"It was hard to battle mentally" - Joscelyn Roberson opens up on her mental struggles to overlook the pain sustained from 2023 World Championships

Joscelyn Roberson recently opened up on her mental battles to convince herself of her abilities while functioning with gripping leg pain. She faced an injury at the 2023 World Championships and still feels its impact in the Olympic year.

Roberson, the 18-year-old gymnast from the World Champions Center, made her senior debut at the 2022 Winter Cup and swept the vault win in that meet. She repeated the feat at the 2023 Winter Cup as well. After winning two golds and two silvers at the 2023 Pan American Championships, Roberson joined the likes of Simone Biles and Shilese Jones, among others, at the World Championships.

She was scheduled for the vault and floor exercise in the team finals but faced a setback during the warm-up. She froze after landing when Laurent Landi jumped to the rescue and carried her off.

Roberson still feels the impact of the injury, which was more relevant when tears rolled down her cheeks after she landed on the floor at the 2024 US Olympic Trials. She will be a traveling alternate in Team USA at the Paris Olympics.

In a post-race interview, the 18-year-old talked about how she mentally convinced herself to feel fine, despite the pinching pain from months ago.

"It was hard to battle mentally because it was hard for me to be like, ‘You’re fine. It’s just achy.' When January and February hit, and I was still having a lot of pain, I was really down on myself. My support team really pulled me back out of that and we figured it out," Joscelyn Roberson said (via Olympics.com).

Shilese Jones, a medal favorite of Team USA, withdrew from the US Olympic Trials after injuring her left knee on a warmup vault. Kayla Dicello and Skye Blakely tore their Achilles tendons and are out of the Paris roster as well.

Joscelyn Roberson - "I wanted to embrace whatever role I was put in"

2024 U.S. Olympic Team Trials – Gymnastics - Day 4

Joscelyn Roberson felt more responsibility in backing her teammates in the wake of Jones, Blakely, and DiCello's withdrawal. She will jump to the scene whenever her team needs her and be on her toes throughout the Olympics.

Roberson wants people to look at her as the team's biggest supporter and not as an alternate who 'was so close.'

"I wanted to really embrace whatever role I was put in. Being put in an alternate spot is hard, but I don’t want people to look at me and be like, ‘Oh, she was so close.’ I want them to look at me like, ‘She’s going to be their biggest supporter, she’s going to be ready if they need her, and she’s going to be screaming from the rooftops,'" she said (via Olympics.com)

Joscelyn Roberson will join Leanne Wong as the traveling alternate at the 2024 Paris Olympics.