Oklahoma won the 2023 NCAA gymnastics team title on Saturday, the Sooners’ second straight national championship — and sixth title in nine years.

Oklahoma’s dynasty has become so strong that some fans at Dickies Arena in Fort Worth, Texas, were sporting “anyone but Oklahoma” t-shirts — something the Sooners took in stride. They led after each rotation and topped the team standings with 198.3875 points, finishing 0.150 points ahead of second-place Florida. Utah (-0.450) and LSU (-0.862) finished third and fourth, respectively.

Oklahoma was steered by sophomore all-arounder Jordan Bowers and 2023 NCAA vault champ Olivia Trautman.

Also during Saturday’s NCAA team championship, Florida gymnast Trinity Thomas tied the NCAA record for career perfect 10s.

Florida gymnast Trinity Thomas recorded her 28th ‘perfect 10’ on Saturday to tie the NCAA record for most career perfect 10s. Thomas accomplished the feat during the NCAA team final at Dickies Arena in Fort Worth, Texas, with this truly stellar vault (video below).

During her five-year career at Florida, Thomas earned at least five perfect 10s on each apparatus: 12 on floor, six on beam, five on bars and five on vault. She joins UCLA’s Jamie Dantzscher (2001-04) and Kentucky’s Jenny Hansen (1993-96), who also received 28 perfect 10s during their careers. (It should be noted that Thomas achieved the feat during her fifth year of NCAA competition — the result of an extra “COVID” year — while Dantzscher and Hansen both reached the mark in four years.)

Thomas’s status was uncertain in the lead-up to this weekend’s NCAA gymnastics championships after the 2022 NCAA all-around champion suffered a lower leg injury at Florida’s regional competition last month.

“I was not focused on that at all,” Thomas told ESPN of her record-tying accomplishment. “I was just focused on being out one last time with my team.”

A few minutes after tying the perfect 10 record on vault, Thomas fell just short of breaking that tie. The 22-year-old scored a 9.9125 on uneven bars, bobbling slightly on her landing.

Oklahoma won the 2023 NCAA team title, the Sooners’ sixth national title in nine seasons.

Maile O’Keefe is an all-around champion after winning the title in dramatic fashion over UCLA star Jordan Chiles.

Chiles looked to have secured the all-around title with her 10 on the bars, especially after scoring a 9.9875 on the floor. But the Olympic medalist didn’t hold the lead for long, as Utah’s O’Keefe soon followed with a 10 of her own on beam.

While O’Keefe had won individual titles on bars, beam and floor, this marked her first all-around title.

“Every national championship that I’ve had under my belt has been amazing, but it’s just extra special because I don’t necessarily have everything that all of the other all-arounders have,” she told SportsCenter. “It’s just kind of really cool.”

She also won the beam title with the same perfect 10 that pushed her ahead of Chiles for the all-around victory.

O’Keefe is the first Utah gymnast to win the all-around title since 1999.

Her beam, along with Grace McCallum’s 9.95 on bars, was enough to help Utah secure its place in the national championship final on Saturday. They’re joined by Oklahoma, LSU and Florida.

The NCAA gymnastics championships begin Thursday, with eight of the top teams in the country descending upon Texas to determine a champion.

Just Women’s Sports is taking a look at what you need to know and which storylines you should watch as the championships kick off.

When and where are the championships?

The championships are being held at Dickies Arena in Fort Worth, Texas.

The semifinals are set for Thursday on ESPN2, with the first at 3 p.m. ET and the second at 9 p.m. ET. The top two teams from each semifinal will advance to the final at 4 p.m. ET Saturday on ABC.

Which teams are competing?

Florida, Cal, LSU and Denver will face off in the first semifinal. Oklahoma, Utah, UCLA and Kentucky will compete in the second semifinal.

Jordan Chiles, UCLA return to center stage

For the first time since 2019 and since Valorie Kondos Field retired from coaching, UCLA is back at the national championships. The Bruins finished third that year, and they could make another deep run this year. A team with a rich national championship history, it was only a matter of time before they returned to this level.

UCLA is led by Olympic medalist Jordan Chiles, who has been one of the best all-around gymnasts in the country this year and could very well take home the title. Of course, that also hinges on the health of Florida’s Trinity Thomas, who is the reigning all-around champion. Chiles’ performances this season include a perfect 10 on the floor at UCLA’s regional final, which helped place them amongst the top eight teams in the country.

But they’re in a semifinal with defending champions Oklahoma and No. 5 Utah, making it hard to predict which two teams to advance to Sunday’s final.

Oklahoma looks for back-to-back titles

Reigning champion Oklahoma looked a bit vulnerable in their regional final, suffering two uncharacteristic falls on beam. But the Sooners were able to rebound and advance as one of the first teams to secure a place in the national championship.

