As a highly competitive level 10 gymnast, 17-year-old Charlotte Holmberg relies on her years of preparation to safely land the riskiest moves in practice and competition.
“You know not to overthink it, you trust your training,” she said. “Bars and beam have always been my favorites, but I love all the events.”
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Charlotte was in the midst of what she calls the best meet of her life at the Pikes Peak Cup in Colorado in February 2024, when disaster struck.
“I made event finals in both bars and vault,” Charlotte said. “I had the bar routine of my life and was excited for the vault rotation.”
She was attempting a vault known as a Yurchenko full – which is when the gymnast does a roundoff back handspring over the table, flips off and completes a full twist in the air before landing.
“Going into the final vault, I felt a little off,” Charlotte remembered. “I tucked my knees and tried to twist, but my left knee went the wrong way on the landing. I’ve been lucky never to have had a major injury before, so I was hoping it wasn’t serious.”
Unfortunately, this one was. Charlotte tore her ACL and was facing surgery and a long recovery – just four months before the start of the college recruiting process. She turned to orthopedic surgeon Rachel M. Frank, MD (Denver, CO).
“After we discussed all the options, we decided to treat her knee with an ACL reconstruction technique using Charlotte’s own quadriceps tendon,” Dr. Frank said. “In young, athletic patients, we want to use their own tissue. In my experience, the outcomes are better using the quad tendon, rather than a hamstring tendon, with less pain than the patellar tendon.”
Dr. Frank also performed a lateral extra-articular tenodesis (LET) and used the InternalBrace™ technique to improve the stability of Charlotte’s knee and reduce the risk of the ACL retearing.
“Women have up to seven times the rate of ACL injury compared to men,” Dr. Frank said. “And female athletes under the age of 20 are particularly at risk, so we wanted to do everything possible to protect that ACL. Especially in such a demanding sport like gymnastics.”
In order to return to her high level of competition, Charlotte jumped into a yearlong rehabilitation protocol that started with learning to walk again.
“It’s really humbling, and it can be disheartening to know what a long road you have ahead,” Charlotte said. “But I knew that while having the right surgeon was critical, it’s the physical therapy that gets you back out on the floor to compete again.”
About 15 months after surgery, Charlotte was not only competing again, but she qualified for the USA Gymnastics Development Program National Championship as a high school junior.
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“I am 95% back to where I was before the injury,” Charlotte said. “I admit it was a little scary to do a twisting vault again for the first time. Will my knee hold up? It did. I’m back twisting again and it’s amazing.”
Dr. Frank admits that she held her breath when she first saw Charlotte complete again.
“I worry about every patient, including Char. But she is as set up for success as we can possibly make her,” she said. “I am confident in the surgery we chose and that it was executed well, and Charlotte did a perfect job in rehab. We can only keep them in Bubble Wrap so long, and then we’ve got to let them go.”
And Charlotte says she is ready for the challenge as she prepares for her final year of high school competition and has committed to Iowa State University for college in the fall of 2026.
“Qualifying for nationals after my injury proved to me that anything is possible,” she said. “If you have the right care and you push yourself, you can accomplish anything.”