A knee injury forced Bailey Bunn to change her gymnastics, but she’s still a difference maker for Kentucky

It’s not a new story: the athlete who overcame a seemingly career-ending injury and comes back better than ever, but in Bailey Bunn’s version, there’s a twist. 

Bunn had started her sophomore season with a bang, performing on three events for the Wildcats (bars, beam, and floor). After a successful freshman season saw her named to the All-SEC and All-SEC Freshman teams, she was on a high.

But at a routine practice just days before the Arkansas meet in 2022, Bunn was running through her floor routine when a short landing put her on a path that led to four surgeries and two years of physical therapy. She was performing a front handspring to Rudi when she landed while still twisting. This motion caused her left kneecap to dislocate and rip off all the cartilage in her knee. 

“It was very disheartening when it first happened,” Bunn said. “But my coach had a conversation with me and was like, ‘Look you can be mad, of course you’re gonna be mad, but after you’re done feeling this way, never turn back.’”

Bunn took her coach’s advice and became determined, deciding to use the experience to her benefit. After gymnastics, she plans to become an emergency medicine physician, so she saw this as an opportunity to see through the lens of her future patients. 

“I decided to really focus on the little accomplishments that I had, and I accepted my new role as a cheerleader for the team,” Bunn said of her role on the team after the injury. “I knew that I was going to be able to be there for others whenever they got hurt because I would understand what they had gone through.”

Bunn and her physical therapist were shocked at just how quickly she bounced back from her surgeries. She was told it would take 12-14 months to fully heal and that she may not be able to do gymnastics the same way again, but by September 2022, she was beginning to train skills.

“She really exceeded expectations,” said Richard Watson, Bunn’s physical therapist. “She was back several months before the average person and what we expected. And that was a tribute to just her pure will and determination – her can-do attitude.”

Bunn said that her fast recovery can be partly attributed to medical innovation. The Bioness L360 device is a therapeutic electrical stimulation device that helps build muscle strength while the patient is participating in everyday life. Bunn said she would wear the device while studying, eating, stretching, or just laying in bed, and she could tell it made a difference.

Despite recovering quickly after both surgeries her sophomore year and both surgeries her junior year, Bunn would find that she couldn’t do gymnastics the same way as she had before her injury. 

“I’ve had to figure out how to do gymnastics a little bit different,” Bunn said. “I had to figure out how to do gymnastics on an unstable leg.”

Bunn came to the hard decision to officially retire vault due to the stress it put on her knee. She said the decision was so difficult because she would never have the chance to compete all-around again. 

“I miss it,” Bunn said. “It’s very rare for college gymnasts to be able to do all-around, so after doing it and having that taken away from me, it’s definitely been sad.”

This is where Bunn’s story takes a different turn than the typical ‘athlete overcomes injury, comes back better than ever’ narrative. She may not be able to compete in the all-around anymore, but Kentucky now knows her as a beam queen and bars faithful. Bunn also said she is working to get back in the floor lineup before her senior year comes to an end.

“I’m actually training full floor routines and really hope to be in sometime this season,” Bunn said.

Bunn emphasized that she was going to do whatever it took to help her team, and that consistency was her main goal. She has applied what she learned while injured to her mindset this season; she’s been focusing on the little accomplishments, and they’ve added up to season highs so far of 9.95 on beam and 9.875 on bars.

Bunn said she feels so lucky to be able to contribute each meet, especially with the monumental season the Wildcats are having. Kentucky is currently ranked No. 5 overall and is consistently pushing that 198 mark, making them favorites to go far in the postseason.

“I’m very grateful to be where I am with this team,” Bunn said. “I don’t think that we realized exactly how good we were until we started competing. And now, the sky’s the limit for us.”

According to Watson, Bunn will have to undergo sporadic physical therapy and possible procedures to take care of her knee throughout her life, but for right now, she’s purely focused on Team 50.

Whether she’ll be a member of Team 51 is still up in the air; Bunn has been offered to return for a fifth year next season, but she said she’ll wait to make her decision until Team 50 finishes what they’ve started.