The Sooners know what it takes to win – after all, they’ve won four of the last six national titles. But they could find themselves in a tight competition if Thomas is healthy as Florida features one of the best – and deepest – lineups in the country.

Utah could also factor into the conversation with Grace McCallum expected to return from injury. Led by Maile O’Keefe and Jaedyn Rucker, they were the only team to score a 198 or better twice during regionals.

Will Trinity Thomas be healthy?

A lot at this year’s national championships hinges on the health of reigning all-around champion Trinity Thomas. Thomas stopped midway through her floor routine at Florida’s regional competition and did not feature in the regional final.

Still, Florida advanced even without its star, who remains day-to-day with a right lower leg injury, thanks to astounding depth. Kayla DiCello has been a standout freshman for the Gators, and their lineup also features Sloane Blakely, Leanne Wong and Riley McCusker.

But the questions about the team title and the all-around title remain, and they all hinge on whether or not Thomas is available to compete.

Also notable: Suni Lee will not be competing after Auburn failed to advance to the national championships. She’s been absent since the end of the regular season, and the Olympian has revealed that she’s been battling kidney problems.

It’s a cliché in gymnastics that the best in the sport make it look easy. But you understand why it’s a cliché when you watch Trinity Thomas in action.

Her double layout — two backwards flips in the air with her body held straight — is so light that she appears to be flying. She is perfectly poised on the balance beam in competition, landing difficult tumbling and delicate dance moves with the same surefootedness. On bars, her handstands are the straightest; on vault, she appears to have the reflexes of a cat as she flies up and over the table.

It is no surprise that last January, Thomas completed a Gym Slam — perfect 10s, the highest score in college gymnastics, on each of the four apparatuses. She was only the 12th college gymnast ever to nail a Gym Slam, and only the third from the University of Florida, where she competed this winter season as a “super senior.”

As No. 3 Florida prepares to compete in the NCAA championships, beginning with the semifinals on Thursday, Thomas is just a few days away from completing her fifth and final year in college gymnastics. It’s also possibly her final competitive season of a sport that’s been a part of her identity since she was 7. Thomas is nursing a lower leg injury she suffered at NCAA regionals, and there’s been no official announcement on her status for the championships. But if Thomas can compete at all, she will. The NCAA championship, after all, is the reason the 22-year-old came back to Florida.

Thomas won the NCAA all-around title — that is, the highest score for all four apparatuses combined — at the end of the 2022 season, on top of the NCAA vault and floor titles. She was the only gymnast in the country to win All-America First Team honors on all four apparatuses. She was named SEC Freshman of the Year in 2019, has been a Scholastic All-American during all four of her undergraduate seasons at Florida so far and made the SEC Honor Roll in 2023. Thomas was the SEC Gymnast of the Year during her sophomore season in 2020 and received that honor again in 2022 and 2023, becoming the first Florida gymnast to win it twice and one of only two gymnasts throughout the SEC to win it three times. She was the SEC all-around champion at this year’s conference championship. And she was a finalist for the Honda Award (which she won in 2022) again in 2023.

But the reason Thomas has gained name recognition beyond the gymnastics world this year is the perfect 10 record. Thomas has earned 27 10s in her college career thus far: 12 on floor, six on beam, five on bars and four on vault. Only she and Hope Spivey, a 1988 Olympian who competed for Georgia in the early 1990s, have that many. She is one 10 away from tying Kentucky’s Jenny Hansen and UCLA’s Jamie Dantzcher, who each notched 28 10s for the all-time NCAA record, and she is two perfect routines from claiming that record for herself.

So, it was all the more shocking at the regional semifinal in Pittsburgh, where Florida was favored to win and advance to the regional final, to see Thomas stop her floor routine after her first (of three) tumbling passes and mouth to the ESPN camera, “My calf.” She was helped off the floor by a trainer and did not return to competition that night or in the regional final two days later. Florida did advance, but Thomas’ status remains day-to-day for nationals.

It’s also a cliché in gymnastics that the women who do the sport sacrifice everything to make it look that easy, including school, socialization and learning other sports or hobbies. You’ve probably heard an Olympic commentator talk about how a gymnast missed her high school prom in pursuit of medals.

That’s where Thomas will surprise you. Thomas is a graduate student at Florida, where she also received her undergraduate degree in 2022. For her first two seasons at Florida, she maintained her eligibility for the U.S. national gymnastics team, at one point driving from a nighttime college meet straight to a national team camp. In high school, she attended a public school and played varsity sports while training in elite gymnastics for more than 30 hours a week. She went to prom, too, in a Florida-blue gown.

