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Jessica Hutchinson pays tribute to Olympian mom with captivating floor routine

Bulgarian gymnast Silvia Mitova placed in the finals of the 1992 Olympics for her floor routine. Now, it's reimagined by her daughter on the Denver Gymnastics team.

DENVER — When junior gymnast Jessica Hutchinson steps onto the floor for the Denver Pioneers, 30 years of Olympic Greatness flows through her routine.

"This routine is inspired by my mom's 1992 Olympic routine," she said.

Her mom is 1992 Bulgarian Olympian Silvia Mitova, and she has some pretty lofty expectations of floor routines. 

"The first time I tried it, she was like, 'oh no, this isn't good,'" Jessica says laughing about the memory.

Silvia recalls the same moment.

"She always told me she would never do it because we're very different, different style," Silvia said.

After some practice and some adjustments, the two agreed on the finished product.

"Now that she saw it all come together, she's really excited," Jessica said.

Jessica went back to the drawing board and dissected the routine bit by bit, keeping the most distinctive choreography and adding her own personality.

"I was a little worried about it at first because her style is really different than mine, so I worked on just changing it up a little bit," Hutchinson said. "We kept the beginning and the end the same and then I've had some poses here and there that were hers that I was actually able to do well, so we fit those in to little parts. The rest, I worked with a choreographer, who is also a Bulgarian, and so she knows that style really well. She really made it fit for me a lot better."

Even her mother agrees.

"What she did with the routine, it is her routine now and it fits her perfectly."

So perfectly, that she's scored nothing less than a 9.9 in two meets this season. But she still wants more.

"I've been really trying to get a 10 the last two years, so I think it would be really special to get a 10, especially doing this routine," she said.

A perfect 10 would honor her family's story.

"I saw things on Twitter how they're saying people are starting to look up my mom more again so it's bringing her back and bringing the family legacy back and everything has been really cool," Jessica said.

Silvia is certainly back in the spotlight, but she's ready to turn it fully onto Jessica.

"She wanted to do it for me but it's really her and that makes it even better."

A reboot that is finally as memorable as the original.

EDIT: Silvia Mitova earned a bronze medal in vault at the 1992 European Championships. An earlier version of this story said she earned the bronze medal for her floor routine at the 1992 Olympics.

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