Seven years ago, Brennan Ghattas ’22 joined a jump rope team under pressure from her school friends who were also members. “From the first practice, I fell in love with the sport and everything that it was.” Her teammates, she says, “are amazing athletes who taught me what a good person was and what a work ethic was supposed to look like.”
Jump rope competitions have 15 events split into two categories – speed, or number of jumps in a set time, and freestyle, a routine with tricks and flips – with singles and team events that include up to five people.
“At nationals, our team would always place first, second, or third in almost every event,” Brennan says. “So our team decided to step it up and join the world competition.”
Eventually they reached the level of grand nationals – all first-place winners competing against one another. At age 15, Brennan found herself facing 25-year-olds. “We ended up doing great at grands and got a surprise. The Olympic coaches were watching and invited the competitors at grand nationals to join Team USA for the Tokyo Olympics.”
Although those plans were sidelined by the pandemic, Brennan continued to practice on her own and maintain her skills and will have a place on the team for the 2024 Olympics in Paris.