Thomas says that her mom, Tania, told her repeatedly that she should keep her options open as a kid. Not because she didn’t excel at gymnastics (because she always did), but because Tania prioritized fun and exploration over being laser-focused on one sport.

Tania played sports as a child, but they were intertwined with her family and her friendships. Family picnics ended in games; high school track meets ended with friend gatherings outside the stadium. “We always had fun at our sports,” she said.

Tania had never done gymnastics herself, but when Trinity was small, Tania said “she put a hole in my wall.” A neighbor told her to sign Trinity up for gymnastics. She started out in cheerleading and tumbling but was quickly invited to join the gymnastics team at her first gym, Skyline. Tania blanched when she heard about the costs — “$350 just for a warmup,” she recalls, plus another $300 for a competition leotard, and then the fees for the gym and for assessments. “I was like, what did I sign up for?”

When Trinity was little, she would fret about attending birthday parties to which she was invited because she didn’t want to miss gymnastics. “I just wanted to make sure she knew she could miss it,” Tania said.

“I thought that was something that was super important,” Trinity said. “Because sometimes I would make it so serious that it wasn’t fun anymore.”

When Trinity was about 10 years old, she began saying she wanted to quit gymnastics. She told her mother it wasn’t fun. Around the same time, Trinity switched gyms to Artistic Sports Academy in Harrisburg, Pa., where she competed at level 10, the highest level in what was then the Junior Olympic (JO) system and is now known as the USA Gymnastics Developmental Program. The change was a fresh start for Trinity, and she began to enjoy the sport anew.

Unlike many elite gymnasts, Trinity expanded her focus beyond her gym in high school. She dove (and won a state championship title) and ran track at Tania’s urging. “She was one of the first to really pull that off,” Tania said of Trinity’s unusual decision to combine elite gymnastics training with high school sports. Thomas made one final gym change as a young teenager, to Prestige Gymnastics in Lancaster, Pa., where she first qualified for the junior elite level and where she remained for her senior elite career.

In her first year at Florida in 2019, Thomas decided to keep doing elite while also competing in the NCAA. At one point, this meant competing in a college meet, then driving overnight to an elite camp.

Asked whether Trinity has always been a multitasker, Tania thinks for a bit, then says, “Trinity’s a pleaser.” Her daughter can’t say no to things but gets overwhelmed easily, Tania says, and has to work to find a balance between all the things she commits to.

Florida’s head gymnastics coach, Jenny Rowland, said that the instinct to please is not uncommon in their sport, where gymnasts are often reliant on adults to help them learn skills and progress at a young age.

In her first few years at Florida, Rowland would describe Trinity as a “quiet leader” for her squad, but in the last year Trinity’s leadership skills have evolved as her confidence in herself has grown, and she is now more of a vocal leader.

“I didn’t really know that quietness was her lack of self-confidence, for as talented and amazing as she is,” Rowland said.

Rowland said that watching Trinity “take ownership” of her career was very satisfying as a coach. “I just love seeing my student-athletes grow up,” Rowland said.

Halley Taylor, who also competed for a fifth season at Florida this year alongside Thomas, has known Thomas since their freshman year. “I think we were both kind of shy,” Taylor said of their first encounters. She now describes Thomas as “goofy” and “silly” and praises her strong leadership skills.

Taylor recalled that Rowland offered her team two different styles of leadership: leading by example or leading by action.

“Trinity does both,” Taylor said. “She’s not the kind of person to tell people what to do, but everyone on the team trusts her.”

Gymnastics was the easy part of Thomas’ decision to take a fifth year.

“My first love is gymnastics, so that part was easy,” she said. “It was just figuring out the real-life things for my last year.” Thomas began classes towards her master’s in health education and behavior over the summer, enrolling in three courses. She says the workload is similar to that of her undergrad, but perhaps with more writing. This fall, she applied to nursing schools. She hopes to begin an accelerated nursing program over the summer in hopes of becoming a nurse practitioner.

Known for her beautiful form, Thomas acknowledges that a focus on the execution of skills versus the skills themselves is the major shift for a college gymnast coming from the elite world, where risky, difficult skills are highly valued in a completely different scoring system. Under the NCAA scoring system, where deductions come out of a perfect 10, it is more important to do easier skills with better form and technique. Once they reach college, most gymnasts know all the skills they will use in competition, and their focus shifts to perfecting those skills instead of learning new tricks.

“You’re looking at every detail, you’re trying to get a perfect 10,” Thomas said. Details, she said, “are something that I personally really focus on.”

That big, beautiful double layout on the floor remains her all-time favorite skill. She likes two transitional skills on the uneven bars, where she floats from the low bar to the high bar: the Maloney, where she catches the bar backwards, and the Van Leeuwen, where she does a half twist before catching. On beam, she loves a front aerial.

