Jordan Chiles, Jade Carey highlight Olympic stars to watch in gymnastics national championships
March Madness may be over, but for college gymnastics the madness has just begun.
Some of the biggest names in the sport — from Olympic champions to social media superstars — will compete in the NCAA gymnastics championships in Fort Worth, Texas, this week. Eight teams will compete in Thursday's semifinal, with four advancing to Saturday's final.
Olympians on the competition floor will include 2024 gold medalists Jordan Chiles (UCLA) and Jade Carey (Oregon State), as well as 2021 silver medalist Grace McCallum (Utah). International Olympians like Aleah Finnegan (LSU) and U.S. Olympic alternates Leanne Wong (Florida), Joscelyn Roberson (Auburn) and Emma Malabuyo (UCLA) will also contend for national titles. LSU fifth-year gymnast Livvy Dunne, whose social media presence has contributed to enormous NIL attention in the sport, will aim to help the Tigers win their second national title.
LSU enters as the defending national champion and the No. 1 seed over Oklahoma, a dynastic program that has won six of the last 10 national titles. The Sooners were the heavy favorites last year after a nearly flawless 2024 season, but a disastrous semifinal performance with multiple falls kept them from making the final. After having held the No. 1 ranking for most of this year, they are well-positioned to challenge LSU and reclaim their title.
How to watch
The NCAA gymnastics championships kick off with the semifinal rounds Thursday on ESPN. The first of two semifinals air live at 4:30 p.m. ET, and the second is scheduled for 9 p.m. ET. ABC will broadcast the final at 4 p.m. ET Saturday.
Both the semifinals and final will also stream on ESPN+.
How does the competition format work?
In college gymnastics, six gymnasts from each team compete in each of the four events (vault, bars, beam and floor), with the top five scores per event counting. That means one gymnast's falling off the balance beam won't ruin her team's chances, but a second missed beam routine might.
Some versatile all-around gymnasts compete in all four events, while some gymnasts specialize in just one or two events. Much as in basketball, winning the NCAA gymnastics championship requires a team to make it through a series of elimination rounds, emerging victorious in its bracket until it is the only team left standing.
Since the beginning of April, 36 Division I gymnastics teams have been whittled down to the 'Elite Eight.' Four teams compete in each of the two semifinal rounds in Fort Worth, with the top two teams from each advancing to Saturday's final. The first semifinal this year will consist of LSU, Michigan State, Utah and UCLA. Oklahoma, Missouri, Florida and Alabama will compete in the second semifinal. Individual titles, including the all-around and event titles, are decided in the semifinal round. The team national champions and three runners-up will be determined by the final round Saturday.
How is college gymnastics different from Olympic gymnastics?
Unlike the gymnastics performed at the Paris Olympics last summer, college gymnastics still uses the perfect 10 system. That makes the scoring much more intuitive than it is in Olympic-level gymnastics. Most of the top teams will earn relatively high scores, but a great score at the national championships will be 9.95 and above. Gymnasts will be deducted tenths for things like extra steps on landings, tumbling out of bounds, and of course, falls. A team can earn a maximum of 200 points in a meet, and the top team is likely to need above a 198 to win, barring meltdowns by all four teams. LSU's winning score last year was a 198.225, meaning it lost less than two points across 20 routines.
Who is favored to win?
This year's matchup is likely to be one of the closest national championships in years, with eight strong teams in the hunt. LSU and Oklahoma are the likeliest winners, but in a sport as precarious as gymnastics, nothing is guaranteed.
After it failed to qualify for nationals last year, UCLA is in the hunt for its first win since 2018. Florida, which arguably has the deepest roster in the sport, can never be counted out, but it last won in 2015. Utah has solidified itself as one of the most consistent programs in the country, and it is the only team in the country to have qualified for every national championship in history. It is often in the top three teams in the country but hasn't won it all since 1995. Michigan State and Missouri are looking to win their first championships.
Carey, a strong contender for the individual all-around, won this year's AAI Award, the gymnastics equivalent of football's Heisman Trophy. Oklahoma's Jordan Bowers is the only gymnast in the country to have matched Carey's all-around record this year, having earned a 39.900 last week with three perfect 10s in one meet. LSU's Haleigh Bryant is the reigning all-around champion, but she has been hampered by injuries this season. Carey also ranked first in beam, while Chiles is the favorite to win the floor exercise title. Florida's Selena Harris-Miranda has dominated the vault all year, and Oklahoma's Audrey Davis is the uneven bars leader.
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