After missing what was supposed to be her first college season in 2023 with a knee injury and then suffering a foot injury to start the 2024 campaign, Staten Island gymnast Olivia Greaves finally got a chance to perform for Auburn University last Friday in a quad meet.
And the Tigers were happy to have Greaves, a Tottenville resident, back in the lineup as they swept all three matches against Fisk, Talladega and Temple.
Actually, the redshirt freshman nailed her routine on the uneven bars (which can be seen on X — formerly Twitter — below) much to the delight of the boisterous home Auburn crowd in Neville Arena. Also in attendance were her mom and dad, Danny and Mary Jo, and younger sister Sophia Greaves, who is a freshman on Auburn’s gymnastics squad.
Greaves anchored on bars, earning a 9.875 to finish tied for second in the event in her first collegiate meet.
“My coaches and my teammates lifted me up and made me realize I’m still worthy and I can still do this, and it’s not over yet,” said Greaves, a former U.S. national team member, who attended Abeka Academy in Philadelphia. “That’s what’s been getting me through.
“I have never been this happy ever,” she said. “It’s a feeling I haven’t had in a really long time and I’m really proud of myself. The crowd was so much more intense and I feel like there was much more riding on what I was doing. It’s been a while since I’ve had those nerves.”
One of the announcers commented during her routine that Auburn coach Jeff Graba told them “that having her in the lineup will enhance the (team) score by 1 to 2 tenths. It doesn’t seem like a lot, but it’s a huge difference.”
And Graba, whose team hosts rival Alabama next Friday at 9 p.m. ET on the SEC Network, was quite impressed, too, afterwards.
“Any time you have a story like that, and for it to go well, you can’t quantify that,” said Graba of Greaves’ comeback. “I think it carries the rest of the night. She’s a premier bar…
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