Vault remains her least favorite apparatus, but the one she has worked on most to perfect a skill that aids her team. She performs a Yurchenko one-and-a-half vault in competition, where she does a roundoff back handspring onto the vault table, then a laid-out flip with one and a half twists off it. There’s a blind landing involved. But it has a start value of a perfect 10, which is important for teams because not every gymnast can achieve that difficulty.

“That feeling you get when you stick the one and a half is just so cool,” Thomas said.

Thomas is not currently competing elite, but she has hinted that Florida’s high-flying former elites in this year’s sophomore class — Olympic alternate Leanne Wong, 2017 World champion Morgan Hurd and World medalist Riley McCusker — had inspired her to keep her options open. “I think just being able to show it’s an option, even if it’s not a popular one, was super important,” she said of her decision to do both when she started at Florida.

The rules have changed since Thomas started college, and elites now can miss camps if they are competing in NCAA. Previously, Thomas had to attend camp in order to keep her spot — and her funding — on the national team. “Some people were like, why would you want to do that?” Thomas said of her insistence on keeping one foot in elite after beginning at Florida. “I got positive stuff back, and negative things.”

Two-thirds of the 2020 United States Olympic team — Sunisa Lee, Jordan Chiles, Grace McCallum and Jade Carey — went to college after the Olympics while keeping their elite options open. That indicated a direct contrast to the previous two Olympic cycles that saw just one gymnast from 2012 and one from 2016 move on to college, both of whom retired from elite gymnastics. “I haven’t made any set-in-stone decisions,” Thomas said of a potential return to elite.

Another rule that has changed during Thomas’ time at Florida is the ability of student-athletes to make money off their name, image, and likeness, also known as NIL. Thomas, not surprisingly given her status as the NCAA’s top female gymnast, was a draw for businesses looking to make connections, though she called the NIL process “a learning curve.” Thomas signed with an agency and began making deals. She is represented by Raymond Representation in Miami, which counts several popular NCAA gymnasts on its roster. “With their help,” Thomas said, NIL has been “way easier to navigate.”

She has signed deals with Honey Stinger, NoCap Sports and, with four of her Gators teammates, College Hunks Moving Company — one of three deals she has inked through the Gator Collective, which helps Florida athletes with their partnerships. This year, Thomas signed a deal with Quatro Apparel to design a leotard line, and others with Amazon, European Wax Center and Tropical Smoothie Cafe, according to On3.com.

“I’ve gotten to work with some really cool companies and make some really cool connections,” Thomas said. “It’s just been cool to learn about a different kind of world, almost an entrepreneurship world.”

Thomas believes that NIL is helping raise the profile of college gymnastics, both for individual athletes and for the sport as a whole. She hopes that young girls watching her compete and appear in ads or as a spokesperson will see her as a role model.

Thomas received the Honda Award, given to the top female athlete in every NCAA sport, in 2022. Then she was a top-three finalist for the Honda Cup, the award for the top female athlete across the NCAA. The cup went to South Carolina basketball star Aliyah Boston, but Thomas had already fulfilled a goal she set as soon as she set foot in Gainesville.

When Thomas arrived on Florida’s campus for the first time to meet with Rowland, the coach asked Thomas her goals for her college gymnastics career. Thomas responded, like most Florida gymnasts she assumes, that she wanted to win an NCAA championship. Then, she added that she wanted to win the Honda Award.

“I want to be up on that wall,” she remembers saying to Rowland, referring to a photo shrine to Florida’s other four Honda Award winners before Thomas: Ann Woods, two-time winners Bridget Sloan and Kytra Hunter, and Alex McMurtry.

The Honda Award meant a lot to Tania Thomas as well. “This is an award women get for their accomplishments,” she said. “It had more meaning to me.” She recounted listening to women at the ceremony tell stories of what it was like to compete before the passage of Title IX in 1972, and how it helped her understand what a big deal it was for Trinity to receive the award.

Now, an NCAA championship is still on the table for her final year as a Gator. Florida placed second at nationals in 2022 and is eager to get over the hump this season. Thomas may be hobbling into the final weekend of the season with a leg injury, but if her career at Florida is any indication, no obstacle will stop her from trying.

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(Doug Engle / USA TODAY Sports)

Thomas’ 2021 season, her junior year, was looking to be one for the record books. On Feb. 16 of that year, she set a Florida record for the all-around with a 39.90, one-tenth shy of a perfect score and the highest all-around score in the NCAA that year and the fifth-highest in NCAA history. At the same meet, she won at least a share of all five event titles, the first time a Florida gymnast had done so since 2018, before Thomas joined the squad. Thomas won 20 event titles, leading her team. She was the No. 1-ranked all-around gymnast in the country, and most thought she would win the NCAA title that year. As a team, Florida appeared to be in the running for the team title.

