When the fifth-year senior landed her last tumbling pass and pointed to her exuberant teammates rejoicing in the corral, it felt like Frazier was dedicating the personal-best-tying 9.95 score in UCLA’s regional final meet to her teammates. They made this season — which included a 10 from one judge on her triumphant floor send-off — possible.
“The 10, that was crazy, oh my gosh,” Frazier said, “but the fact that I was able to pull through for [my teammates] and they trusted me to do it, that meant more than a 10.”
Support from her teammates has helped Frazier compete through “crippling” anxiety that leaves her ill during competition and makes her final season of gymnastics her most meaningful. Surrounded by her team on the national stage, Frazier is determined to finish her career on a high note at the NCAA championships starting with Thursday’s semifinal at 6 p.m. PDT in Fort Worth.
The Bruins qualified for nationals as a team for the first time since 2019. Frazier remembers it like it was yesterday.
The then-freshman led off on bars. The Bruins, who were the defending national champions, finished third as two gymnasts stepped out of bounds on floor, signs of heightened emotions during former head coach Valorie Kondos Field’s last meet before retirement. There was so much pressure, Frazier remembered recently.
But surrounded by veterans like Kyla Ross, Madison Kocian, Felicia Hano and Gracie Kramer and then-volunteer assistant coach Jordyn Wieber, Frazier felt free.
“She never had one doubt, one drop of negativity in her head,” Frazier said of herself as a freshman. “Never, ever.”
Sitting in Yates Gym with less than 10 days remaining in her competitive gymnastics career, fifth-year Frazier said she missed her younger self’s confidence. It got lost somewhere between earning first-team All-American honors on bars as a freshman, suffering a troublesome ankle injury as a sophomore, going viral for her Janet Jackson floor routine as a junior and breaking her foot as a senior.
(Jason Armond / Los Angeles Times)
The injuries and years of training left the 23-year-old Frazier feeling her age. While she longed for her freshman-year ankles, Frazier said she wouldn’t change anything about the athlete who will take the competitive floor for a final time this week.
“I love everything about the gymnast that I am now,” Frazier said. “Because even if I’m not the most confident like I was freshman year, I think that proves even more how much of a great competitor I am and how much I trust my team and how much my teammates trust me.”
Frazier had to earn her teammates’ trust again. Last season, she went on comedian Amanda Seales’ podcast and called for a coaching change when former coach Chris Waller and his staff mishandled the fallout of a former UCLA gymnast using racist language. The tension between coaches and gymnasts crushed the team’s ability to perform. Frazier acknowledged that having the program’s difficult moments exposed and discussed publicly caused additional trauma.
“It doesn’t matter who’s coming to me, but someone always does. I’m never up there by myself.”
— UCLA gymnast Margzetta Frazier
She said she wasn’t on the best terms with her teammates when she decided to return for her fifth year. In the huddle on the first day, Frazier said she thanked her teammates for allowing her to come back.
“I sensed a shift in her as soon as she came into the gym starting her fifth year,” said sophomore Ana Padurariu. “You could tell that she wanted to work hard and she wanted to be the best version of herself this year.”
In her first words to the team, Frazier said she only wanted to be an exceptional teammate and “lead from behind.” The leadership style encourages leaders to empower others within the group to take charge. Instead of speaking up in huddles, Frazier tried to focus on spending time with teammates individually.
“The leader is not the one that gets the highest scores and the leader is not the one that speaks up the most because there’s more than one kind of leader,” Frazier said. “My leadership has not changed for me, but I’ve uncovered new depths of leadership.”
Frazier said everyone on the team is a leader in their own way.
Chloe Lashbrooke, a senior whose role in competition has been limited to three floor routines two years after a torn Achilles, leads by her hard-working example. Katie McNamara, who suffered a season-ending knee injury, still sets the tone with her voice.
Jordan Chiles leads with her elite, international experience. Frazier said she even looks up to freshman Selena Harris, who reminds the fifth-year senior to stop trying so hard. Harris’ easygoing confidence reminds Frazier of her freshman self.
From the outside, head coach Janelle McDonald’s first year at UCLA seems charmed. The Bruins are smiling and dancing like old times. But inheriting a team stuck in its longest nationals drought ever, establishing a new culture after the program’s second coaching change in four years and reviving the team’s confidence was hard, Frazier emphasized.
The struggle is what made this season the most fun Frazier has ever had. The former U.S. national team member extended her streak of hit routines to 128. She has never fallen in college competition, and finished her last weekend in Pauley Pavilion with a career-high 9.9 on vault in the regional semifinal before helping spark UCLA’s comeback on floor in the final.
Frazier is the strongest and happiest she’s ever been during her college career but can’t shake pre-meet anxiety.
While Frazier always dealt with nerves, she said it was UCLA’s season opener last year when she first got sick before a meet. She missed part of warmups because she was throwing up and she broke her foot while competing on bars during the first rotation. Since then, her anxiety manifests as illness. At first she wondered if she wasn’t in shape, but concedes she should continue therapy for it. She’s still learning how to manage her anxiety and is looking for advice.
“Put that in there,” she said.
UCLA gymnast Margzetta Frazier competes during an event Jan. 7 in Las Vegas.
(Stew Milne / Associated Press)
During meets, Frazier has no shortage of people ready to help. She shares a pre-routine fist bump with Emily Lee or keeps Emma Malabuyo cool with a quick dance break and the former U.S. national teammates return the favor when Frazier takes the floor or vault.
When the Bruins needed a big score to save their regional hopes on floor, Brooklyn Moors reminded Frazier to keep breathing. Her teammates often shout the message at Frazier from each corner of the mat but couldn’t communicate as easily during the postseason when they watched from a corral. Moors’ words echoed in Frazier’s head as she inhaled and exhaled deeply between each skill and dance break.
“It doesn’t matter who’s coming to me, but someone always does,” Frazier said. “I’m never up there by myself.”
After saluting the floor judges, Frazier raced to the corral to celebrate. When the anxiety started bubbling up in her throat, teammates scrambled. They reached for the nearest trash can or cup. Frazier leaned into a plastic-lined tub and teammates surrounded her, hoping to shield her from cameras and fans.
Frazier smiles at the memory now. She knows her teammates had her back.