Few have suffered a more momentous injury than Shayla Worley did in July 2008.

One day before the U.S. women’s gymnastics Olympic team selections, Worley fractured her right leg in warm-ups for an intrasquad competition at the Olympic training camp.

She would not be selected the next day. Her dreams of Olympic competition, for which she had worked her entire life and approached so nearly, were shattered.

Sophomore Shayla Worley could be the missing link needed to return the Gym Dogs to the nation’s elite if she can rid herself of the injury bug. Photo by Ally White | The Red & Black

“That’s just the name of the game in gymnastics,” the sophomore from Orlando, Fla., said. “With it being such an impact sport, injuries happen all the time. That said, it was still definitely really devastating.”

Eighteen months later, Worley retired from international gymnastics and began her career as a Gym Dog — her first time away from club and international tournaments. Despite a slow start to the 2010 season, she established herself as a team leader, winning two all-around titles and earning SEC freshman of the week honors twice.

Her improvement as the season progressed even prompted head coach Jay Clark to say that people may be “seeing the beginning of a star being born.”

“For him to say that is a great honor,” she said. “At the same time it makes me want to work harder to be that person — that person I know I can be and my coaches believe I can be.”

Injury, however, curbed Worley’s stardom once again.

A sprained ankle suffered in her eighth collegiate meet, at home against LSU, would keep Worley off the mat for the remainder of the season.

“I found myself wondering, ‘Why does this always happen to me?’” she said. “But I’m a firm believer in that everything happens for a reason and what doesn’t kill you will make you stronger.”

Clark added: “She’s a little bit fragile in the way she’s built. When you start adding the numbers up of the poundings that go on that body, it takes a toll more than it would on others.”

Before coming to Georgia and until her injury in 2008, Worley had displayed her talent as a member  of the U.S. national gymnastics team for seven years, competing at the international level and representing the U.S. since she was 12 years old.

It’s a résumé few in college gymnastics can match, but one that comes with unintended consequences.

The wear of competing at such an elite level is heavy and is evident in Worley’s case, according to Clark.

“She’s got a lot of tread wear on those tires,” he said. “I’ve told people she’s a fine piece of China — you only take her out just every now and then. You don’t put her in the dishwasher, you hand dry her, you put her away carefully and you lock her in a safe place.”

Understanding her own fragility, Worley said she knows what it takes to bounce back from another injury.

“Certain body types are just more prone to [injury] and so I’ve sort of battled it my whole life,” she said. “It’s nothing new to have that set back and have to work twice as hard to catch back up. It’s just another stepping stone in the sport for me.”

Senior Cassidy McComb added: “Shay has such a strong mental standpoint and she’s so able to bounce back from things and keep her spirits up. And that’s just one quality that makes her so great is that she has it between the ears. She doesn’t let anything get her down.”

In Saturday’s loss to No. 1 Florida, Worley posted her career-high score on bars with a 9.925 and has shown signs of stardom throughout the season. But Clark said he’s being cautious with his fragile star.

“She’s a battled-tested warrior of a gymnast,” he said. “She’s been at the top of the mountain in terms of the elite scene before she came here, but that’s a tough environment … We have to bring her along slow. We think she’s a star within our team. We need her to provide leadership and direction in a lot of ways, but we have to be slow with her. We’re not going to be able to throw her out there in the all-around every week like we’ve been able to with some girls in the past.”

Clark said that, though she is fragile physically, Worley’s “battle-tested mind” is her biggest asset. And the mental game, according to Worley, is most of the battle in recovery.

“We’ve all done gymnastics since we could barely walk,” she said. “And these skills we do now, we’ve been doing them for many, many years so really it’s more of a mental game in believing and being confident in displaying them. As far as injury goes, it’s about getting back into physical shape, then the mental part takes over again.”