And then disaster struck. While warming up for a meet at Alabama on March 5, Thomas dismounted the uneven bars and sprained both ankles. She competed, in pain, at the regional qualifier in Athens, Ga., managing a perfect 10 on bars — the only event in which she competed there — and watching her team advance to nationals. At the same meet, Taylor hurt her calf muscle and Sydney Johnson-Scharpf tore her Achilles tendon. Florida showed up to nationals in tatters.

“That’s probably one of the hardest parts of being a head coach,” Rowland said. “The highs are extremely high, the lows are so low. It’s always really hard to see any injury, especially an injury that just happens at the wrong time.”

Thomas competed in all four events at the national semifinals in 2021 (which also determine individual titles) on sore ankles, eking out a 39.25 all-around score that put her in 11th place in the all-around standings. Florida made it to the four-on-the-floor final but finished fourth and appeared to be hanging on by a thread.

Thomas announced her retirement from elite gymnastics about a month after the 2021 NCAA national championships. She had hoped to compete at Olympic trials and vie for a spot on the U.S. team bound for Tokyo, but her ankles were not healing in time.

“That was definitely a bummer and something I took pretty hard,” Thomas said. “But then I knew that I could come back and I wanted to get my ankles in the best possible shape that I could have them in. I rested my ankles for months.” She remained in physical therapy for her ankles throughout the 2022 NCAA season.

“What was a little bit different about this season for me was pacing myself,” Thomas said. A collaboration between Thomas, her mother, her coaches, her doctor, and her trainer kept her accountable. She focused on rest and recovery and healing her ankles. Her endgame: the postseason.

“I knew it was my senior year,” she said. “I wanted a national championship. That was a huge thing for me.”

Thomas signed on for her fifth year in part to help Florida finally get that national championship during her tenure. Not for her — she feels she has accomplished much of what she hoped to as an individual in the sport. This one’s for her team.

“That’s the one thing I have left to do,” she said. “Every team I’ve been on has worked so hard, and it feels like we’re just climbing this mountain. So I hope that this is the year. I know that we’re capable of it. I know that we’ll work for it.”

Lela Moore is a freelance journalist covering gymnastics. She writes a weekly gymnastics column for The IX Newsletter. Follow her on Twitter @RunLelaRun.

Trinity Thomas is inching closer to the collegiate perfect 10s record, recording her 25th perfect 10 on Friday night.

The 27-time All-American earned the score on the beam, her sixth perfect 10 on beam in her NCAA career. She sits just three shy of the collegiate record of 28, held by both UCLA’s Jamie Dantzcher and Kentucky’s Jenny Hansen.

Thomas has just three more meets to break the record during the regular season, including against top-ranked Oklahoma on March 3.

Suni Lee recorded two perfect 10s on Friday night, adding to a total tally of nine perfect 10s on the night.

The two were her first 10s of the season, coming on bars and beam. In total, Lee has eight in her collegiate career, the most in Auburn women’s gymnastics history. Despite the 10s, Auburn fell to Alabama in the overall meet scores.

Florida’s Leanne Wong also posted two 10s on the night while Maile O’Keefe, Luisa Blanco, Aleah Finnegan, Sierra Brooks and Abby Heiskell all recorded 10s in their respective meets.

Simone Biles remains “up in the air” on a potential return to gymnastics, she said in an event Thursday at her Houston gym.

In the same vein, the seven-time Olympic medalist has not decided if she will compete for a spot on Team USA at the Paris Games in 2024, per Houston Chronicle reporter Danielle Lerner.

Biles shared similar sentiments Monday while speaking at the National Retail Federation convention. When asked about the next Olympics, the 25-year-old said she is “trying to figure it out right now.”

“Obviously, mental health comes first. I’m still in therapy and I’m still doing everything so that I can be the best version of myself,” she said. “So I’ll be in Paris, but don’t know if that is on the floor with those girls or in the stands just cheering.”

While Biles competed for Team USA in the last two Summer Games, she withdrew from the team and individual all-around competitions in Tokyo in 2021, citing her mental health. She competed in the balance beam final, winning bronze.

“Sometimes if you make decisions, you might be the only one standing that believes in yourself,” Biles said. “At those times, you really have to dig deep and think of the reason why you’re doing it, who you are, what you stand for, what you want to accomplish.”

From NWSL MVP Sophia Smith to Olympic gymnast Suni Lee, from college basketball star Aliyah Boston to world-class runner Athing Mu, the future of women’s sports looks bright.

As we enter a new year, Just Women’s Sports takes a look at 23 athletes under 23 years old who we expect to shine in 2023.

