insert Ruffing for Maryland’s all-arounder a “no-brainer.”

“Who’s the [gymnast] that you feel you could turn to on short notice during a meet and say, ‘Hey, we need a routine from you that can give us a 9.800’?” Nelligan said. “I think everyone felt right away that it was Gianna.”

Ruffing recognized the stakes of filling in for the team’s best floor worker — and perhaps best gymnast overall — but said she was excited above all else.

Though it took two years and countless hours dedicated to recovery, the coach’s belief in the no-star recruit from Massachusetts paid off.

“She has certainly put herself in a great position to compete for lineup spots [next season] on … bars and floor,” Nelligan said. “And if she continues to work hard, I don’t think that vault and beam are out of the question, either.”