Kamerin Moore recovering from injuries, thinking ahead to 2011

After two years away from competition due to injuries in her shoulder and hip, Kamerin Moore is anticipating a return to elite competition, hopefully early next year.

Moore, 14, underwent surgery for a torn labrum in her left shoulder in July 2009. In January 2010, doctors implanted two screws in her right hip, which were surgically removed in June.

"Most of my injuries are not from gymnastics," she laughed. "Basically I was born with things that as I grew more, they got worse, so I had to have those fixed. Surgeries take awhile to heal."

Moore, 14, has trained with Jordyn Wieber at Geddert's Twistars in Michigan since both were about six. She is hopeful that she can earn a place on the senior national team in 2011. In her last major competition, 2008's TOP Gym meet in Belgium, the then-bespectacled Moore finished third all-around.

In an interview below with Examiner.com, Moore discusses the long road back, how the injuries have matured her and how she's going to approach her comeback.

"Right now I've just been trying to get back my old routines," she said.

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Examiner.com: You've been injured and it's kept you out of competition for awhile. Can you give us a status update?

Kamerin Moore: "Pretty much my plans for this year are to get healthy, do a few level 10 meets and basically a year from today try to make the senior national team."

Examiner.com: Was the torn labrum from overuse?

Moore: "You know, it really wasn't one day when I did something. Obviously it was a little bit from gymnastics itself, but I mean, I grew a lot in a few months and after that it just got progressively worse. So after I grew I had to get it fixed."

Examiner.com: How much did you grow?

Moore: "[Giggles] I grew...a lot. John [Geddert] always gets like, 'Stop growing!' I'm like 5'1". I was like 4'7" two years ago."

Examiner.com: You were well known for being one of the few elite gymnasts to wear glasses in competition. When you return to competition, will we see those again?

Moore: "[Laughs] Nope, I don't wear glasses anymore, and a few people are like, 'Oh my God, where'd the glasses go?!' I've actually had people say that to me: 'I didn't recognize you without your glasses!' I wear contacts."

Examiner.com: Does doing gymnastics exacerbate any of these injuries?

Moore: "Little things, but most of it was from when I was born."

Examiner.com: It's been since 2008 that we've seen you in a major competition. What have you been working on in the gym in terms of upgrades or new routines?

Moore: "Yeah, it has been since 2008. I haven't been really able to train full routines since then, so I haven't been upgrading much. Right now I'm just trying to get back my old routines that I've been doing."

Examiner.com: Has it been hard on your body to train given the surgeries?

Moore: "They're healing pretty good. I've had a few minor setbacks, but they're for the most part all the way healed and I'm just getting back my routines now."

Examiner.com: There have been a few rumors that you've stopped training or were considering quitting gymnastics. True or not true?

Moore: "Since my surgeries I've always had plans of coming back to elite. And after my first surgery when I found out I had to have another surgery on my hip...I mean, I think some people just assumed I was too hurt to compete anymore, but I'm fine. I'm planning on doing elite, planning on doing senior national team next year if I make it. So I do still have plans of doing elite."

Examiner.com: Do you have a goal in mind?

Moore: "My big goals [smiles]. Pretty much the same as they've always been. A year from now I'd like to be on senior national team, hopefully make World team, and then Olympics after that. I'd like to do that."

Examiner.com: Do you think NCAA gymnastics might be in your future as well?

Moore: [Laughs] "I am a little young...but I do think about that. I do plan on doing collegiate gymnastics."

Examiner.com: Have you gotten a new floor routine since 2008?

Moore: "I do have a new floor routine! I actually got it a year ago but I haven't been able to compete it. Hopefully by the end of this year I'll be able to compete it. That's really exciting."

Examiner.com: Is there a particular meet you'd be shooting to come back for?

Moore: "I really don't know what meet exactly I'll be competing in next, but probably just a smaller level 10 meet, just to get back into competing and getting used to competing again before I have to do bigger meets."

Examiner.com: How many years have you been training with Jordyn Wieber now?

Moore: "Oh my God, I've been training with her since we were six? Yeah, it's been like, eight, maybe nine years. We pretty much know everything about each other. It's really fun at the gym, because everyone at our gym really knows each other."

Examiner.com: What's Jordyn like to train with?

Moore: "She's really fun. She's really serious during practice, and she gets really focused. But she can be really fun and gets really exciting to hang out with."

Examiner.com: Have you been able to talk with her about the injuries to her ankles since we've been here in Hartford at the U.S. Championships?

Moore: "I haven't really talked to her about that, no. But it seems like she just tweaked her ankle and is keeping it low for now."

Examiner.com: What about John Geddert? What's he like in the gym?

Moore: "He...it's kind of interesting to explain because he's a coach, so obviously he has to be hard on you. But he's also, he's like a father figure to everyone in the gym. He knows your certain type of training. He knows what you need to do to get better. He knows how to push you, and certain people need different coaching. He knows how to work with everyone."

Examiner.com: What sort of coaching do you feel you need?

Moore: "I need someone to just keep me on track and focus on what I'm doing. After my surgeries, I had like months where I couldn't do anything. And he had to come up with a plan for me to...he had to come up with like a year plan to get me back on track: 'You have to do this now, this later, and he had to really keep me focused in the gym because otherwise I would get bored. He had to come up with stuff for me to do to help me heal."

Examiner.com: What sort of things were you doing in the gym after your surgeries?

Moore: "I couldn't vault, tumble, couldn't do anything on beam or bars. So basically in the gym I would work on a lot of flexibility, a lot of rehab and a lot of conditioning. I couldn't do much, but he kept me busy."

Examiner.com: Do you watch "Make It or Break It?" at all?

Moore: "[Laughs] Oh my God. I don't know... I mean, it seems kind of unrealistic, but it is a funny show to watch. I do watch it sometimes."

Examiner.com: Do you feel that your injuries and what you had to go through has changed you as a gymnast, or as a person?

Moore: "During my injuries, I feel like I've really had to mature in how I think about things. I had to start thinking about how I'm going to get back, how I'm going to like, figure everything out for Worlds and Olympics and all that, because it's a lot closer now than it was two years ago when I got hurt. So I feel like it's just helped me really think about what I'm going to do in the next few years."

Photo gallery: Enjoy more as-yet-unseen images from the junior women's competition at the U.S. Championships in the photo gallery below.

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