Luisa Blanco knows her gymnastics career has an expiration date.
The funny thing is, the older the recent Alabama graduate gets, the more it seems to keep getting pushed back.
For a long time, the 22-year-old Blanco figured her final season with the Crimson Tide this spring would be it. Then she qualified to compete for Colombia in the Paris Olympics at last year's Pan Am Games, a dream she had long ago abandoned.
And while Blanco — a Texas native whose family is from Colombia — is focusing her attention on getting prepared for the Games, she is not sure she wants to see this chapter of her life end with the closing ceremony.
''Part of me wants to do gymnastics forever,'' Blanco said. ''It's something that is not easy to walk away from.''
She's hardly alone. Every year dozens of collegiate or elite athletes reach a crossroads where opportunities to continue vanish. They graduate. Or they get hurt. Or burned out. Or some combination of the three.
Starting next year, however, there could be an alternative.
The Global Impact Gymnastics Alliance wants to provide women a chance to continue competing until they're ready to walk away on their terms. Co-founders Aimee Boorman, Maura Fox and LaPrise Williams believe the spike in popularity of women's sports in general — from the Caitlin Clark/Angel Reese-fueled interest in basketball to soccer to hockey — and NCAA gymnastics in particular in recent years have created a landscape where a professional league will work.