With a pair of surgically repaired Achilles and a scarred heart, Lynnzee Brown redefined comeback while leading the University of Denver back to the NCAA national gymnastics championships.
Brown, the Pioneers’ catalyst, is a sixth-year graduate student who stars in the all-around. She won a national title in floor exercise in 2019. Shortly after that, Brown’s mom passed away unexpectedly. And adding physical pain to the emotional trauma she’s suffered, Brown tore an Achilles in 2020, then her other a year ago.
Now, she’s healthy and has returned to the all-around down the stretch of this season, ready for her last act as a DU great.
“During her career she’s had some of the highest of highs and some of the lowest of lows,” DU coach Melissa Kutcher-Rinehart said. “Her legacy is significant — national champion, Final Four team, making program history here at Denver in so many ways — then the tragedy of losing her mom, the difficulties of tearing two different Achilles. It’s truly been an inspiring journey for her with so many peaks and valleys.
“She came back for the team and her teammates. She did not come back for herself. She knew she had more to give — and we had more to do.”
Before Brown established herself as one of the top college gymnasts in the country, and before she was a rising star with the GAGE gymnastics club in Kansas City, she quit the sport.
When Brown was in fifth grade, her mother Tamela, who frequently battled blood clots, was in the hospital. Tamela worked two jobs, but the family didn’t have enough money with a young girl and three older boys, plus Tamela’s medical bills, to keep Brown on her club team.
“I ended up quitting for like two weeks,” Brown said. “My coaches kept calling over and over, asking why I wasn’t at practice. We had to finally just tell them, ‘We can’t afford it anymore.’”
The coaches at GAGE saw her potential and offered to foot the cost of her training. Between that grassroots effort to keep Brown involved, and Brown’s brothers and mom working at the gym to contribute to her costs as well, Brown flourished in the sport.
“The whole family got together to make sure she was able to do something that we all knew she was really great at,” said Brown’s oldest brother, Delvon Lee. “My mom, myself and my two brothers would go and clean the gym Tuesdays and Thursdays every week; we would volunteer our time at club booster meets and events to make sure everything was covered for her so she could continue doing this.”
Brown ran with the opportunity.
Once at DU, she quickly established herself as an elite gymnast. She holds the record for highest all-around score at 39.825. She is one of two remaining Pioneers left on the roster from DU’s Final Four team in 2019. And along the way, she didn’t forget who helped her become a champion.
“I like to say I had three dads, with how important my brothers have been in my life,” Brown said. “I didn’t even find out about (getting my club dues covered) until after high school. Looking back now, there’s been so many things that have happened to keep me in the sport. That was one of the big moments.”
After becoming DU’s second national champion in 2019, Brown’s mom passed unexpectedly. The weekend of the national meet was the last time she saw her. Brown wondered how she could keep going, and to do so, she leaned on her brothers.
“Our mom loved watching her do this, and Lynnzee knew that she couldn’t just stop right there, even if she probably wanted to,” Lee said. “So we just made sure we were there for her with daily and weekly conversations, FaceTimes, just so we could all be there for each other and make sure we could move forward in our lives.”
Brown admits it can still be tough for her sometimes without her mom at meets, but that her oldest brother’s ability to fly out on occasion has helped her get through. And she keeps her mom on her mind when things get tough during competition.
“She didn’t have much in this world, and I know she gave everything so I could have the things she didn’t have,” Brown said. “I always remember that, and my brothers are great at grounding me and reminding me that it’s always bigger than just gymnastics, and it’s always bigger than what’s happening in the moment at a meet.”
Brown overcame that void, and her two Achilles tears, to return as a pillar for DU this year. The Pios slow-played Brown’s return in the all-around until midway through the season, keeping her healthy and tracking her to peak at the right time. At the regional meet, Brown posted a 39.800 in the all-around, the second-highest score in DU history behind her own record from two years ago.
“Most people would tear one Achilles and might come back, but not at the level they were prior,” Kutcher-Rinehart said. “She came back and competed at a super high level before the second tear. Then after a second Achilles tear, I feel like 99% of the population would retire, especially in a sport like this. Yet she comes back, and here she is back in the all-around at the national championships.”
In the program’s sixth NCAA national championship appearance this week, DU takes on Florida, LSU and California in the semifinal on Thursday. The top two teams from that semifinal advance to the NCAA Championship Final on Saturday.
However the Pioneers fare, it could be Brown’s final act as a competitive gymnast. She is still mulling the possibility of making a run at a spot on the 2024 Haitian Olympic team but is also considering coaching, an administrative role in the sport or possibly a career outside gymnastics with the degrees she earned at DU.
What happens Thursday — when individual national champions are crowned — is to be determined, but Brown is happy at how far she’s come wearing crimson and gold.
“As first I didn’t know if I could come back from the second tear,” Brown said. “But my motivation was watching my teammates in the gym every day, working so hard. I saw how good they looked and how we could be pushed to the next level if I was prepared and ready to go for the postseason. That vision came to light this past weekend (at regionals). I’m going into nationals prepared to do what I have always done. I know we’re going to do great, so that might be what I need to close out my career and feel really good about it.”
About DU Gymnastics
Coach: Melissa Kutcher-Rinehart (25th year)
Gymnasts to watch: Graduate student Lynnzee Brown (All-Around), graduate student Alexandria Ruiz (All-Around), Jr. Jessica Hutchinson (All-Around), Sr. Callie Schlottman (Beam), Jr. Bella Mabanta (Vault/Beam/Floor); Jr. Rosie Casali (Vault/Bars/Floor); Jr. Abbie Thompson (Bars/Beam/Floor)
NCAA National Championships: April 13-15 at Dickies Arena in Fort Worth, Texas. DU’s semifinal on Thursday at 1 p.m. is on ESPN2; Saturday’s finals at 2 p.m. are on ABC.
How they got here: No. 13 DU is the lowest-seeded team left after the Pioneers won the Denver Regional on April 2. DU upset No. 3 Michigan, No. 6 LSU and No. 11 Oregon State with a school postseason-record 197.875, which is tied for the second-highest score in program history.
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