Injury and adversity runs in the blood of every athlete. Behind
all the glitz and glamour lies the struggle, the dedication, and
the never-ending hope of someday achieving perfection.
And then there is freshman gymnast Ariana Berlin.
Seeing her at Pauley Pavilion, putting on a display of athletic
prowess, Berlin looks like any other UCLA athlete. After completing
another successful vault, she jokes around with her teammates and
her “soul sister,” coach Valorie Kondos Field, waiting
for her score to be announced. A quick glance at her high vault
scores and you wonder if things could be any better for this
freshman.
But only Berlin knows the magnitude of it all. Only she knows
how nearly her dream and her life had been taken away from her.
“Honestly, she didn’t cry in the hospital. She
didn’t cry in the whole recovery either. The only time she
cried was when the doctor said she couldn’t do gymnastics
again. That was her life and at the time, we thought her dream had
been taken away from her,” Susan Berlin, Ariana’s
mother, said.
Berlin began doing gymnastics when she was 3. Growing up in San
Diego, her parents made the 90-minute drive almost daily to bring
her to Orange County, where she trained.
“I love doing gymnastics. I’m a big daredevil and I
love doing tricks. I love trying to do things that no one has done
before. So being in the air and twisting and turning, it’s
all really exciting for me,” Berlin said.
Concerned about her obsession with gymnastics, her parents
enrolled Berlin in hip-hop classes, hoping to provide her with a
small distraction away from the gym. But it was on the dance floor
where she found her second love.
“Dance is my other passion. It just lets me express myself
in a different way. I can dance off my anger, my joy, any emotion.
It’s a way for me to just get away sometimes too,”
Berlin said.
Then, in a single blink of the eye, it almost all went away.
Berlin and her mother were driving to Orange County for a
girls’ day out at the mall when, according to what she has
been told, a speeding car hit them from behind. The car went
airborne and tumbled several times, leaving Berlin hanging out the
window with the seat belt wrapped around her neck, holding her in
the car.
Berlin does not recall the events of that day at all, and as far
as she is concerned, she likes to keep it that way.
“I never really talked about the car accident. My parents
worried that I wasn’t saying anything and they thought I was
holding it in. But there just wasn’t anything to say. It was
a part of life and I had to move on,” Berlin said.
The accident left her with a myriad of injuries: two broken
legs, a broken wrist, broken ribs, a broken collarbone, collapsed
lungs and pancreatitis, which left her unable to eat. After three
weeks in the hospital, Berlin returned home and began rehab. She
tried to return to the gym, but the pain was just unbearable.
“I was doing okay but on and off, my leg would hurt and it
was more on than off. So it was really hard but I quit. As odd as
it sounds, it kind of worked out. Things happen for a reason. I
always wanted to go to public school and have that experience and I
got to do that,” Berlin said.
Unable to do gymnastics, Berlin turned her focus to the dance
floor. She became the youngest person to ever join the renowned
dance troupe Culture Shock and earned herself a name with her
amazing hip-hop and break dancing moves. That was when “Miss
Val,” as the girls lovingly refer to their coach, came into
her life.
“The accident took away her spirit for gymnastics. It was
only when she met Valorie that it came back to her. Valorie gave
her the spirit to try again,” Susan Berlin said.
Berlin dreamt of being a Bruin all her life. As luck would have
it, Kondos Field was the choreographer for Berlin’s summer
performance at Sea World in San Diego. Although Berlin had quit
gymnastics after the accident, the love for the sport had not
vanished and being with the coach only reminded her of what she had
left.
“She was this 14-year-old shy girl with her hat pulled
down. I was impressed with how respectful she was and how much
dedication she had. One day, she came up to me and told me it was
her dream to go to UCLA and be a gymnast. And that was it,”
Kondos Field said.
The Bruins quickly recruited Berlin, taking a chance on her
despite having been away from the gym for several years. Regardless
of her skill, Kondos Field felt that just her work ethic and
discipline were enough to have her on the team. No one was sure
about what she was getting into, not ever Berlin herself.
“Miss Val didn’t know what kind of gymnast I was
when she took me on. She didn’t even know if I could do a
cartwheel. She just knew I was a hard worker and that I missed
gymnastics,” Berlin said.
The move paid off.
With her hard work and determination, Berlin has slowly returned
to peak form. She has hit all 16 of her routines this year and has
broken into the all-around lineup in the last three meets. Last
week, she had a career-high score of 38.975, finishing third in the
all-around against Cal State Fullerton.
Her success has not just been limited to the gym either. She
earned excellent grades in her first quarter as a Bruin and she
hopes to audition for the world arts and culture major in the
spring quarter.
“She loves life. She’s hard working and she’s
determined. She’s always been a go-getter and she lives life
to her fullest, taking risks and always giving it her best,”
Susan Berlin said.
Her charming personality and her enthusiasm for life have
brought a spark to the team and, along with her scores, have made
her an integral part of the group. Being one of seven freshmen on
the team, Berlin has fit in nicely, putting her past behind her and
focusing on the future.
“Knowing what she has overcome, that really sets her
apart. Whenever I’m hurting, I just think of what Ariana went
through. I think she’s a great role model,” teammate
Kristina Comforte said.
With the season underway, Berlin is looking forward to the
national championships in April. And even though no one ever
expected this walk-on athlete to compete for the all-around, Berlin
hopes to compete for the NCAA all-around title someday.
Yet champion or not, Berlin knows in her heart that she has
already won the most important victory in life.
“UCLA was the only school I wanted to go to since I was 2.
After the accident and quitting gymnastics, I was seriously
planning on going to community college because if I didn’t go
to UCLA, I didn’t want to do anything,” Berlin
said.
“So to be here and be a Bruin, it’s a dream come
true.”