Revolutionary Tales: The Eternally Optimistic Gymnast
Revolutionary Tales: The Eternally Optimistic Gymnast
Despite a season-ending injury, GW gymnast Delaney DeHaan uses her energy and optimism to power through rehab and aim even higher when she returns to competition.
Story // Nick Erickson
Video & Photos // Cara Taylor
George Washington University junior Delaney DeHaan has a motor that seems to always be running at Nadia Comăneci levels—a 10.
She brings a free spirit, optimism and genuine joy to all she does, whether it’s leading a Bible study, mentoring youth, diving into a digital marketing project or earning the 2025 East Atlantic Gymnastics League (EAGL) athlete of the year. She has the unique ability to bring radiant energy to the seemingly most idle parts of the day.
This gymnastics season, that character trait has endured a relentless test.
In an alternative world, DeHaan’s liveliness inside the GW gymnastics’ team locker room on this mid-March afternoon would have meant she was gearing up for the Revolutionaries final home regular season meet.
But instead, DeHaan, who just a year prior had qualified for the NCAA regional meet, was hours away from surgery, concluding what most would consider a terribly frustrating couple of months.
DeHaan entered this season following a standout year that saw her earn first-team all-EAGL in four out of five categories–vault, beam, floor and all-around. Early in the fall practice cycle, she noticed a bit of ankle pain, which is fairly par for the course for the physical toll gymnasts put on their bodies. She didn’t think much of it and kept pushing through.
But it got worse.
Determined to get an answer before competition began in January, DeHaan sought medical attention. Initially X-rays showed nothing but it was ultimately determined she had a stress fracture in her navicular bone, a crucial part of the midfoot that supports stability, shock absorption and movement.
Because the bone doesn’t get much bloodflow, healing is fairly unpredictable, even with a cast. At first, DeHaan thought she would be out for maybe eight weeks. But as time went on, surgery became the only option. She had to have two screws inserted and bone scraped off her heel to graft into the break.
Her season was over. Surgery was on the horizon. And yet here she was feeling—excited?
“It’s hard not to be!” she said while perched at her locker inside the Smith Center. “I mean, we’re finally doing something about it.
“This injury is such a unicorn. It makes me go, like, what was the bigger plan?”
This winter was far from what DeHaan envisioned. She spent much of it in a walking boot. She had to take a new role as primary cheerleader instead of primary athlete. After sitting out her first year on campus recovering from an ACL tear she suffered in high school, it was another season off the floor.
But that bigger plan? Come back next season better than ever. And maybe even eye an extra year of eligibility in 2028 to reach that summit.
“I still have these huge dreams,” said DeHaan, a business major concentrating in marketing strategy and analytics. “I really do. I really don't feel like this injury is going to be able to take that from me. I feel like I'm still able to dream big regardless of what's happening.”
“You have to be a little delusional to be good.”
In that case, DeHaan may be just a bit crazy.
Day by day
Being “delusional” may be what’s required to endure what she calls the “grueling beast” of rehabbing while the season passes by.
Rewind back to a Thursday morning practice in mid-December, weeks after she learned the best case diagnosis would mean she was still a month or two away from competing. Yet here’s DeHaan up before the sunrise with the rest of her teammates, getting in a quick lift at the Charles E. Smith Center before traveling 6.5 miles through rush hour traffic to Barcroft Community Center in Arlington, Va., where the team’s training gym is located.
At the start of practice, DeHaan breaks down the team huddle with encouragement for her teammates. Then, she wheels her scooter over to where she would normally be working on her floor routine. Sporting a bright blue cast on her left foot, she sits on a mat just out of bounds emulating what she would do with her upper body if she were in full routine.
From there, she goes to bars, where she works entirely on arms and torso. Ten giant swings around the bar, followed by holding a downward pullup position for a full minute. Despite the onerous physical task, she can’t help but smile when she notices a camera on her.
“That will be a good photo,” she says with a laugh.
She repeats those steps before finishing up on the beam, where she also mimics the arm movements she would do during a routine.
To finish practice, she does some conditioning exercises. And in between sets, she’s cheering on her teammates and offering pointers when she can.
