UNC gymnast shines in her last year with a little bit of chalk and a lot of courage

By Gianna Forbis, WRAL Sports contributor

Jamie Shearer is no stranger to pursuing her dreams without missing a beat.

She didn’t allow an awkward fall and some broken bones to derail her dream of making her senior year as a gymnast with University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill her best.

Shearer was recently honored as one of the 2024 Athletic Director Scholar Athletes at UNC. She is persistent and fearless on the uneven bars and in the classroom.

Last summer, right before her senior season was about to kick off, Shearer broke two of her metacarpals, requiring surgery and time off the mat.

“It made me kind of take a step back and look at my senior year more as a whole,” says Shearer.

Family helped her immensely, including her older sister Jordan Dobrucky, who is a Carolina cheerleading alumna and 2021 graduate.

“I actually started gymnastics because she was doing gymnastics, and I wanted to be strong like my sister,” says Shearer.

With two metal rods in her hand to keep the bones in place, Shearer has a constant reminder of the darkness of injury. She balances it with the light of relationships that have brightened her healing process.

“Yes, gymnastics is about competing and skills – but I wanted to be able to make an impact on my teammates and spend more time in relationships, [as well] as growing with people,” says Shearer.

Growing in her relationships and remembering the ones that shaped her at Holly Springs gym, “Sonshine Gymnastics,” keeps Shearer motivated in her last season.

“[Coach] John Thorpe really raised me as a gymnast and somewhat as a person. He was someone that believed in me more than I believed in myself,” says Shearer.

Watch Shearer and the UNC gymnastics team March 23, 2024, in the ACC Championship at Greensboro Coliseum, starting at 7:00 p.m.