Utah Utes gymnastics: Challenges have made a fun season for Gael Mackie

SALT LAKE CITY — Outwardly, when she's performing or shortly after, especially if she's made a mistake, Ute gymnast Gael Mackie sometimes gives an air of distance or indifference to what's going on around her.

Nothing could be further from the truth.

"She's absolutely mortified, absolutely embarrassed by her misses. The look of her is almost an aloofness to that — but that's a cover," said Utah gymnastics co-coach Megan Marsden.

Inside, Mackie is seething with passion for her gymnastics — so much so that she's had to learn to control her inner volcano.

"One thing Greg and I did figure out is that Gael cares — a lot," Megan said about herself and her husband/co-coach, Greg Marsden. "And she's got a brilliant mind that works, and works almost to a detriment. Greg's told her that: 'You want it too much, Gael.' She does kind of have to tell herself, 'Don't want it too much.' "

And that's just what she's done in her senior season.

"This year, because it's my last year, I just kind of was really passionate about making it fun, not just for me but for my teammates and fans and stuff," said Mackie.

The 2004 Canadian Olympian has changed her inner performance personality and become a steady figure in multiple events as the short-handed Utes head into Saturday's NCAA regional at Norman, Okla., the qualifier to the 2011 NCAA Championships at Cleveland on April 15-17.

"I was tired of putting so much pressure on myself that it was making me perform actually badly. And, in a sense, I stopped caring, which for some people, that might not help them, but for me it did because I do the best when I'm having fun," Mackie said.

"I was like, 'I'm not going to spend this year judging myself or expecting things from myself. I'm going to enjoy every second of it.' "

The result is that she's having her best collegiate season and has become an occasional all-arounder again in a campaign that started with rehabbing her second severe ankle injury in less than two seasons and thinking she might be limited again to just doing bars.