Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Morgan Hurd. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Morgan, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Before we talk about all of your success, let’s start with a story of failure. Can you open up about a time when you’ve failed?

As a former elite athlete, there have been more times than I could count where I felt like a failure. All though I have stepped away from elite athletics, there are still many instances in which I have felt this way. There has kind of been a butterfly effect that began with one time of failure that has really shifted my path in life and has led me to things that I could now not imagine my life without.

2021 was the new year of the Olympics and in all honesty, no matter how hard I tried to stay positive and remain positive, the extra year really hurt me. I went through four more elbow surgeries and because of this was constantly running out of time to keep up with my still growing body. This led to my failure to not only complete my life-long dream of making the Olympics, but my failure to even advance to Olympic Trials. I had never been so devastated. I had not only failed myself, but my coach who is like a father to me, as well as all of those that believed in me and put effort and faith into me. I can deal with self disappointment, but it was the fact that I disappointed so many others and felt like I wasted their time and efforts that really destroyed me.

Nevertheless I continued to show up to the gym, though far more scarcely, until it was time for me to switch my mindset for NCAA college. A week prior to leaving, I tore my ACL. So now I was coming into the NCAA world with the failure of not making Olympic Trials and now on top of that, being unable to compete and contribute to my new team. My entire first semester I felt like a burden and that I was just constantly in the way. I was simply not a contributor and that to me was failure. The next two years, though I was physically recovered, I never gave myself the space to mentally recover. Every time I competed, which was scarce, I placed an enormous amount of pressure on myself to not fail. I had to prove to everyone, to myself that I was still valuable. That I although I have failed time and time again the past through years, I could still succeed. This mindset really led me to close in on myself, one could even say self sabotaging – being so scared to try my absolute hardest and fail that I held myself back so that if I failed I could say well that wasn’t everything I had in me.

Summer 2024 I grappled with the reality that it was time for me to step away from the gymnastics team here at UF. The team setting was not for me and I had been mentally struggling for quite some time. This was unfair not only to myself, but my team as I felt that I was holding them back just through my presence. I ultimately decided to medically retire and refocus my energy on reigniting my passion for living, not just surviving. I have become a photography intern for the Florida Gators and am so grateful that I did. I realized how much I had been holding myself back, almost clinging to my failure of the past few years, by remaining in an environment that caused it and refusing myself the opportunity to move on. Of course I wish I could say that I was strong enough to continue gymnastics and allow myself to move past my failure, but that just wasn’t written in my story, and that’s okay. Ultimately, failure allowed me to rediscover myself. It allowed for me to realize that I am not just gymnastics. I am allowed to be whatever I decide and that it can change whenever I choose. It allowed for me to remove myself from a place I had been stuck in for years and years and transform into someone I am very happy with today.

Morgan, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

My name is Morgan Hurd and I am 23 years old. I was adopted from Guangxi, China when I was around 11 months old and then grew up in Delaware. I began gymnastics at the age of 2 with Mommy&Me classes and fell in love. I quickly progressed, letting my love and dedication for the sport lead the way. My gym (First State Gymnastics) and my coaches (Slava Glazounov and Brooke Parker) became my home and my family. By the time I was 13 I qualified to become a junior International Elite gymnast and the only one to wear glasses while competing. From then on in 2014 to 2021 I qualified for the U.S. National Championship every year. I qualified for National Team for the first time in 2016 and remained on the team until 2021. During my time on National Team, I was chosen for multiple international competitions, earning many accolades. These accolades include:

2017 Stuttgart World Cup bronze medalist
2017 team gold Jesolo Trophy
2017 World Championship all-around champion, beam silver medalist
2018 American Cup champion
2018 Pacific Rim Championship team gold, all-around silver medalist
2018World Championship team gold, all-around bronze medalist, floor silver medalist
2019 Tokyo World Cup champion
2019 Pan American Games team gold
2020 American Cup champion

as well as National accolades.

Unfortunately due to having to undergo surgery for my right elbow seven times and the delay of the Olympics due to COVID-19, I was not selected to participate in the 2021 Olympic Trials. January 2022 I enrolled at the University of Florida on a full athletic scholarship. I was forced to red-shirt for my first year as I had torn my ACL a week prior to arriving on campus. The next two competitive seasons I competed beam and floor a few times earning high scores of 9.8.25 and 9.95 respectively.

Entering the 2025 season, I made the difficult decision of medically retiring. I am not a Gators Creative intern, photographing and aiding the Director of Photography in all Gators sports even traveling with the Gators gymnastics team as their team photographer. On top of this, I have written for Sparks Magazine, an Asian American student ran magazine at UF and am currently finishing up my seventh article for them. I freelance for student organizations, graduates, and am always open for assignment!

What’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative in your experience?

My entire life, I have measured my value by how well I can perform. Since switching to the other side of the camera, I have found that I am now able to give myself much more grace. I feel that I am gentler with myself as I am not in an as high stress situation. I love being a creative because of how much control I have. Yes, an athlete has control over what they do, but only to a certain extent. You can’t just snap your fingers and decide for your body to be completely healthy or will your mind and body to complete something that you simply are not capable of. Being a creative, I get to experiment with my work, I get to challenge myself in a different way – a way that gets me to look at things from a different perspective without it being detrimental to my safety or well-being. I love being a creative because I love giving people something of themselves that they can feel pride in as well.

We often hear about learning lessons – but just as important is unlearning lessons. Have you ever had to unlearn a lesson?

This biggest thing I had to unlearn is how I measure my self worth. Before, I solely measured it by the accolades I won, the amount of media outlets that wanted to speak to me, and the volume of the crowd when my name was called. Looking back, I realize that I was measuring my self worth all in things that I cannot control and that is not a fair way to measure it. Self worth should not be measured in you titles but by the way you make other people feel. As long as I know I am giving everything my 110%, making others feel seen, cared for, and important, that I am being as good a human being as I have control over, then I can be successful.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://portfolio.adobe.com/578d218d-1a28-4cac-a70e-281834bd8bf9/preview/hurds-eye-viw
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/morgihurd/?hl=en
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/morgihurd/
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/morganhurd/
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/morgihurd