When we profiled Samantha Peszek for the January/February issue of Inside Gymnastics, the Olympic silver medalist was at crossroads. A few months past shoulder surgery and set to start UCLA in the fall, Peszek was unsure if she wanted to continue her Elite career or focus on college gymnastics.

Six months later, Peszek’s commitment to Elite competition—and taking another shot at the Games—has been reinvigorated, but her immediate future remains, well, murky.

“Funny thing, I don’t really have any plans yet,” a laughing Peszek tells Inside after an early June practice session. “My parents ask me every day, ‘Have you decided yet? Do you know what you want to do?’ And, umm, really I don’t.”

Peszek is firm in her determination to enroll in UCLA in the fall, and perhaps even before, hinting at summer school if USA’s this August don’t pan out.

“I’m still weighing all my options,” she says. “I haven’t put a deadline on it. I’m just not far enough along yet. I think I can do it but, at the same time, I don’t want to go out there and half-ass it, if you will. If I compete, I want to compete at my best. I want to be No. 1. Right now, I can’t put in the work it takes to be at the level I know I can be. Hopefully, by the end of summer, that will be possible. 

“It’s doing a lot better,” Peszek adds of her shoulder. “I try and do new skills each week and it’s starting to get fun again because I’m doing my harder skills now on some events. I’m doing routine work, but I wouldn’t say I’m doing full routines. Yet.”

One thing Peszek is prepared to pronounce is that she’s not done with Elite, no matter what happens this summer. “I want to go to the Olympics again,” she says. “So I did decide that. But this year isn’t the year I need to be in my prime. Next year, I’m still planning on training, no matter what. I know it’s so hard, and that no one has ever done college and Elite at the same time, but I’m confident that if I really want to do it, I can set my mind to it and figure out a way.”

That determination is part of why Peszek isn’t over thinking this August U.S. Championships, because she’s certain it won’t be her last chance. “It would be awesome to be able to compete this summer,” she muses, “but I don’t want to risk the next four years in the college, and the next two in Elite. Elite means more to me than just this year. Next year, the year after—I’ve got time and I don’t want to push it.”