2024-25 Winter Sports Preview: Ferris gymnast Abigail Martin determined to compete senior season despite injury

Abigail Martin is not your typical high school gymnast. She didn’t start the sport as a toddler. She hasn’t mastered every trick in the book. She hasn’t even learned how to do a front handspring. Nevertheless, Martin is certainly an athlete.

She has been playing soccer since she was 4 years old and participated in wrestling, tennis, basketball and volleyball during her childhood. When she moved to Spokane and began her freshman year at Ferris High School, it was the perfect opportunity to try something new.

Although she was playing soccer, she had always wanted to try gymnastics. And thanks to the statewide no-cut policy for the sport, Martin had no trouble joining the team. Over the next couple of years, she learned how to do the splits, jumps and even flips.

As much progress as she made, she was unfortunately forced to leave the sports that she loved so much the fall of her junior year. A soccer injury during her freshman year caused her knee caps to repeatedly pop out of place and it wasn’t until much later that she realized the pain was too brutal to endure any longer.

She attempted physical therapy to no avail and rested endlessly until her senior year arrived and she finally decided that she couldn’t miss her last season of sports. She wasn’t completely healed, but she had allowed her body enough rest to give gymnastics one last run.

“All I want to do is get as far as I can in the little time that I have left,” Martin said.

As she returned to practice, she worried that everything she had learned would be lost. But after a few rounds of training, she found that it was not a hopeless endeavor.

“I came into it and yes, some of my stuff is a little rusty. But it’s all muscle memory,” Martin said. “It all just came back to me, and it was like I had never even stopped.”

Not only did her extended break prove useful for her injury, as her knees haven’t popped out of place this season, but she also discovered a newfound appreciation for the sport. All she wants to do is improve and she is more open to criticism and guidance than she was before.

Despite the immense workload ahead of her this season, Martin has always emphasized the joy that gymnastics brings people as a hobby. Competitors are required to smile during meets to show the judges personality and panache. But most of the time, it’s not just part of the performance.

“After a certain point, it’s not even forcing yourself to smile; it’s just fun,” Martin said. “I mean, you can see it in so many of the girls, too. Everyone just looks like they’re having a blast.”

At meets and especially during practice, the girls on the Ferris gymnastics team have only been supportive of one another. When someone gets a new skill down, the applause and cheers echo throughout the gym. In fact, when Martin finally performed a flip tuck step out roundoff back tuck, it was the perfect experience.

She had been working on it for nearly a whole season and received nothing but praise from her coaches and teammates when she finally succeeded.

“That was really huge for me,” Martin said. “I had a lot of my teammates there who cheered me on like nobody’s business. It was just a really good moment.”

Besides support, part of a typical team dynamic involves a handful of seniors who act as leaders on the team. Ferris only has one senior, and that’s Martin. She aims to be as supportive and influential as the seniors were for her when she was a freshman. It is her job not only to lead but to be there for anyone on the team when they need it.

Her injury may try to hold her back from success, but Martin is going to compete as much as she can during her final year.

“We’re hoping she’ll be able to stay strong and healthy throughout the season,” Ferris coach Hayley Rayburn said.

This is not going to be an easy feat. After just her first practice back, Martin was in so much pain that her legs were shaking on the drive home from the gym. Her love for the sport, however, motivates her to keep going. She may not be the best athlete in the state or even on the team, but she is certainly putting the effort in and doing everything she can to finish strong.

“It’s something I’m willing to put myself through for this little amount of time just to get something that I cherish so much,” Martin said.