NCAA women’s gymnastics season preview: Olympians and other athletes to watch, key meets and more

Missing the Summer Olympics? At risk of injuring yourself attempting a back handspring in your bedroom while counting down the days until the 2028 Los Angeles Games?

There’s a solution: women’s college gymnastics. The NCAA season kicks off this month and features an increasing number of Olympians bringing the same combination of artistry and athleticism that draws eyes to gymnastics every four years — but with perfect 10s.

Here’s your one-stop shop for how it all works, who to watch and how to follow the season.

How the season works

Most competitions during the regular season will feature two teams facing off in a dual meet. The home team starts on vault while the visiting team begins on the uneven bars. The teams then alternate, competing one routine at a time. After all six gymnasts in each lineup perform, the teams swap events (hosts to bars, visitors to vault) for the second rotation. The third rotation sees the host competing on balance beam and the visitor on floor exercise. In the final rotation, the teams switch events, allowing the host to end the meet on floor (often the event that draws the biggest crowd reactions).

While a few tri and quad meets pop up throughout the regular season, the postseason is packed with multiteam events. These are typically quad meets split over multiple sessions. During those competitions, four teams will compete on each apparatus simultaneously and then rotate through the events in Olympic order (vault, bars, beam, floor).

How scoring works

If you longed for the old-school scoring system while trying to make sense of the results at the 2024 Games, look no further than women’s collegiate gymnastics. This level of the sport still uses the 10.0 system and emphasizes clean execution.

When a gymnast salutes the judges to signal the start of her routine, her score begins at a 10. That number decreases as judges spot flaws like bent knees, flexed feet or steps on a landing. The values of the deductions correspond to the severity of the error. A fall off the balance beam is a 0.5-point deduction, whereas a small wobble will only result in a 0.1-point deduction.

Last season, judges awarded a perfect score 80 times. In the history of women’s NCAA gymnastics, only one athlete has received a 10 on all four events in the same meet — Georgia star Karin Lichey accomplished the feat in 1996.

On each apparatus, teams select a lineup of six gymnasts. All six compete, but only the five highest scores count toward the team total. Because the lowest score gets dropped, this allows a slight margin for error. For example, one gymnast may earn a 9.2 after a routine with a fall. If her five teammates receive scores above that, her 9.2 will be erased.

The sixth score only comes into play if teams are tied at the end of all four events. To determine a winner, all six scores on each event would count toward the team total.

Which Olympians are competing — and for whom?

With college athletes now able to earn money for their name, image and likeness, gymnasts who previously had to choose between cashing in on Olympic fame and competing in college can now do both.

That has led to several current and former U.S. Olympians competing at the collegiate level this year.

Jade Carey, Oregon State: Carey, a senior, is a three-time Olympic medalist. She won her first gold at the Tokyo Games, when she placed first on floor, then added another in Paris as a member of the Team USA squad that dubbed itself the “Golden Girls” after its victory. The 24-year-old also picked up an Olympic bronze on vault this summer.

While competing for the Beavers last season, she tied for second place in the all-around and on floor at the NCAA championships.

Jordan Chiles, UCLA: Chiles, now in her junior year, won gold in the team final in Paris and was briefly the bronze medalist on floor before an appeal led to the International Olympic Committee reallocating her medal in a controversy that is still tied up in the Swiss courts. She also won silver in the team final at the 2021 Olympics.

Chiles took 2024 off from collegiate gymnastics to train for the Olympics, but in 2023, she won individual NCAA titles on uneven bars and floor and placed second in the all-around at the NCAA championships.

Grace McCallum, Utah: A member of the 2021 team that took silver in Tokyo, McCallum is now a senior. She placed second behind Chiles on bars at the 2023 NCAA championships and is an eight-time All-American.

Leanne Wong, Florida: Wong, a senior, was a 2024 and 2021 Olympic alternate. Last season, she tied for first place on uneven bars and tied for second in the all-around and on vault at the NCAA championships.

Joscelyn Roberson, Arkansas: Roberson, a 2024 Olympic alternate, is making her NCAA debut this season, where she will be coached by 2012 Olympian Jordyn Wieber.

