Susan Jackson was destined for gymnastics.
As a toddler in Spring, Texas, a suburb of Houston, Jackson made the house her own personal gym, and no piece of furniture was safe from her adventurous exploits.
“If I could, I would climb on everything – shower rod, clothesline – anything possible that I could get on,” Jackson said. “I was an over-energized toddler, and my mom thought I needed mats around me to keep me safe.”
Just like that, Jackson’s gymnastics career was born. Initially, she spent two years at a small gym by her house where she could run on mats and play in a safe environment, but by age six she began training at Bannon’s Gymnastix – learning basic gymnastics skills on vault, bars, beam and floor.
At Bannon’s, Jackson grew as a gymnast and fell in love with the sport, thriving in competition and increasing her skill. As a nine year old in 1996, she reached level 9 and was steadily improving, and that is when her eyes were opened to all the sport of gymnastics had to offer.
Jackson glued herself in front of the TV to watch gymnastics at the 1996 Summer Olympics, and she witnessed the United States earn the team gold medal in dramatic fashion.
“After I saw the 1996 Olympics, I knew what my goal was and where I wanted to be,” she said. “In my mind, I was going to be an Olympian.”
With her highest goal firmly set in her mind, Jackson switched gyms and started training at Moceanu’s, owned and operated by 1996 Olympian Dominique Moceanu’s father. It was at this gym where Jackson first attempted the back headspring, also called “the Jackson,” that she has used in her floor routine in every competition.
Jackson switched to Brown’s Houston in 1997, and the 10 year old began home schooling so she could have a flexible schedule for training.
By 2000, Jackson was an international elite gymnast and became a USA national team member at 13 years old. Because of her age, Jackson was not eligible for the Olympics, but being on the USA national team gave her an opportunity to train and be around the eventual U.S. Olympic team.
“That was my first time to really see all the girls, and I thought to myself, ‘Wow, I’m competing with these girls who are going to the Olympics. That is really cool, and I am kind of up there with them,’ ” Jackson recalled.
That first exposure to the Olympic team added fuel to Jackson’s fire, and she continued to earn national recognition as she became a USA national team member three more times.
As the 2004 Olympic Games came into sight, Jackson knew her time had arrived. She was 17 years old during the Olympic year, and she had already been on the USA national team for three years. Now was her opportunity to realize her dream.
The first step was to qualify for the Olympic trials, but only the top 12 all-around finishers at the USA Championships would advance to the trials.
Jackson tied for 13th.
“It was devastating. I wanted to do college gymnastics and I wanted to earn a scholarship one day, but the Olympics was the highest competition and was my foremost goal. I thought to myself, ‘I have done gymnastics for this long, and I didn’t even make it.’ “
Part of Jackson wanted to shut it down, give up gymnastics and move on, but she realized that was not an option.
Not too long before the 2004 USA Championships, Jackson’s club came under new ownership with new coaches, Dan and Ashly Baker, and they became instrumental not only in Jackson’s gymnastics but in her life.
“I did not want to compete at the highest level anymore because I was so disappointed,” Jackson said. “Dan and Ashly said that was not an option because they knew I wanted to compete in college, and college coaches would not like me giving up competing at a high level.”
Jackson trained for the 2005 World Championships, but a shoulder injury ended her chance to take part in the competition.
At a time when it could have been easy to give up, Jackson instead shifted her focus and her goals to college. She stopped home schooling and enrolled at Klein High School in fall 2005 for her senior year, and she dropped back to Level 10 to prepare for college.
With her eyes focused on collegiate gymnastics, that’s when LSU stepped to the forefront.
“I liked how the LSU coaches recruited me hard, and D-D Breaux came to my school and cared about me as a person and not just as an athlete,” Jackson said. “I really liked the coaches, and LSU was close to my home.”
From the moment she signed a letter of intent to compete at LSU, Jackson had her eyes on the top individual goal for any collegiate gymnast – to become the all-around national champion – and she was determined to lead the team in any way she could.
“She always spoke her mind, and you knew exactly where she stood,” Breaux said. “Every year Susan became more and more of a leader, but by her senior year she wasn’t just talking about it, she was doing it.”
Jackson experienced success throughout her career at LSU by winning the 2008 NCAA vault national title as a sophomore as well as racking up eight All-America honors heading into her senior year, but it was her last year when she truly shined.
She won all-around title after all-around title, earned the No. 1 national ranking for eight straight weeks and began to break school records.
The pressure mounted as the season progressed, and Jackson began to feel it.
“I cared about the team success more because I wanted us to go to the Super Six again, but I couldn’t help but feel pressure about the all-around title when the postseason started,” Jackson said.
Heading into the NCAA Championships in April, Jackson knew she had reached her final opportunity to win the ultimate individual goal.
Blocking out past failures and disappointments, she brought her top performances to the championships and finished with a 39.625 all-around score in the first session.
“Susan had that competitive, killer attitude that you just can’t coach,” Breaux said. “When she walked in the gym nothing intimidated her. The equipment, the crowd – nothing bothered her.”
No one topped Jackson’s all-around total in the second semifinal, giving Jackson the 2010 NCAA all-around national title. Her dream was realized; her goal was accomplished. She gave it her best, and it was more than enough.
Two days later with the pressure completely gone Jackson added a national title on beam to her collection in the last performance of her career.
“Even though I missed out on my major goals in club gymnastics, here in my senior year I was able to put it all out there and give it my all, and in the end I came out on top,” she said. “It was a perfect ending, and I will always cherish that.”