Will the 2024 U.S. Men's Gymnastics Team Save the Sport?

Nothing prepares a casual Olympic fan for falling in love with a sport they know nothing about.

At the gymnastics trials in Milwaukee this year, I was eagerly awaiting the chance to see Simone Biles, Suni Lee, and the rest of the women dazzle with their incredible talents. Could we be done with the men's competition already?

And yet, there I was, mesmerized by the men's team performing their routines. Yes, the men displayed impressive strength and skill, but they also had a certain humor.

I wasn’t the only one watching men’s gymnastics for the first time. The U.S. men’s team’s bronze medal at the 2024 Paris Olympics left many people stunned by athletes they either underestimated or knew little about.

American gymnasts have outperformed men at the Olympics for decades. But this victory brought new attention to American men's artistic gymnastics, ending 16 years of victories over other countries.

Perhaps no one personified this turnaround better than pommel horse specialist Stephen Nedoroscik, whose only event was the pommel horse, and who was constantly shown on camera in a meditative state, eyes closed in Clark Kent-style goggles, while his teammates (Brody Malone, Frederick Richard, Asher Hong and Paul Judah) performed their routines.

They did their job, but to get a medal, Nedoroscik had to do his. The glasses fell off, Nedoroscik nailed it, and the internet went wild.

The U.S. men's team last won a medal in Beijing in 2008, taking home the U.S.'s first bronze in the team event. “We think that sparked interest in men's gymnastics,” Justin Spring, who was part of that winning group, told Today Explained. “That must be cool.”

But that momentum didn't last. After retiring from competition, Spring became the head men's gymnastics coach at the University of Illinois. Throughout his tenure, he saw a worrying trend among American universities to cut back on men's gymnastics programs.

In the 1970s, more than 150 universities had men's gymnastics programs. Today, there are only 12 Division I teams.

One culprit pointed out by some observers is the need to comply with Title IX programs and balance budgets. (Title IX prohibits sex discrimination in schools that receive federal funds.) In order to achieve equity between men's and women's sports, this view suggests, schools tend to cut back on men's sports like swimming, diving, track and field, and gymnastics.

There are so few opportunities outside of the Olympics and NCAA scholarships that it's difficult to keep kids in sports, Lauren Hopkins, founder of the GymTernet blog, told Today, Explained.

How can a sport thrive and win medals if the odds are slim?

Newly crowned Paris 2024 bronze medalist Fred Richard did his best to draw attention to his sport. “You know, we play a sport where there’s not as many spectators. You know, it’s a much smaller sport, especially for men,” Richard told Good Morning America before a segment recreating his famous TikTok @frederickflips where he does a somersault in the air and lands 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, fans of men's gymnastics hope, will inspire more boys to join the sport.

The Men's Gymnastics Pipeline, Explained

In the 1940s and 1950s, high schools in every state had boys' gymnastics programs. Today, all that has disappeared.

Spring says boys need to start training at a very young age. It's a discipline, a focus, an 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: Gymnasts of both sexes typically begin their Olympic journeys while they're still learning to read. Fred Richard was competing at age 5. Asher Hong's parents told the Houston Chronicle he had his sights set on the Olympics at age 6.

The majority of the 2024 men's team was made up of college athletes, including all of the guys from the 2024 Paris Olympics who went to Stanford or Michigan.

Almost every academic institution is a mini-national training center, Spring said. You can't support Olympic athletes better than a university program. You have nutritionists, sports psychologists and multiple coaches.

To get into college, you have to be the best of the best, according to a shrinking number of recruiters. And for those who can't afford to pay for their education, you have to compete for a limited number of scholarships.

“I think a lot of kids, once they get to 13, 14, 15, and they realize that they’re not going to be at the same level as the guys who are getting scholarships, in their minds, there’s probably no reason at that point,” Hopkins said of the GymTernet blog. “And by putting in all that extra effort and hours and work, it’s easier for them to let go and play other sports that aren’t as demanding. A lot of them will go into diving or track and field, where college programs have more opportunities to accommodate them.”

To top it off, you can already be an athlete at a university and your program can still be cut.

The Decline of NCAA Programs

Shane Wiskus, a member of the U.S. Olympic team at the 2020 Tokyo Games, is also an alternate for this year's Paris Olympics. He was a senior at the University of Minnesota, where his team placed second at the NCAA Championships.

The men's gymnastics program was subsequently discontinued.

“My first thought is for the next generation and even the guys on my team that are behind me, I thought about them a lot,” Wiskus told Fox 9 Minneapolis. “And the missed opportunity that they won’t have, like I did, by being part of these programs.”

Title IX has been blamed for decimating men's college gymnastics. On paper, universities were required to ensure that the percentage of male and female athletes was roughly the same as the percentage of male and female students enrolled in the school.

Some schools have gotten creative in their efforts to comply with Title IX. And while there are options to create more women's sports or eliminate some men's sports, many schools have chosen the latter, citing budgetary concerns.

In an interview with 60 Minutes, historian Victoria Jackson, a specialist in the history of college sports at ASU, said: “Any time there's an economic crisis, you protect the core business, which is football. Which means other sports are in the hot seat.”