One note: The list is limited to American athletes. So while athletes such as Germany’s Lena Oberdorf, Australia’s Ariarne Titmus and more should be considered among the best young stars in the world, they are not included here.

Seasoned pros

Mia Fishel, 21 – Soccer

Why has Fishel not earned a call-up to the U.S. women’s national team? That question is only becoming more pressing as she continues to make her name in Liga MX.

One of the brightest young soccer stars, Fishel became the first foreign-born player to win the league’s Golden Boot with 17 goals for UANL Tigres. She also helped lead the Tigres to the Liga MX title. Fishel’s abilities — and her potential — made her an easy choice for this list.

Naomi Girma, 22 – Soccer

Girma is the present and future of the USWNT defense. After she was taken No. 1 overall in the last NWSL Draft, Girma had just about as good of a rookie season as one could have. Not only did the San Diego Wave star win Rookie of the Year, she was also named Defender of the Year and earned a spot among the NWSL’s Best XI.

She made her first appearance for the USWNT in April. Since then, she’s recorded 10 caps and was named to the Best XI for the Concacaf W Championship.

Rhyne Howard, 22 – Basketball

Howard had a stellar 2022, which culminated in the WNBA Rookie of the Year award. The No. 1 overall draft pick out of Kentucky in April, she became the lone rookie to earn a roster spot for the All-Star game and took Rookie of the Month honors every month from May to August. Howard finished the season at eighth on the scoring list with 16.2 points per game.

Trinity Rodman, 20 – Soccer

For Rodman, 2021 served as a coming-out party, and 2022 continued the celebration. She became the youngest player drafted in NWSL history in 2021 and helped lead the Spirit to the NWSL title that same year. She followed that up with a record contract in 2022, and in August she was named one of 20 finalists for the prestigious Ballon d’Or.

Internationally, Rodman scored her first USWNT goal in 2022 after making her national team debut in February. She just continues to get better, and that shouldn’t change in 2023.

Sophia Smith, 22 – Soccer

Smith is one of the best young soccer players in the world right now. At just 22 years old, she led the USWNT in scoring in 2022 with 11 goals, becoming the youngest player to do so since 21-year-old Mia Hamm in 1993.

In 2022, the Portland Thorns forward also became the youngest NWSL MVP, and she was named MVP of the championship match and as a member of the league’s Best XI. And she very well could be adding U.S. Soccer Player of the Year to her list of accolades. As the national team sets its sights on the 2023 World Cup, Smith will be a key piece for the defending champions.

Olympic medalists

Jordan Chiles, 21 – Gymnastics

After she helped the United States to a team silver at the Tokyo Olympics in 2021, she played a key role in the team winning gold at the World Championships in 2022. She also earned silver medals in the vault and floor exercises. Chiles is one to watch as the 2024 Olympic cycle approaches.

Kate Douglass, 21 – Swimming

Douglass put together arguably the greatest individual performance in collegiate swimming history in 2022, breaking American records in three separate events — in three separate strokes and distances.

The Virginia senior followed up that performance by winning three medals at the World Championships, including bronze in the 200-meter breaststroke. At the short course World Championships in December, she won two individual gold medals and seven total medals.

Eileen Gu, 19 – Skiing

Gu stunned the world in 2022, winning Olympic gold in big air and halfpipe while also capturing a silver in slopestyle. Born in the United States but competing for China, she became the youngest gold-medal winner ever in freestyle skiing and became just the second woman to land a double cork 1620 in competition on her first attempt.

As her celebrity skyrocketed, sponsorship deals also poured in for Gu. She finished the year as the third-highest-paid female athlete behind tennis stars Naomi Osaka and Serena Williams, bringing in an astounding $20.1 million, according to Forbes.

Torri Huske, 20 – Swimming

After finishing the NCAA season strong, Huske was a member of Team USA at the World Championships in June. There, she won the 100 butterfly in a new American record time for her first individual world title. She also claimed a bronze in the 100 freestyle, and she led all swimmers with six total medals.

She continued that run at the short course World Championships in December, winning seven total medals and topping the podium four times. As the swimming world starts to set its eyes on the Paris Olympics, Huske will be one to watch.

Chloe Kim, 22 – Snowboarding

Kim had a successful 2022, defending her 2018 Olympic title in the halfpipe at the Beijing Olympics. She scored a 94, well above the rest of the competition, and is eyeing a return for the 2026 Olympics. If she tops the podium again in Italy, she would become the first woman ever to earn three Olympic gold medals in snowboarding.

Suni Lee, 19 – Gymnastics

After she became a household name at the Tokyo Olympics, Lee began her freshman year at Auburn. While there, she won the 2022 national title in the balance beam and placed second in the all-around. She has announced that the upcoming NCAA season will be her last as she plans to return to elite gymnastics, with her sights set on the 2024 Olympics.

