Nothing prepares the casual Olympic fan to fall in love with a sport they know nothing about.
During the gymnastics trials in Milwaukee this year, I looked forward to watching Simone Biles, Suni Lee, and the rest of the women dazzle with their incredible skills. Can we finish the men’s competition already?
Yet there I was, transfixed as the group of men went through their routine. Yes, the men showed great feats of strength and power, but they also had a certain … ridge?
I wasn’t alone in watching men’s gymnastics for the first time. The US men’s bronze medal win at the Paris 2024 Olympics surprised many Athletes are underrated or Didn’t know much about it.
American female gymnasts have been ahead of men in the Olympics for decades. But this week’s win brought a new level of attention to U.S. men’s artistic gymnastics, ending a 16-year streak of seeing other countries beat the podium.
Perhaps no one expressed this change better than “Pommel horse guy” — Stephen Nedorosik, whose only event was the pommel horse, and was constantly shown on camera in a meditative state, wearing Clark Kent-style glasses with his eyes closed, his teammates (Brody Malone, Frederick Richard, Asher Hong and Paul Judah) doing their routine big hits. .
They did their job, but to win a medal, Nedorosic had to do his job. The glasses came off, Nedorowskyk pommelled perfectly, and the internet went wild.
Beijing 2008 was the last time the US men’s team won a medal, with America winning its first bronze in the team event. “We believe that has completely stimulated interest in men’s gymnastics,” said Justin Spring, who was part of that winning team. Today, explained. “It must be cold.”
But that momentum won’t last. After retiring from competition, Spring became the head coach of men’s gymnastics at the University of Illinois. Throughout his tenure, he observed a disturbing trend of colleges across the US cutting men’s gymnastics programs.
By the 1970s, more than 150 universities had men’s gymnastics programs. There is only today 12 Division I teams.
One of the culprits that some observers have pointed to is the requirement to comply with Title IX programs and balanced budgets. (Title IX prohibits discrimination based on sex in schools receiving federal funding.) According to this view, to achieve parity between male and female athletics, schools reduce male sports such as swimming, diving, track and field, and gymnastics.
“There are so few opportunities outside of the Olympics and NCAA scholarships that it’s hard to keep kids in sports,” said Lauren Hopkins, founder of the Gymternet blog. Today, explained.
How does a sport improve — and win medals — if the pickings are thin?
New Paris 2024 bronze medalist Fred Richard has made a big deal of bringing the sport back into the spotlight. “You know, we’re in a sport where there aren’t that many spectators. You know, it’s a much smaller game, especially for men,” Richard told Good Morning America before recreating his popular TikTok. @FrederickFlips Jumping and landing in the air in a pair of shorts.
The video is part of a steady stream of content that has helped him amass more than a million followers on the app — and, men’s gymnastics fans hope, will encourage more boys to join the sport.
Men’s Gymnastics Pipeline, Explained
In the 1940s and ’50s, high schools in every state had some form of boys’ gymnastics program. Today, that is All but invisible.
Basant says boys have to start training super young. “It’s discipline, focus, incredible strength, and technical precision from the age of 5. And I think that’s why it’s not a sport for everyone.”
It’s a fact that gymnasts – of any gender – usually begin their Olympic journey while they’re still learning how to fall. Fred Richard was competing Age 5. Asher Hong’s parents told the Houston Chronicle He was shooting for the Olympics at the age of 6.
The majority of the 2024 men’s team were collegiate athletes, including all the boys from the 2024 Paris Olympics who went to either Stanford or Michigan.
“Almost every collegiate institution is a mini national training center,” Spring said. “You can’t just supplement, provide better support for Olympic athletes than a collegiate program. You have nutritionists. You have sports psychologists, you have multiple coaches.”
To get into college, you have to be the best you can be for a dwindling amount of college recruiters. And for those who can’t afford college, you have to compete for a limited amount of scholarships.
“I think a lot of kids, once they hit 13, 14, 15, and they realize they’re not going to be at the same level as the guys who got scholarships, in their minds, maybe there’s no point,” said Hopkins of the Gymternet blog. “And this With all the extra work and hours and work, it’s easy for them to drop down and do other sports that aren’t as demanding. Many of them will go into diving or track and field, where there are more opportunities for college programs to take them.”
Adding insult to injury, you can already be an athlete at a university and your program can still be cut.
The decline of NCAA programs
US 2020 Tokyo Olympic team member Shane Wiskas is also an alternate for this year’s Paris Olympics. He was a senior at the University of Minnesota, where his team placed second in the NCAA Championships.
Later, there was the men’s gymnastics program to cut.
“My first thought was the next generation and even the guys on my team who are behind me, I was thinking a lot about them,” Wiskas told Fox 9 Minneapolis. “And the missed opportunity that they wouldn’t have that I was going through these programs.”
Title IX has been blamed for the decline of men’s college gymnastics. On paper, universities had to ensure that the percentage of male and female athletes was equal to the percentage of male and female students enrolled at the school.
There are some schools has been creative To comply with Title IX. And while there are options to create more women’s sports or cut some men’s, many colleges have chosen the latter, citing budgetary concerns.
A 60 minutes interview, Historian Victoria Jackson, who specializes in the history of college sports at ASU, says, “Every time there’s an economic downturn, you protect the core business, which is football. Which means other sports are on the chopping block.”
Sports like football and basketball generate millions each year from ticket sales television contract. Men’s gymnastics doesn’t have that tension. Since the onset of COVID-19, championship-winning men’s programs have been cut.
Mike Burns, who has been the head men’s gymnastics coach at the University of Minnesota for 17 years, told Vox he’s not giving up.
“They pissed off the wrong 62-year-old from Boston who teaches cartwheels for a living,” Burns said, “that’s going to be the thing they don’t do, because there’s going to be a fight.”
stay alive
Now that Minnesota men’s gymnastics is no longer part of the school’s athletic roster, Burns and other volunteers have turned the 117-year-old program into a club sport supported by the school’s student affairs office.
In June 2024, they officially were throw out Their favorite practice gym, Cook Hall, is a place where they have been practicing since the 1930s to make room for diving.
They were angered by the creation of the nonprofit Friends of Minnesota Gymnastics, whose board is staffed by former alumni. From donations and other fundraising efforts such as hosting gymnastics meets, Barnes said the University of Minnesota is able to raise about a tenth of what it offers in a year. Students who used to train at the university now have to drive around 45 minutes to get training.
“My one wish is to keep this program alive,” Barnes said. “And I’m going to do everything in my power to do that.”
Asked about this new class of Olympians in Paris, Burns noted how Fred Richard “brings a confidence and a sense of humor that I love every time I see that kid.”
He said this is one of the things that can make men’s gymnastics contagious. But he acknowledges that the United States has a long way to go if it is to reach silver and gold without the state patronage provided by powerhouses like China and Russia.
The fact is: Olympic medals bring a lot of attention, and attention is currency The question is whether this year’s athletes can keep it up.