Sports like football and basketball generate hundreds of millions of dollars in revenue each year from ticket sales and television deals. Men’s gymnastics simply doesn’t have that appeal. Since the onset of COVID-19, championship-winning men’s programs have been canceled.

Mike Burns, who was the head men's gymnastics coach for 17 years at the University of Minnesota, told Vox he's not giving up.

They pissed off the wrong 62-year-old Boston man who teaches cartwheels for a living, Burns said, which is something they wish they hadn't done, because there's going to be a fight.

Now that Minnesota men's gymnastics is no longer part of the school's athletic roster, Burns and other volunteers have transformed the 117-year-old program into a club sport supported by the school's Office of Student Affairs.

In June 2024, they were officially evicted from their beloved training facility, Cooke Hall, a place they had trained since the 1930s, to make way for diving.

They had to fight to create the nonprofit Friends of Minnesota Gymnastics, whose board of directors is made up of alumni. Through donations and other fundraising efforts like hosting gymnastics competitions, Burns said the nonprofit is able to raise about a tenth of what the University of Minnesota used to offer annually. Students who used to train at the university now have to drive about 45 minutes to train there.

“My only desire is to keep this program alive,” Burns said. “And I’m going to do everything in my power to do that.”

When asked about this new class of Olympians in Paris, Burns mentions how Fred Richard brings the confidence and swagger that I love every time I see this kid.

He said it's the kind of thing that can make men's gymnastics contagious. But he admits the United States still has a long way to go if it wants to reach silver and gold without the state-funded resources offered by powers like China and Russia.

The fact is that Olympic medals attract a lot of attention, and attention is a currency. The question is whether this year's athletes can keep it.

You have read 1 article in the last month

At Vox, we want to help everyone understand our complex world, so we can all help shape it. Our mission is to create clear, accessible journalism to foster understanding and action.

If you share our vision, please consider supporting our work by becoming a Vox member. Your support ensures that Vox has a stable, independent source of funding to support our journalism. If you’re not ready to become a member, even small contributions go a long way to supporting a sustainable model of journalism.

Thank you for being part of our community.

Swati Sharma

Editor-in-chief of Vox

Join us for $5/month

We accept credit cards, Apple Pay and Google Pay. You can also contribute via

What Are The Main Benefits Of Comparing Car Insurance Quotes Online

LOS ANGELES, CA / ACCESSWIRE / June 24, 2020, / Compare-autoinsurance.Org has launched a new blog post that presents the main benefits of comparing multiple car insurance quotes. For more info and free online quotes, please visit https://compare-autoinsurance.Org/the-advantages-of-comparing-prices-with-car-insurance-quotes-online/ The modern society has numerous technological advantages. One important advantage is the speed at which information is sent and received. With the help of the internet, the shopping habits of many persons have drastically changed. The car insurance industry hasn't remained untouched by these changes. On the internet, drivers can compare insurance prices and find out which sellers have the best offers. View photos The advantages of comparing online car insurance quotes are the following: Online quotes can be obtained from anywhere and at any time. Unlike physical insurance agencies, websites don't have a specific schedule and they are available at any time. Drivers that have busy working schedules, can compare quotes from anywhere and at any time, even at midnight. Multiple choices. Almost all insurance providers, no matter if they are well-known brands or just local insurers, have an online presence. Online quotes will allow policyholders the chance to discover multiple insurance companies and check their prices. Drivers are no longer required to get quotes from just a few known insurance companies. Also, local and regional insurers can provide lower insurance rates for the same services. Accurate insurance estimates. Online quotes can only be accurate if the customers provide accurate and real info about their car models and driving history. Lying about past driving incidents can make the price estimates to be lower, but when dealing with an insurance company lying to them is useless. Usually, insurance companies will do research about a potential customer before granting him coverage. Online quotes can be sorted easily. Although drivers are recommended to not choose a policy just based on its price, drivers can easily sort quotes by insurance price. Using brokerage websites will allow drivers to get quotes from multiple insurers, thus making the comparison faster and easier. For additional info, money-saving tips, and free car insurance quotes, visit https://compare-autoinsurance.Org/ Compare-autoinsurance.Org is an online provider of life, home, health, and auto insurance quotes. This website is unique because it does not simply stick to one kind of insurance provider, but brings the clients the best deals from many different online insurance carriers. In this way, clients have access to offers from multiple carriers all in one place: this website. On this site, customers have access to quotes for insurance plans from various agencies, such as local or nationwide agencies, brand names insurance companies, etc. "Online quotes can easily help drivers obtain better car insurance deals. All they have to do is to complete an online form with accurate and real info, then compare prices", said Russell Rabichev, Marketing Director of Internet Marketing Company. CONTACT: Company Name: Internet Marketing CompanyPerson for contact Name: Gurgu CPhone Number: (818) 359-3898Email: [email protected]: https://compare-autoinsurance.Org/ SOURCE: Compare-autoinsurance.Org View source version on accesswire.Com:https://www.Accesswire.Com/595055/What-Are-The-Main-Benefits-Of-Comparing-Car-Insurance-Quotes-Online View photos