We routinely see athletes at the highest level accomplish amazing feats. What we don\u2019t regularly see them do?\u00a0Wear glasses.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
While over 60% of the general population ages 18 to 34 requires glasses or contacts, professional athletes in the NHL, NBA, MLB,\u00a0and NFL average between 16% and 30%, according to a 2010 study by Michael Peters, team optometrist for the NHL\u2019s Carolina Hurricanes.\u00a0And in my 30 years following and competing in gymnastics, I have never seen an elite gymnast compete at the international level while wearing glasses.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
That hasn\u2019t stopped\u00a0Morgan Hurd,\u00a0a petite young woman who wears glasses, loves Harry Potter,\u00a0and\u00a0recently\u00a0won the gymnastics world championship title. It\u2019s a startling accomplishment for a\u00a016-year-old who, just three years ago, was watching the competition on TV.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
Hurd is one of the first elite gymnasts to compete at the international level while wearing glasses fit with a neoprene strap, something she does proudly and for efficiency, she says.<\/p>\n
\u201cI tried contacts,\u201d\u00a0she explained to\u00a0FloGymnastics.com\u00a0in a recent interview, \u201cbut they made my eyeballs dry, and when I got stuff in my eyes, I had to take them out and put them back in.\u201d<\/p>\n
Adopted as a toddler from China, Hurd counts herself lucky for the \u201cvillage\u201d of people \u2014 her mom, coaches, teammates, and fans \u2014 who surround her with love and support.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
At First State Gymnastics in Newark, Delaware, Hurd has been dedicated to achieving her dream of becoming an elite gymnast since joining the pre-team at 6 years old.<\/p>\n
\u201cFrom a young age, Morgan has been such a hard worker, taking at least twice as many turns as her teammates,\u201d her coach,\u00a0Slava Glazounov, told FloGymnastics. \u201cYou can tell she wants it. Morgan comes in every day ready to work.\u201d<\/p>\n
Outside the gym, she can be found watching Netflix, reading John Green\u2019s new release, \u201cTurtles All the Way Down,\u201d and freaking out after\u00a0J.K. Rowling sent a congratulatory tweet to her after her big win at the Worlds.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
It\u2019s easy to see how Hurd\u2019s appeal in and out of the gym can be inspiring for athletes of all ages.\u00a0But fellow bookworm, activist, and writer\u00a0Keah Brown\u00a0says athletes like Hurd can help push the conversation forward about what representations of champions and heroes look like in our culture today \u201csimply by existing.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cBy performing in her glasses, Morgan is simply saying, \u2018This is what I look like, and I\u2019m still an athlete regardless,\u2019\u201d\u00a0said Brown, who founded the #DisabledAndCute movement. \u201cTo see somebody who looks more like you doing something so extraordinary will make the person watching feel like anything is possible.\u201d<\/p>\n
Slate\u2019s\u00a0Josh Levin agrees. In a recent post he wrote in praise of Hurd, he said,\u00a0\u201cThose of us in the legion of four-eyed Americans can sometimes feel as if athletic prowess is a blurry, far-away thing. I now see that if I squint hard enough, I too can be the world gymnastics champion. Thank you, Morgan Hurd.\u201d<\/p>\n
In the tradition of her bespectacled athletic foremothers and forefathers — such as the NBA\u2019s all-time leading scorer Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, and tennis star Billie Jean King — Hurd has a vision for much more positive change through sports. She recognizes that gymnastics is a language that can break down barriers between countries and cultures.<\/p>\n
She wrote in a recent post on Instagram: \u201cAlthough we all may not speak the same tongue, we have the same passion, and that is what brings us together.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
Share image by Minas Panagiotakis\/Getty Images.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" We routinely see athletes at the highest level accomplish amazing feats. What we don\u2019t regularly see them do?\u00a0Wear glasses.\u00a0 \u00a0 While over 60% of the general population ages 18 to 34 requires glasses or contacts, professional athletes in the NHL, NBA, MLB,\u00a0and NFL average between 16% and 30%, according to a 2010 study by Michael…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1082","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/googmn.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1082","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/googmn.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/googmn.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/googmn.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/googmn.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1082"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/googmn.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1082\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/googmn.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1082"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/googmn.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1082"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/googmn.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1082"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}