Athing Mu, 20 – Track and field

Following up on her stunning Olympic campaign in 2021, Mu continued her run in 2022, winning the world title in the 800 meters. In doing so, she became the first American woman to win the world title in the 800 and the youngest woman in history to win both Olympic and world titles in an individual track and field event.

Mu hasn’t lost on the outdoor track since Sept. 2019, a streak that dates back three years. Look for her to continue to dominate the track in 2023.

College Stars

Aliyah Boston, 21 – Basketball

Boston’s trophy case must be groaning under the weight of all her awards from 2022. She won the national championship with South Carolina, and she was named Most Outstanding Player of the NCAA Tournament. She also won the Naismith College Player of the Year and Defensive Player of the Year awards, the Wooden Award and the AP Player of the Year award.

You name it, she won it in 2022 — except for the ESPY for Best Collegiate Athlete, which went to Jocelyn Alo. But that doesn’t take away from Boston’s accomplishments. She’s also started her senior season with similar success. The undefeated Gamecocks have a good shot at winning back-to-back titles, and that’s largely due to Boston.

Paige Bueckers, 21 – Basketball

It’s hard to know what kind of year Bueckers will have in 2023, as she will miss all of this season with a knee injury. But Bueckers’ capabilities cannot be disputed. Even after missing much of last season with a knee injury, she returned to help lead UConn to the national championship game.

Caitlin Clark, 20 – Basketball

Iowa basketball would not be Iowa basketball without Clark. Known for her logo 3-pointers and insane range, she single-handedly has sought to will Iowa to victory multiple times this season.

As a sophomore in the 2021-22 season, Clark became the first women’s player to lead the NCAA in scoring and assists. She also had a streak of 19 games with at least 15 points and five assists, the longest such streak in women’s basketball. Only Trae Young at Oklahoma has recorded a longer such streak.

Azzi Fudd, 20 – Basketball

In the absence of Bueckers, Fudd stepped up in a big way for UConn to start this season. Before she went down with her own knee injury in early December, the sophomore led the Huskies in scoring with 20.6 points while adding 2.7 assists, 1.4 steals and 1.4 rebounds. She also posted 32 points against a then-top 5 Texas team, tying her with Diana Taurasi for the most points scored by a UConn player against a top-five opponent. And she should be making her return to the court soon.

Caroline Harvey, 20 – Ice hockey

The youngest player named to the 2021 World Championship roster for Team USA, Harvey subsequently made the Olympic and World Championship rosters in 2022. The defender had a stellar run at worlds, recording three goals and five assists for eight points. She’s in the midst of her freshman year at Wisconsin, with 25 points — including 18 assists — through 21 games.

Taylor Heise, 22 – Ice hockey

Heise entered her fifth year at Minnesota on a high note. A member of Team USA and the 2022 winner of the Patty Kazmaier Memorial Award, she made her World Championship debut in 2022 with a bang. En route to the silver medal, Heise led the tournament in scoring with 18 points (seven goals, 11 assists) through seven games. She was named Best Forward and tournament MVP.

The Golden Gophers star is not done rolling. Through 19 games this season, she has 13 goals and 21 assists, which puts her on track to beat her 29 goals and 37 assists through 39 games last season.

Rose Zhang, 19 – Golf

Zhang became the first athlete to sign an NIL deal with Adidas in June after she won the individual NCAA title and helped lead Stanford to its second NCAA title. In her freshman season, she broke the NCAA’s single-season scoring average with an astounding 69.68.

She received invitations to the U.S. Open and British Open this year, finishing tied for 40th and tied for 28th, respectively. She’s topped the world amateurs ranking for two years in a row. Look out for Zhang to make another NCAA title run in her sophomore season.

Tiare Jennings, 20 – Softball

While the spotlight of the 2022 Women’s College World Series centered on departing senior Jocelyn Alo, Jennings also continued to make a name for herself at Oklahoma. A two-time WCWS champion, she’s twice been named to the All-Tournament team — all in her first two seasons with the Sooners.

She batted .385 and blasted 24 home runs in the 2022 season. Her total of 72 RBI was tied for third in the NCAA. She also excelled in the field, posting a .982 fielding percentage and recording just two errors all season long. During the WCWS, she set the record for RBIs with 15, adding to the Sooners’ record-breaking 64 runs.

Next wave

Coco Gauff, 18 – Tennis

When Serena Williams announced her retirement from tennis in 2022, the question became: Who is the future of American tennis? As eyes turned to Williams’ final stretch of matches, the answer to that question went on an incredible run of her own.

