Bridget Sloan does not recall bad moments with her former coach. Only good.
The Pittsboro gymnast has had nearly seven months to process events surrounding Marvin Sharp, who was held on four counts of child molesting and three counts of sexual misconduct with a minor. He was found dead in his Marion County Jail cell Sept. 19, 2015 in what was ruled a suicide. Sharp was 49.
“I definitely had a few rough weeks. It was a very big shock,” Sloan said.
Sloan, whose gymnastics career has lasted longer than those of her peers, will have her final competition in the NCAA Championships on Friday and Saturday in Fort Worth, Texas. Her Florida Gators have won the team title in each of her first three years.
Sloan, 23, not only won a silver medal as part of the U.S. team at the 2008 Beijing Olympics; She is the only woman ever to win U.S., world and NCAA championships in the all-around.
From the ages of 4 until 20, when Sloan left for college, Sharp was her coach in Indianapolis. She said it helped to be in Gainesville, Fla., when Sharp was arrested.
“I told my parents, 'I want to be kept out of it,' ” Sloan said. “There was nothing I could do in Florida to help or fix anything.”
She added: “Marvin was a very, very important person in my life. He will always be an important person in my life. No one will ever be able to take away what we went through and what we accomplished together.”
She said the time around Sharp’s Aug. 24, 2015 arrest and subsequent suicide was “one of the hardest things I’ve had to go through.” She said she never experienced any of the crimes Sharp was accused of committing and did not feel threatened.
She said she told her parents: “I hope you realize, I would never stay quiet about something like that. Ever.”
Sloan and her coach were “very close,” she said.
“When we were in the gym, it was strictly coach and athlete,” she said. “Nothing else.”
College represented a reboot for Sloan's athletic career after injuries – ankle, pectoral muscle and bicep – interrupted training in 2010, 2011 and 2012. She delayed enrollment after graduating from Tri-West in order to try for another Olympic Games. But she had to withdraw from the 2012 Olympic Trials after hurting her elbow in warmups.
Sloan has often stated that team emphasis, reduced training hours and simplified routines contributed to her renewed enthusiasm for gymnastics.
“I think elite can definitely wear you down,” she said. “It can burn you out. College kind of gives you the love of sport back to you again.”
Sloan’s lone NCAA all-around title came when she was a freshman, but she has been the Gators’ leader. She made an error in preliminaries at last year’s NCAAs, clearing the way for Florida teammate Kytra Hunter and Olympic teammate Samantha Peszek of UCLA to share the title. But in the next day’s team final, Sloan produced a score that would have beaten both.
She has set or tied school career records for event titles (90) and perfect 10s (eight). She is coming off a repeat regional title and is ranked No. 1 in the NCAA in the all-around.
She “has a spirit unlike many,” first-year Florida coach Jenny Rowland said. Sloan helped the Gators transition from longtime coach Rhonda Faehn, who became a senior vice president of USA Gymnastics after last season.
“I really feel that her leadership this year and everything that she has done in the gym, everything she’s done outside the gym, has definitely carried over to the rest of the team,” Rowland said.
Sloan has grown from shy 15-year-old at a 2008 pre-Olympics summit to celebrity to veteran collegian. The best four years of her life have been in Gainesville, she said, but never pretended gymnastics would last indefinitely.
She is graduating with a communications degree. She might enroll in graduate school, or she might try to join Peszek, another Indianapolis area native, in a broadcast booth. Sloan said she has applied for jobs but remains flexible.
“I’m going to dip my toes in the water and see what’s out there,” she said.
