LSU members The gymnastics team is scattered around the weight room in various states of stretching.
“Here it is!” Katie Guillory shouts, smiling, clapping for emphasis. She starts pacing, glancing around to keep track of all her athletes.
The strength and conditioning coach is in his fourth season with the Tigers gymnastics program, and he is determined to help the team repeat its 2024 national championship win.
“Katie Guillory has been a godsend in so many ways,” head coach Jay Clark told ESPN. “From the moment he started working with our team, the level of intensity and purpose behind our strength and conditioning program changed.”
For this midseason training session, Guillory wore a white T-shirt emblazoned with the phrase “Built for More.” And he has proved it in the last nine months. Recovering from a life-threatening injury has given Guillory a better understanding of what is possible for himself and his athletes.
“No excuses,” she said. “It’s first and foremost, big, bold, 72 font, at the top of the screen.”
Guillory grew up A multi-sport athlete from Lafayette, Louisiana, just an hour away from LSU. Her dream of wearing purple and gold came true in 2009, when she became an outfielder for the Tigers softball team. But it didn’t take long for reality to intervene.
During her college career, Guillory became familiar with a painful pattern of injury, surgery and recovery. In 2012, when LSU made its third Women’s College World Series appearance in program history, Guillory, a captain, was out for the season and watching from the dugout.
“That’s what it’s like being a collegiate athlete – you’re going to war,” he said. “You’re competing at the highest level, and the expectations are very high. And I think when you go to war, there are battle wounds, too.”
The time he spent in rehabilitation with trainers and coaches inspired him to become a coach himself. But she never imagined that all those hours spent in the weight room were strengthening her resilience for a bigger challenge.
On Friday, July 4, 2025, Guillory joined friends for a hike on the Blind River, a remote waterway that winds through the southeastern Louisiana swamps. She and two friends separated from the group on a wakeboard and a jet ski.
The trio were on jet skis when a large boat passed through the narrow canal they shared, leaving behind a huge scene. Guillory, who was sitting on the back of the jet ski, says he had two options: try to climb the waves faster, or capsize. The jet ski driver moved forward, but the force of the wake still threw Guillory and the other passenger — former LSU gymnast Savannah Schoenherr — out of the seat.
Guillory said, “We were on the air for a very, very long time.” “And I knew while in the air that something bad was going to happen.”
Guillory and Schoenherr fell into the water while the jet ski was moving forward. But amid the chaos, Guillory’s ankle became entangled in the wakeboard’s tow rope. When the slack was gone, it nearly separated his leg from his leg.
“I immediately analyzed everything in a fraction of a second: where we were, what we were going to do, my chances of survival, the chances of this leg actually being able to be reattached,” she said. “All I knew was thin.”
Guillory tells himself to stay calm so he can advise his friends on how to help. He stopped a boat passing nearby and called emergency services. When first responders finally arrived, Guillory was airlifted to Our Lady of the Lake Regional Medical Center in Baton Rouge, where she immediately went into surgery.
“There’s only an hour’s time for something like this, from what I’ve been told, where you can survive, not bleed to death,” Clark said. “So, I mean, we were on the verge of something much, much worse.”
When Guillory woke up the next day, doctors told her that efforts to restore blood flow to her leg were not successful. He will have to have the area below the knee amputated.
“I understood that my life was going to be different from now on,” Guillory said. “I didn’t know what he looked like, I didn’t know the details, but I understood that much.”
Guillory spent two weeks at the hospital, where she received visits from LSU gymnasts and staff. But even these meetings were not enough to satisfy his need for normalcy. Two days after being discharged, she returned to the weight room and delivered a message to the team.
“I’m still your coach, and I’ll train your butt out of a wheelchair for as long as I need to. I’ll train your butt off of crutches or a walker for as long as I need to. I’ll train your butt out of any prosthetic, whether it’s on or off at the time. I’m still training you the hardest I know how, and that’s not going to change,” she said. “We still have work to do, and the national championship is still waiting for us, so we can’t waste a day.”
Guillory and the Tigers have made good use of their time. LSU finished first in the Baton Rouge regional final to secure a spot in the first semifinal round on Thursday of the NCAA National Championships (4:30 p.m. ET, ESPN2). The team is now entering the toughest phase of the season and has witnessed first-hand examples of patience and perseverance.
“She took that accident like a warrior,” said sophomore Kailyn Chio. “To see her step into that role and just go at it, and attack her everyday life without any regrets, it’s amazing to watch.”
Guillory says recovery is going well, even though she continues to face the mental health challenges that come with surviving a life-changing event. But goal-setting – like she does with athletes in the weight room – has put her in the right mindset to move forward.
Guillory’s next goal is to help LSU capture its second national title. after this? Participating at the 2028 Paralympics in Los Angeles as both a coach and an athlete. Guillory will support strength and conditioning programming for the United States national wheelchair handball team. And she has begun training in the long jump, with hopes of entering her first competition later this year.
“No excuses,” she said. “Its as simple as that.”
ESPN’s Taylor Davis contributed to this story.
