There are few accomplishments as celebrated in collegiate gymnastics as the illustrious gym slam. In order to join the club, an athlete must score a perfect 10.0 on each event at least once. Reaching this accomplishment can take place over the course of one season or throughout the entirety of a gymnast’s career.
As of the start of the 2024 season, only 13 gymnasts in NCAA history have hit the milestone, with three accomplishing the feat more than once. The first gym slam was recorded by Utah’s Missy Marlowe in 1992. Former Gator Trinity Thomas holds the record with five gym slams throughout her collegiate career, completing two in her final season of competition.
According to Thomas, receiving a perfect score on each event was one of the first goals she set for herself upon arriving in Gainesville, before she knew the feat had a name. Although the goal started as a way for her to push herself in practice, she didn’t achieve her first gym slam until 2022, during her senior season.
“My last 10 that I had to get was on vault, and I’m pretty sure I got it [at home],” Thomas said. “So I remember being super excited because, one, vault, for a long time, was one of the hardest events for me to do. I was scared of it. I wasn’t very good at it, and so it took a lot to get to this point, so it was something that I was super excited about.”
Each of Thomas’ five gym slams was rounded out with a perfect score on vault, something that, as it turns out, is not uncommon. Looking back at every gym slam since 2004, the most frequent event on which gymnasts received their final 10 was vault.
Oregon State’s Jade Carey – the only active NCAA gymnast to have completed a gym slam – finished hers on beam, tied with bars as the second-most frequent. Similar to Thomas, Carey had a goal of scoring a 10 on each event from the start of her collegiate career. It finally happened on March 4, 2023, in a meet at Arizona State. Although it was away from her home stadium in Corvallis, it was still a special moment for the Arizona native.
“I’m from Arizona, so a lot of my family and friends were there,” Carey said. “So it was nice to be able to be with them, who have seen me as a little kid doing gymnastics, to finally getting the last 10 that I needed, so that was fun. And then, of course, my team was so excited because we all do it for each other, and we see how hard each other works every single day, so we get just as excited for each other as we do for ourselves, so it’s always nice to have them in my corner.”
In order to pick up the final 10 that she needed on beam, Carey and her coaches at Oregon State took a unique approach. To find the ideal combination of skills to receive the perfect score, the 2020 Toyko Olympian dug into her bag of elite tricks to get the job done.
“Beam was hard because I felt like we just kept changing my routine because at that point I was like, ‘I want a 10,’ so whatever the judges would deduct, we would go back to the gym and be like, ‘Okay, how can we change it to make it better? Can we do something else in place of it?’” Carey said. “So I think that’s where my elite skill set came in handy for me because I had so many options to choose from and could play the game that way.”
As the two most recent athletes to record gym slams, Carey and Thomas brought a lot of value to their respective teams. As individuals, they both earned second-place finishes at the 2023 NCAA championships, with Thomas winning on bars and Carey on beam. Thomas also helped Florida to a second-place overall finish, while Carey and the Beavers went out with a bang, posting the fifth-highest score in program history when they were eliminated in the regional finals.
Florida head coach Jenny Rowland, who has coached two gymnasts with gym slams on their resumes, knows first-hand just how valuable it can be to have a competitor of that caliber on a team. Under her tutelage, Thomas accomplished her feats, preceded by Alex McMurtry who completed her gym slam in 2018. Additionally, Rowland also coached Bridget Sloan in 2016, the year after she finished her slam.
“I’d say typically those qualities that are just instilled as far as competitiveness goes, work ethic, drive, I like to say intrinsic motivation, those are all really great qualities that typically those athletes instill,” Rowland said. “And when you’re around greatness, greatness spreads greatness, so I think it’s always a great thing to have on your team in order to have everybody be the best that they can be.”
Who Will Capture the Next Gym Slam?
With the start of the 2024 season quickly approaching, it warrants thought about which current gymnast could be next. Based on information collected surrounding the athletes who have achieved a gym slam in the past, a profile was made to outline the characteristics of the gymnast who is most likely to complete a gym slam in the upcoming season.
Based on the averages of gym slams since 2004, the next gym slam is most likely to come from someone in at least their junior year. They’d likely record six or seven 10s in a season and total around 13 by the end of their career. Their all-around average for the season would be close to 39.6475, paired with an NQS of 39.745. Their best event, at least in that season, is most likely to be floor, and they will likely be someone who competes for one of the top four teams in the country – the pre-season coaches poll has those top teams listed as Oklahoma, Florida, LSU, and Utah. Lastly, they would be most likely to finish the slam on the road in a regular season meet.
While most of the averages are calculated using scores from the season in which the gym slam was completed, there are a few gymnasts who fit parts of this criteria based on scores from past seasons.
Haleigh Bryant
LSU senior Haleigh Bryant just needs a perfect score on beam to earn her gym slam. She has yet to score above 9.950 on the apparatus. Across the other three events, she has a total of 10 perfect scores. Statistically, on average, beam was her worst event in 2023, but it was her best in 2022. Last season, her all-around average was 39.669 with an NQS of 39.725. Bryant and the Tigers enter the 2024 season ranked No. 3 in WCGA’s poll and No. 2 in CGN’s poll. With plenty of opportunities in her senior season, Bryant is a frontrunner to be the 14th athlete to accomplish this feat. She would be the first LSU gymnast to do so.
Jordan Bowers
In her first two years, Oklahoma’s Jordan Bowers has just three 10.0s, but they’ve each come on a different event. The one still missing is beam. She hit her career-high of 9.975 just once. Still, despite the limited frequency of her top scores, Bowers makes the list due to her potential. In 2023, Bowers totaled an all-around NQS of 39.685 and an average of 39.575. While these numbers sit a bit further below the projected profile, improvement is projected for the third-year competitor based on the strides she made between her freshman and sophomore years. She hasn’t been perfect often, but the diversity she’s already shown in her excellence could be the ticket to her getting the job done.
Leanne Wong
Thomas and Rowland named Wong as their pick to be the next gymnast to finish a gym slam. As of now, the only event she is lacking perfection on is floor. Having scored a 9.975 on this event five times in her career, she is arguably the most likely of the three listed athletes to finish a gym slam next. She has six career 10s throughout her first two seasons and competes for a top-three team in the country. Her 2023 all-around NQS sits below Bryant’s and Bowers’, at 39.675, but her season all-around average of 39.631 is on par with the profile. The only thing potentially holding Wong back is how often she competes this season. As she continues to prepare to vie for a spot on the United States’ 2024 Olympic team, her presence in lineups may dwindle week in and week out, providing her with fewer opportunities to go for the final 10 throughout the season.
Although these three gymnasts are just one event away from having a gym slam to their names, there is no guarantee they will finish it this season, or ever. Despite their relatively increased frequency in recent years – Trinity Thomas completing five in two seasons – gym slams are still extremely rare. Only 13 gymnasts have finished one in the 41-year history of NCAA gymnastics. If one does happen in the 2024 season, it will be remembered as a momentous occasion.
“(It is) still extremely, extremely monumental, extremely rare, and exciting to see the level and caliber of athletes that are continuing throughout their international career and continuing into the NCAA world,” Rowland said. “I’m hopeful and foresee it continuing to be a possibility and a potential, but still, to this day, to get one 10 is exceptional, but to get a gym slam and be able to say that you’ve gotten a 10 on every single event, it’s really, really unique and very special.”
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Article by Tia Reid and Emma Hammerstrom
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