After almost 20 years in gymnastics, redshirt senior Nancy Kiner is aware of sports activities from each angle, together with behind the digicam.
During her freshman season on the University of Pittsburgh, a foot harm left her in a boot for 9 weeks — a stretch she remembers as “the worst thing in the world.” Shut out from observe and competitors, she picked up a digicam on the sidelines, first to remain linked to the game and ultimately as one thing extra, a shift that led her to alter her main to images.
What started as a option to cross the time rapidly turned a second ardour, a craft she might grasp and a option to really feel the adrenaline of competitors when her physique wouldn’t permit it. Her curiosity in images started the summer season earlier than highschool after her medical doctors warned that gymnastics may not all the time be an possibility after a shoulder harm — a pastime she leaned on once more after her foot harm.
“Everyone should have a photography,” Kiner stated. “It should be ingrained in athletes to have that, because when you have injuries like the concussion or the surgery, or the shoulders, you have something else to go to.”
She began off in movie images with a “really old Scottish photography teacher” as her mentor. She stated she was the one child in El Segundo High School who favored images so she turned her trainer’s pupil and eventual “homie.”
After shifting her household from Palm Springs, California to Los Angeles for gymnastics and spending 1000’s of hours over virtually 20 years working towards — from 1 to six p.m in elementary faculty, 1 to eight p.m in center faculty and three to eight p.m in highschool — Kiner stated she sees images as a manner of reclaiming her sense of self. She stated that she seems like she has to “prove” to the world that her gymnastics is sweet every time she competes, however doesn’t really feel the identical manner about images as a result of she will be able to preserve doing it for the remainder of her life.
“Photography reminds me that I’m alive, and that every day I can make something,” Kiner stated.
Since highschool, Kiner has fought by severe accidents, together with two surgical procedures, a concussion, foot harm and ongoing shoulder issues. With ache administration methods, Kiner has stayed in gymnastics with a household legacy to uphold.
Kiner’s grandfather, Ralph Kiner, was a Hall of Fame skilled baseball participant who had his quantity retired by the Pittsburgh Pirates in 1987 and amassed over 1000 RBIs all through his profession. She stated her grandmother was an expert tennis participant and her dad performed baseball on the University of California, Los Angeles.
“I think if my dad didn’t play baseball, or my grandparents weren’t professional athletes, I probably would have been like ‘It’s okay, let’s go do something healthy and super neutral,’” Kiner stated. “But I was like ‘No, I have to do this. This is what I was born to do.’”
A beam specialist all through faculty, Kiner hit each considered one of her beam routines this 12 months with out a fall on the four-inch broad equipment — the primary time in her profession she notched such an accomplishment. Despite not breaking any information or qualifying for NCAA regionals, Kiner stated she was pleased with her one hundred pc consistency price and that it had develop into her “thing.”
“Forcing yourself to be there every time, that was enough for me,” Kiner stated.
Kiner stated she’s drawn inspiration from different feminine athletes who’ve been open about their struggles with psychological well being, like UCLA girls’s basketball participant Lauren Betts and Olympic Gold Medalist determine skater Alyssa Liu, as a result of she pertains to the best way they wrestle by adversity and admire their accomplishments.
In addition to competing for the Revs, Kiner has photographed quite a few sporting occasions for GW Athletics. When she photographed the primary spherical of Women’s National Invitation Tournament sport final month, she stated she felt the “same adrenaline” sitting on the sideline as when she competes. She stated that being on the sidelines as a photographer permits her to get wrapped up within the pleasure of the sport with out feeling the “negative anxiety” of competitors.
When she shot the DC Girls High School Basketball Championship on the Smith Center for Sidwell Friends School, she stated she empathized with the workforce after their loss and needed to instill the knowledge and perspective she’s gained in her years as a collegiate athlete.
“All the girls started crying, and all I wanted to do was go up and be like ‘In two years, you won’t even remember this,’” Kiner stated. “‘Your whole your life is going to be so much bigger than this.’”
Now a senior, Kiner’s time as a aggressive gymnast is coming to an finish. She stated it’s laborious for her to fathom not ever competing once more, however she is aware of the identical isn’t true of images.
“I feel like I’m getting a divorce from gymnastics because I did it for 20 years, and now ‘What? We’re not supposed to talk anymore? I can’t go back and do it at all?’” Kiner stated.
With commencement simply over a month away, Kiner stated she has a number of initiatives deliberate, together with an internship with the League of Filmmakers as a movie reviewer and freelance work with the United States Soccer Federation and the Nationals, with whom she labored with final 12 months. She stated she can be taking a look at making use of to graduate applications in movie, which might preserve fueling her ardour for pursuing a profession in movie images.
“I can be 90 years old, and I could still be taking pictures,” Kiner stated. “And that was what drew me, because nothing could ever push me out. No coach could ever sideline me or bench me, because as long as I had a camera and I could talk and I could argue my way into the scene, I was able to be there.”