SHE WILL NEVER FORGET the day, the moment she tore her lateral collateral ligament in her knee and part of her hamstring. After all, it was JaiCieonna Gero-Holt’s 18th birthday — December 02, 2024 — her grandmother was visiting her in Champaign, and she was “on top of the world.” A season-ending injury was, of course, the furthest thing from her mind. Illinois’s young multis talent, having graduated high school a year early and preparing for her frosh campaign under Coach Petros Kyprianou, was engaged in routine hurdle practice.
“I went over one hurdle and — I didn’t trip or anything, I didn’t clip it — but I went over the hurdle and my spike, for whatever reason, got stuck in the track,” she recalls. “So my body was propelling forward but my foot was back, right? My left leg locked out and my knee and my leg and my body went like, ‘Boom!’ And there was the tiniest thing, so I ended up crashing into the next hurdles and I was like, ‘Oh my gosh!’”
Gero-Holt can laugh a little at it now. “And they always say I did it in slow motion, like a cartoon character.”
But she couldn’t get up or bend her leg. The first thought was she had sprained her knee, but an MRI two days later revealed the severity of the injury. “The doctor said ‘We gotta get you into surgery, and fast, because if we wait too long, there’s gonna be nothing to repair.’” Successful surgery followed, a week after her birthday. She was “scared… and going ballistic” at first, “but everything went smooth.”
So Gero-Holt reset her sights to redshirt, which she and Kyprianou had already discussed even before she got hurt. The Emerald Ridge grad (Puyallup, Washington) had jettisoned her senior year — “I kind of felt like I had outgrown high school in a way, which [I know] sounds like ‘What are you talking about?’” — but that first collegiate season was on hold and months of recovery were staring her in the face.
Flash forward almost 14 months to January 23, 2026, and someone was ready to show folks what they’d been missing. One of the marks of a champion is the ability to not only get back where you were after injury or surgery, but actually come back stronger and better. Gero-Holt certainly demonstrated at the Illini Challenge last weekend that might be the case.
In her first multi since the ’24 U.S. Junior heptathlon, she racked up 4229 points, a 125-point improvement on her previous indoor pentathlon best. That included an 8.59 PR in the 60H, an 18-6 (5.64) long jump, 6-½ (1.84) high jump, a 45-6-½ (13.88) shot PR and a 2:31.37 for 800 — all good for 3rd in a field that included teammate Lucie Kienast and ’24 USATF pentathlon champ (and Illini assistant coach) Cheyenne Nesbitt.
How happy was Gero-Holt with that kind of result out of the gate?
“Well, I always know that I have more in the tank,” she says. “My biggest goal isn’t necessarily a specific time or jump, it’s just inching forward, trying to beat who I used to be.
“So I was really actually excited. I think one thing that helped too, my coach gave me a little pep talk. Whenever I’m struggling a little bit, he’ll always say, ‘Just go out there and be Jai.’”
Kyprianou was impressed, if not necessarily surprised. “She was probably the most mature 16-year-old I’ve ever met and recruited,” he says. “Coming out of high school as a junior, you expect somebody that is very insecure and scared, but she’s turned out to be one of the best leaders I have right now. She’s just a very strong and self-motivated individual.
“It all comes from personality. I think she has that self-confidence, which I’m pretty sure comes from her grandmother. She basically did an amazing job with her, instilling confidence and really teaching her how to be self-dependent.”
“I think that’s played a huge part in her recovery, if I had to pinpoint one thing. I mean, that just comes from within.”
Kyprianou says Gero-Holt was good to compete last April, but “we decided to just take it easy and not rush anything. Points will come eventually; the same thing I did with [his former UGA multi-eventers] Kendell [Williams] and Anna [Hall], you know?”
Gero-Holt feels she’s the strongest she’s ever been. “As crazy as it may sound, getting hurt was truly a blessing because it was like God telling me, ‘You need to pipe down,’ and He needed to humble me really quick. And it made me fall in love with my sport more… I craved being out there.
“And I’m just so grateful to be healthy, to just have fun and fall in love with it again, like when I was 7 years old. I truly think that my injury helped me grow closer to God, appreciate the ability that He has given me more and truly understand and not take anything for granted.”
As one of her teammates said to her, “You never know if this could be your last meet or not.”