Kaliya Lincoln, LSU: Lincoln, a non-traveling alternate for the 2024 Olympics, is also making her NCAA debut this year. She’s already off to a strong start:

International 2024 Olympians and alternates competing in NCAA:

Csenge Bácskay, Hungary, University of Georgia

Aleah Finnegan, Philippines, LSU

Levi Jung-Ruivivar, Philippines, Stanford

Cassie Lee, Canada, University of Iowa

Emma Malabuyo, Philippines, UCLA

Aurélie Tran, Canada, University of Iowa

Sydney Turner, Canada, University of Iowa

Emma Spence, Canada, University of Nebraska

Ava Stewart, Canada, University of Minnesota

More athletes to watch

Skye Blakely, Florida: Blakely was a top contender for the 2024 Olympic team until she ruptured her Achilles tendon during Olympic trials. About six months since her Achilles repair, Blakely is on Florida’s roster and posting training videos on her Instagram. The big question is whether she’s ready to compete, and how the top elite athlete will fare in her first NCAA season.

Haleigh Bryant, LSU: A gymnasts-to-watch list isn’t complete without Bryant, who dominated the 2024 season and is back for a final year as a graduate student in 2025. She helped lead LSU to its first national championship in 2024, winning the NCAA individual all-around title and tying for third on beam.

Olivia “Livvy” Dunne, LSU: Dunne, one of the highest NIL earners in the world, is returning for a fifth season. Dunne was part of the LSU team that won its first program title and posted a career high of 9.9 on floor in 2024.

Mya Hooten, Minnesota: A three-time Big Ten champion on floor exercise, Hooten is a powerhouse who brings sass to her fun choreography and knows how to nail a landing. She’s earned a 10 on the event nine times throughout her career and will likely add more perfect scores in her fifth season.

Helen Hu, Missouri: Gymnastics fans rejoiced when Hu announced she was coming out of retirement for one more season with the Tigers because her beam routine is truly one-of-a-kind. Known for her graceful lines, Hu makes difficult skills and impressive displays of flexibility look effortless.

Mya Lauzon, California: Lauzon was a big part of Cal’s record-breaking 2024 season, which ended with a second-place finish at the NCAA championships. She tied for third on beam and fourth in the all-around at the championships and was the first Cal gymnast to get a 10 in the postseason.

Skyla Schulte, Michigan State: Schulte is a true all-arounder who has scored 9.925 or higher on all four events at least once in her career. She’ll play a big part in the Spartans’ quest to break into the eight-team field that advances to the national championship semifinals in April.

Teams to watch

LSU won its first championship in 2024, with Cal in second, Utah in third and Florida in fourth. All four schools are expected to be contenders again this year.

Those finalists don’t include Oklahoma, which has won seven national championships in the past 10 years. Oklahoma led the rankings all of last season before a series of dramatic falls in the semifinals kept the gymnastics powerhouse out of the final and led to a sixth-place finish.

Stanford went on a surprise run last season to beat regular contenders like UCLA and Denver to the semifinals and finish the season in fifth, while Arkansas, Alabama, Kentucky and Denver rounded out the top 10.

Up-and-coming teams to watch include Missouri, Minnesota, Michigan State and Ohio State. Michigan won the championship in 2021 but hasn’t made the final four since.

And eyes will be on Georgia, which finished the season 18th but recently hired Simone Biles’ longtime coach, Cécile Canqueteau-Landi. The GymDogs built a dynasty under former coach Suzanne Yoculan but have struggled to replicate that success since her retirement in 2009. Keep an eye on Lily King, whose gymnastics often draw comparisons to 2008 Olympic all-around champion Nastia Liukin, and junior Ja’Free Scott, as two stars with potential to lead a UGA rise.

Meets to watch

LSU, Cal, Utah and Oklahoma, Jan. 11, 4 p.m. ET (ABC): Nearly a complete rematch of last year’s championship final four, swapping Florida for Oklahoma. These are the heavy hitters, and the early head-to-head could forecast a title favorite.

Florida at LSU, Jan. 17, 7:30 p.m. ET (ESPN2): Another championship rematch between last year’s first- and fourth-place teams, which are full of Olympic alternates, former elites and NCAA stars.

Alabama at Georgia, Jan. 31, 7 p.m. ET (SEC Network): Georgia is looking to get back on top with the hire of Canqueteau-Landi, and this early-season meet against last year’s No. 8 Alabama will be a barometer of how that’s going in year one.

Oklahoma at LSU, Feb. 14, 9 p.m. ET (ESPN2): Two of the top programs in the country. Expect a lot of perfect 10s.

NCAA regionals, April 2-6 (ESPN+): Held in Salt Lake City, Seattle, Tuscaloosa, Ala. and University Park, Pa., these meets will decide who makes it to semifinals.

NCAA semifinals, championship, April 17-19 (ESPN2, ABC): Eight teams will compete in the NCAA semifinals, and the top four teams will compete for the championship trophy in Fort Worth, Texas.

This article originally appeared in The Athletic.

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