"I had completely lost hope in my recovery"- Shilese Jones pens emotional note as she celebrates milestone in gym after shoulder surgery

Shilese Jones reflected on her past days emotionally and celebrated a milestone at the gym after returning to action seven weeks after undergoing a shoulder surgery. She has faced a series of injury setbacks since the 2024 U.S. Olympic Trials, which led to the abrupt end of her debut Olympic dreams.

Though the beginning of her 2024 season at the Core Hydration Classic was smooth, she withdrew from the US Championships, citing a shoulder injury. Things took a turn for the worse at the US Olympic trials when she botched and hurt her knee during a vault warmup, later confirming that she tore her meniscus and ACL.

Jones was away from the mat for the rest of the year but resumed gym on January 1, 2025. However, she underwent another surgery in April and shared recovery updates on social media. In her recent Instagram post, Jones revealed that another shoulder surgery followed, and how she lost hope of getting better ever again.

As she resumed her gym sessions seven weeks later, the 23-year-old celebrated the milestone and expressed gratitude for the journey, writing:

"7 weeks post shoulder surgery ✨ Just three months ago, I had completely lost hope in my recovery. No matter how hard I worked, it felt like I wasn’t making any progress. After two knee surgeries and countless setbacks, I never imagined I’d be tumbling again for the first time since June 28, 2024 🫶🏽 The journey is still far from over, but I’m learning to celebrate every milestone along the way 🤍Today was my first cast handstand post-surgery — one day at a time, and so grateful for the progress and the journey."

Shilese Jones, who began her senior elite career in 2018, was part of the gold-winning team at the 2022 World Gymnastics Championships. She was also the all-around silver medalist behind Brazil's Rebeca Andrade and medaled in the uneven bars as well. In the 2023 Worlds edition, she repeated the feat, helping the US women's team to its seventh straight global title and also clinching the all-around and uneven bars bronze medals.

Shilese Jones graced the US Classic mat this year in a special role

Shilese Jones at the 2024 Core Hydration Classic - (Source: Getty)

Shilese Jones, though not a participant at the US Classic and Hope Championships, which took place in July 2025, attended the event as a coach of the Ascend Gymnastics team. She then shared the official announcement on her Instagram story, reacting with heart, teary-eyed, and love emojis.

Shilese Jones first competed at the US Classic as a junior in 2014. She achieved her first podium in the event in 2019, having finished in third place on vault behind Jade Carey and Aleah Finnegan.

About the author

Agnijeeta is a US Olympics journalist at Sportskeeda. She holds a Master’s degree in English and has worked as a school teacher, a blogger, a content writer and a sports writer over the past 5 years. A lover of high-adrenaline track and field events, she was also a sprinter during her school days.

Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone happens to be her favorite Olympian, and the athlete’s feat of breaking four records within 13 months inspires her, apart from the American's body language on and off the track. Grant Hackett swimming with a partially dysfunctional lung and winning gold in Athens is her all-time favorite Olympic moment.

Agnijeeta believes that deriving of unique angles from podcasts and interviews carried out by Olympics.com, along with hype-building of potential Olympic events on social media can help fill the coverage gap during the off season.

When not at her work desk, Agnijeeta likes to sing and paint. She also plays string instruments like guitar and ukulele and is an avid player of word puzzles.

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Edited by Agnijeeta Majumder