The NCAA gymnastics championships have arrived, with many of the sports’ top teams and gymnasts descending upon Fort Worth to determine a national champion.
The semifinals will air Thursday on ESPN while the finals will air Saturday on ABC.
Thursday, April 14:
Saturday, April 16:
In what could be one of the closest NCAA gymnastics championships ever, the competition is fierce. While Oklahoma finished the regular season at No. 1, Michigan is looking to defend its title from last year and Florida had the highest score coming out of regionals.
And don’t count out Utah, which has the best beam team — and the beam is often the event that can determine the winner.
“There is so much parity,” Utah head coach Tom Farden said after regionals. “You have to be dang close to flawless to get into the last day at nationals … You can see it across the country how tight things are and it speaks volumes about the level our sport is at.”
There are a plethora of Olympians competing at this year’s championships.
Jade Carey has been tearing it up for Oregon State. She and fellow Olympian Jordan Chiles, who competes for UCLA, qualified as individuals. Utah’s Grace McCallum is competing as both an individual and in the team event, as is Suni Lee, who competes for Auburn and won the Olympic all-around gold last summer.
However, there are others who could contend, such as Florida’s Trinity Thomas, who pulled out two perfect 10s at regionals and has earned a 10 on every apparatus this season.
Thomas will also be huge as Florida looks to redeem itself after spending the entirety of the 2021 season ranked at No. 1 but then placing fourth at nationals.