University of Minnesota Athletics
All-Around with Ona Loper
11/22/2020 2:00:00 PM | Gymnastics
While spending the summer away from the University of Minnesota due to the Coronavirus pandemic, Ona Loper spent this extra time back in South Carolina training at her home gym and working on a special project with her father. GopherSports sat down with Ona to learn about her newfound carpentry skills and valuable time spent with her family.
GopherSports: Can you talk a little bit about the project you completed this summer?
Ona Loper: My dad and I decided to repair our upstairs porch. Our house was built in 1890 so it was in need of some TLC.
GS: How long did the project take to complete?
OL: We started in the middle of May and ended at the beginning of August so roughly 2 1/2 months.
GS: How special was it to spend that time with your dad?
OL: It was nice to finally have the time to just hang out with him while also learning a few things about carpentry along the way.
GS: Have you ever done something similar?
OL: This was the first big project that we did together but hopefully not the last!
GS: Do you have any future projects planned?
OL: Nothing planned as of right now but would definitely be fun to do something else at some point. Maybe next time I can convince him to let me use the fancy tools.
GS: What was the most rewarding part of your project?
OL: It was fun to see the transformation throughout the weeks and how everything came together at the end. It was also super nice to have a goal to work towards especially when gym and training was really limited. It definitely kept me sane throughout quarantine.
GS: What was the most challenging part of the project?
OL: South Carolina in the summer is very hot and humid so there was that. Also deciding on which colors to paint the floor and beams was a bit of a struggle.
GS: If you could do the project again, what would you do differently?
OL: I’m sure my dad has things he could say about this but I don’t really think anything; it was just a fun thing to fill some time during very difficult and unusual times. It looks better than it did before and that really was the only goal so I think we did a pretty good job.
GS: Final takeaways?
OL: Just a reminder to everyone to appreciate family time as much as you can. I didn’t expect to ever have that much time at home since leaving college so it was nice to have the opportunity to spend more time with family.
