How ‘Flowers for Algernon’ Sparked a US Gymnastics Redemption Act

When Khoi Young stepped up on the podium to receive his team bronze medal at October’s World Gymnastics Championships in Antwerp, Belgium, he took a moment to observe the expressions of disbelief on his teammates’ faces. But then those expressions faded.

The youthful US team had just ended a nearly decade-long medal drought in the men’s team competition, finishing third behind powerhouses Japan and China.

Young, a 20-year-old Stanford athlete and Team USA gymnast competing in his first World Championships, hit three key performances on pommel horse, vault and high bar to help clinch bronze for the United States.

But as he stood on the victory podium, Young looked at his teammate, 19-year-old Fred Richard, who posted the best score of the day on high bar and third-best on floor.

“I remember looking at Fred and we were looking at the scoreboard and I said, ‘You know what? We could move up a few places,’” Young told The Messenger. “Fred was like, yeah, that’s the same thing I was thinking.”

Young wasn’t satisfied. His team wasn’t satisfied. He went on to win two individual apparatus medals: silver on pommel horse (his specialty) and silver on vault (which he says isn’t his greatest strength).

It marked a change from last year, when he watched the 2022 World Championships on TV while recovering from multiple injuries.

But, even with the turnaround, Young’s success only showed him how much more he can achieve.

“We took a day to get it off our minds but then the next practice we had, the day after our ceremonies, we looked at the scores,” Young said. “We could improve here, we could improve there, how could we improve here?”

It was a mindset inspired by some summer reading. A friend on the Stanford women’s gymnastics team gifted Young a copy of the 1966 novel “Flowers for Algernon” by Daniel Keyes and it instantly became his favorite book. But it was even more than that.

“It kind of mirrors how I approach gymnastics,” he said.

“Flowers for Algernon” is a fictional first-person account from a man named Charlie, who has an unspecified intellectual disability. The beginning of the novel includes typos, poor grammar, and a lack of cohesive thought to illustrate Charlie’s education level and mental state. After Charlie becomes the subject of an experiment meant to improve his IQ, the writing style and content of the book changes to reflect his increased intelligence. The story explores the intersection of happiness and intellect, especially as the impact of Charlie’s experimental surgery begins to wane and his intelligence regresses.

Young has his own interpretation of the story.

“He was never truly satisfied with the amount of the gift he had been given,” he said of Charlie’s character.

“The better I get at gymnastics, and the more I achieve in gymnastics, the more I feel there is to achieve. It’s really hard to feel satisfied in this sport, in the same way that he kept getting more and more knowledge, and he felt like he knew less the more he learned. Same with gymnastics, I feel like I’ve achieved less the more I achieve.”

Young recommends the book to other emerging athletes who are looking for perspective on what it feels like to accomplish unlikely goals.

“I think it's very important to search for knowledge and to strive for something great, but I think that you have to understand that getting to that level, once you get there and it might not be what you think it is,” Young said. “I think the book teaches you to not alway strive for something for the goal, the reason to strive for something is the enjoyment you get out of doing it.”

Young has gone through his own arc of treatment, achievement and disappointment in the past two years. While 2023 was his most accomplished year as a gymnast to date, it came right off one of the most challenging times in his career.

Young dealt with multiple injuries in 2022, including a sprained ankle, a sprained wrist and a recurring knee issue. The injuries didn’t prevent him from competing for Stanford during the collegiate season, but the Maryland native says he wasn’t able to reach his full ability.

“Growing up, I never really had to deal with injuries, I was really fortunate,” Young said. “But last year, having to deal with back-to-back-to-back problems, just dealing with it for a long period of time, it makes you question if you can ever get back to the level you were beforehand.”

Young says seeing the other guys in his gym also dealing with injuries helped him determine his own route to recovery. He took a simple approach, focusing on conditioning and strength training rather than science fiction medical experiments. Still it required a lot of extra time to make sure his body was getting all the attention it needed.

“If you really love this sport, you're gonna love it at all times, whether or not you're the number one gymnast in the world or the very last gymnast in the world,” Young said.

Young broke through on the world stage earlier this year when he took home two gold medals (team and pommel horse) from the 2023 Pan American Championships in May. Then, after reading “Flowers for Algernon” over the summer, Young placed second in the all-around at U.S. National Championships, which helped earn his selection to the world championship roster.

“For me, this year was about redemption,” Young said.

Now, after their bronze medal performance in Belgium, Young and his teammates are focused on the 2024 Paris Olympics. The U.S. men’s gymnastics team has won gold just once in the last century – at the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics, which were boycotted by the Soviet Union — and hasn’t won a team medal of any color since claiming bronze at the 2008 Beijing Olympics.

But Young expects that drought to end. While he and his teammates have an immediate eye on Paris, they have even bolder goal for the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics.

“We’re the new kids on the block,” Young said. “If you look at the World Championships, the USA was the youngest team there.

“I think we're hungry, we're young, we have lots of years to improve, we're not in our prime yet, and by 2028, I think we could be real contenders for that gold.”