“I love fun. I love being in it. I love the excitement,” DeHaan said, who strongly believes being limited her freshman year while recovering from the ACL injury helped contribute to a record-breaking 2024-25 season. “So the more I sat there, the more it lit a fire in me. I was happy for my teammates, but I wanted to be doing what they were doing. I love practicing. I loved the grind. I loved events. I was grateful—and that allowed me to do my best gymnastics.”
She leans into years of trust with the GW staff, including coach Steph Worrell, who DeHaan frequently solicits outside of practice for advice.
“I show up, do my workout, listen to my trainers, my strength and conditioning coaches, my coaches,” DeHaan said. “I know they all have the best intentions for me. It’s easy to get through an injury like this when I can trust the people around me. They’re going to help guide me back to where I want to be.”
People and perspectives
DeHaan’s family helped shape her outlook. Her father, Kory, played outfield for the San Diego Padres before coaching in the Pittsburgh Pirates’ organization. But growing up in their Florida home, he was just “dad.”
“He is the most humble guy you’ll ever meet. I wasn’t even really aware of who he was or what he’d done, because he never put that on me,” DeHaan said. “Even though I started athletics young, [my dad] never made me feel obligated to follow his path.”
It was her older sister, Reese, who sparked her interest in gymnastics. Reese, who just wrapped up her own college gymnastics career at Temple, began gymnastics at a young age, which, of course, led her little sister to want to do the same.
“Being a year younger, if she did it, I wanted to do it,” DeHaan said. “Obviously.”
At age 5, she opened on Christmas morning a box containing a hot pink leotard. Her mother, Rachel, told her the magic words: “OK, now you are ready for gymnastics.”
“It’s been a wild ride ever since,” DeHaan said.
A self-described highly energetic kid, DeHaan couldn’t get enough of the sport. Being confident, exuberant and fearless, she loved being able to shock people with what she could do in the air, but she also enjoyed the sport’s discipline. While her energy always left her wanting to do the next fun thing, gymnastics gave her a diverse range of events, each being what she calls “creative” and “beautiful.”
Her parents encouraged her and her siblings to pursue a diverse range of activities and, no matter what, always treat people with respect. Those values helped her shape her identity beyond gymnastics and also become a more focused athlete.
“I think there’s a well-roundedness to it—understanding you’re not just a gymnast as an identity,” Kory DeHaan said. “She seemed to really grasp the empathy side of things for other folks and what they were going through, and she came alongside that with a really cool energy and spirit. She always has a smile on her face, and she brings that to the people around her.”
Service is central to her life. In the past two years at GW, she has mentored three young gymnasts through weekly 30-minute sessions, addressing challenges such as injuries, performance anxiety and preseason setbacks through personalized mental strategies.
DeHaan has a leadership role in the Fellowship of Christian Athletes, and she also serves as a co-captain of GW’s Dream on 3 chapter, an organization that gives kids and young adults with disabilities or health challenges an opportunity to live out their ultimate sports dreams.
In February, DeHaan helped organize a weekend for a local teenager to spend with GW Athletics. Along with her Dream on 3 co-captains, she built an itinerary that included joining the GW Cheer team at a men’s basketball game, a pizza party and movie theater outing with student-athletes from various teams as well as a behind-the-scenes experience with the GW gymnastics team at a meet.
“For 20-year-olds to have that level of emotional intelligence and leadership was so impressive,” the teen’s father said shortly afterward.
Leadership is a defining trait for DeHaan, who has also pursued digital marketing internships and opportunities at the university.
In March, she was selected to attend the NCAA's Inaugural Legacy Lab, where she traveled to Indianapolis to join 38 fellow sophomore and junior student-athletes from across the country for a weekend of brainstorming and building a toolbox for turning an athletic career into innovative entrepreneurship.
DeHaan also organized and led a virtual presentation for GW's nearly 400 student-athletes focused on the foundations of strategic Name, Image, Likeness (NIL) in collegiate athletics.
For a student-athlete who loves to fly, she is rooted in character that will guide her far beyond GW. But make no mistake. Her story at GW isn’t finished.
“This whole experience at GW has been life-changing,” she said. “The way I was treated here—the standard of excellence, how we carry ourselves, how we treat each other, how the coaches valued me and made me feel part of a family, I would hope I can be part of continuing that for other gymnasts. Even being a small part of that for four years is really special.”
Then, she paused and cracked a little wry smile.
“Well, maybe five years.”