Gauff rocketed up to a career-high world No. 1 in the doubles rankings in August and a career-high No. 4 in singles in October. The French Open, which came in the same month as her high school graduation, provided the stage for Gauff’s first-ever Grand Slam final. She also reached the quarterfinals of the U.S. Open for the first time in 2022. In October, she became the youngest singles player to qualify for the WTA Finals since Maria Sharapova in 2005. While Gauff still has yet to win her first major, the 18-year-old is well on her way there.

Harper Murray, 18 – Volleyball

The Nebraska volleyball commit was named to our All-American team in December after capping her high school career with an eye-popping senior season. She ended with a .410 hitting percentage and 663 kills. That bumped her career total to 2,245, and she also finished with 1,423 career digs.

Her efforts earned her Michigan’s Miss Volleyball title, and she will enter her career at Nebraska as the No. 1-ranked recruit in the country.

Isabeau Levito, 15 – Figure skating

Levito made her senior international debut in 2022, placing first at the Philadelphia Summer International in her first senior competition. She followed that up by winning gold in her first appearance on the Challenger circuit.

She made her Grand Prix debut at Skate America in October, where she finished second behind world champion Kaori Sakamoto of Japan. She became the youngest American to qualify for the Grand Prix Final since Caroline Zhang in 2007. With her sights set on the 2026 Olympics, Levito will be one to watch this year and for years to come.

U-20 honorable mentions

Chloe Kovelesky, 15 – Golf

Kovelesky became the youngest player to play in the U.S. Women’s Open in 2021. In 2022, she placed first in the Portland Classic Amateur Open and qualified for her first LPGA event.

Olivia Moultrie, 17 – Soccer

After making her professional debut in the NWSL in 2021, Moultrie scored her first goal for the Portland Thorns in 2022. She won a championship with the club just a few months later, and she soaked in (most of) the celebrations.

Jaedyn Shaw, 18 – Soccer

Shaw is another teenager who has made a splash in the NWSL. She joined the San Diego Wave in July, she wasted no time, scoring her first professional goal in her first start. She finished the season with three goals for the expansion club.

Alyssa Thompson, 18 – Soccer

In September, Thompson became the youngest player since Sophia Smith to earn a senior national team call-up. She made her debut with the USWNT in front of a packed crowd at Wembley Stadium in London and finished the year with two caps.

Gretchen Walsh, 19 – Swimming

Walsh had a breakout freshman season for Virginia, becoming the first freshman ever to crack 21 seconds in the 50 freestyle. One of just two swimmers to break 21 seconds in the meet, she was bested only by teammate Douglass, who took gold. She later won the 100 freestyle with the fourth-fastest collegiate swim of all time.

Naomi Osaka once again tops the list of the highest-paid female athletes in the world, bringing in $51.1 million in 2022, according to Forbes.

She’s followed by Serena Williams, who earned $41.3 million. Eileen Gu, who gained popularity following her performance at the 2022 Beijing Olympics, brought in $20.1 million, which included $20 million in endorsements.

In total, the 25 highest-paid female athletes in the world made roughly $285 million this year before taxes and agents’ fees. The top 10 of those athletes made up for $194 million of that total, a 17 percent increase from 2021.

Eight of the 10 made at least $10 million in 2022 for the first time since Forbes introduced the rankings in 2008. That number also doubled from a year ago.

“I think everybody’s seeing a tremendous amount of momentum with women’s sports and women’s sports sponsorships,” Cameron Wagner, Chief Client Officer of Elevate Sports Ventures, told Forbes. “We’ve made a ton of progress. We have a ton of progress left to be made, but brands are starting to see the value in women’s sports here and today as a driver of their business.”

The year brought increases across women’s sports, including for England’s players following their Euros win. The Athletic recently detailed how their endorsement deals have skyrocketed in the months following the title.

Women’s soccer sponsorships have also increased. FIFA recently released a report detailing how 77 percent of women’s soccer leagues had a title sponsor in 2022, an increase from 66 percent in 2021.

While tennis players still make up the majority of the top 10, golfers have also increased their earnings after the LPGA introduced record tournament purses. That should only increase in the coming year as the tour stands to break records once again with its offerings.

The top 10

  1. Naomi Osaka, Tennis – $51.1 mil
  2. Serena Williams, Tennis – $41.3 mil
  3. Eileen Gu, Freestyle Skiing – $20.1 mil
  4. Emma Raducanu, Tennis – $18.7 mil
  5. Iga Swiatek, Tennis – $14.9 mil
  6. Venus Williams, Tennis – $12.1 mil
  7. Coco Gauff, Tennis – $11.1 mil
  8. Simone Biles, Gymnastics – $10 mil
  9. Jessica Pegula, Tennis – $7.6 mil
  10. Minjee Lee, Golf – $7.3 mil