While it’s been more common in the last quad for elite gymnasts to do NCAA simultaneously or as part of their longer careers, for a long time, gymnasts had to choose between going pro or competing in college? So where are some of those NCAA gymnasts now, and what are they doing in their careers?
Coaches
Georgia
Courtney Kupets Carter, Cecile Landi, and Marissa King
Prior to securing her legacy as one of the most successful collegiate gymnasts of all time, Courtney Kupets Carter won team silver and individual bronze on bars at the 2004 Olympics with Team USA despite what would later be diagnosed as a stress fracture in her hip. Unfortunately, that level of success didn’t carry over to her tenure as head coach at her alma mater, Georgia. She parted ways with the GymDogs in April 2024 after another average season.
Canqueteau-Landi was a member of the 1996 French Olympic team and, most recently, has coached multiple Olympic medalists, including Madison Kocian, Jordan Chiles, and Simone Biles. She’ll officially join Georgia’s staff after the 2024 Games conclude and will join former Florida Gator Marissa King, who competed for Great Britain at the 2008 Olympics and who will serve as assistant coach to Canqueteau-Landi and co-head coach Ryan Roberts.
LSU
Courtney McCool Griffeth
Twice Kupets Carter’s teammate in Athens (Greece AND Georgia, that is), Courtney McCool Griffeth is married to fellow assistant coach Garrett Griffeth, whom she met during her career as a GymDog while being coached by Jay Clark. The trio are coming off of coaching the Tigers to their first NCAA title. Next stop: Paris, where they’ll coach LSU senior Aleah Finnegan in her Olympic debut representing the Philippines alongside fellow NCAA gymnasts Emma Malabuyo, a UCLA senior, and incoming Stanford freshman Levi Jung-Ruivivar.
Arkansas
Jordyn Wieber, Kyla Ross, Chris Brooks
The Olympian trio of Wieber, Ross, and Brooks has coached the Razorbacks together for four seasons. Wieber and Brooks have been in Fayetteville since 2019 when Wieber was appointed head coach before hiring Brooks as her her assistant coach. The two got married in 2023. Ross came on board as a volunteer assistant coach for the 2021 season and was promoted two years later to the assistant coach job she now holds.
Wieber and Ross were two-fifths of the celebrated Fierce Five U.S. Olympic team in 2012, where they earned team gold. Wieber, following perhaps the best-known instance of being two-per-countried at the London Games, went to UCLA for college in 2014. However, she was unable to compete there because she had decided to turn pro after winning the 2011 world all-around title. She eventually became a team manager, then a volunteer assistant coach for three years, for UCLA, which Ross joined as a freshman in 2017.
Brooks was an alternate to the U.S. men’s gymnastics team in 2012 and a member of the 2016 Rio Olympic squad. He competed for Oklahoma from 2005-09.
BYU
Guard Young
Young was a 2004 Olympian who helped lead his squad to a silver medal in Athens, the men’s team’s highest finish since 1984. He competed for BYU from 1996-2000, when the team was cut. He served as assistant coach of the men’s team at Oklahoma from 2000-05 and again from 2011-15. He has been the head coach of the BYU women’s program for nine seasons.
Denver
Jessica Lopez
Lopez competed for Denver from 2006-09 and was a five-time All-American who qualified as an individual to the 2009 NCAA championships. Lopez competed for Venezuela in three Olympics: 2008, 2012, and 2016. She was the first Denver gymnast to become an Olympian, and in 2016, she finished seventh in the all-around, the highest-ever finish for a Venzuelan gymnast. She wrapped up that Games with a sixth-place finish in the bars final (another record).
Lopez became a volunteer assistant coach at Denver in 2018. She is an entrepreneur with her own business, JLO Performance, and works in supply chain for gymnastics apparel. She graduated in May with an MBA from Denver’s Daniels College of Business a year after giving birth to her daughter. She did an internship while in business school in Denver’s compliance department and hopes to continue working in that area.
Commentators
Samantha Peszek
Peszek attended UCLA from 2010-15. At UCLA, she was a 17-time All-American, the 2015 NCAA champion and beam champion, and the NCAA beam champion in 2011 as well.
Peszek competed on the 2008 Olympic team in Beijing that won team silver. She continued elite gymnastics for a year after that before heading to Westwood.
Peszek became a sports broadcaster, moving from the Pac-12 Networks to ESPN as an analyst alongside Kathy Johnson Clarke and Bart Conner before joining NBC to cover elite gymnastics this year. She will join the Olympic broadcast team in Paris to cover gymnastics for the 2024 Olympics.
John Roethlisberger
Roethlisberger attended Minnesota from 1990-93. He won the 1993 Nissen-Emery Award for best collegiate male gymnast. He is a three-time Olympian who competed for the U.S. on the 1992, 1996, and 2000 men’s teams. He is also a four-time U.S. elite all-around champion and four-time U.S. elite pommel horse champion. His father, Fred, was on the 1968 U.S. men’s gymnastics team at the Mexico City Games, and his sister, Marie, was an alternate on the 1984 U.S. women’s team and a standout NCAA gymnast at Minnesota. Roethlisberger commentates on Big Ten and SEC gymnastics meets. He has worked for NBC for several years and will be on the call with Peszek for the 2024 Olympics in Paris.
Justin Spring
Spring attended Illinois from 2002-06. He won the 2006 Nissan-Emery Award, was a two-time NCAA parallel bars champion, and a two-time NCAA high bar champion. Spring also helped the 2008 U.S. men’s team win a bronze medal in Beijing. After his gymnastics career, he coached the men’s team at Illinois for 12 seasons, beginning in 2010, and is now the assistant coach at Alabama on the women’s side.
Alicia Sacramone Quinn
Sacramone Quinn compete for Brown from 2006-07. She broke several school records for high scores in the all-around, vault, and floor and qualified for the NCAA championships as an individual. She was just the second elite gymnast (after Kelly Garrison) to combine elite training and NCAA competition simultaneously. She went pro after her first and only season at Brown, forfeiting her remaining eligibility. Sacramone Quinn was the captain of the 2008 U.S. women’s Olympic team that won silver in Beijing. She is now the strategic lead for the women’s high performance team at USA Gymnastics. She is married to former NFL player Brady Quinn, and they have three daughters and a son.
Kathy Johnson Clarke
Johnson Clarke attended Centenary College from 1977-79 was a two-time All-American there, and won the all-around title at the 1978 AIAW championship. She made two Olympic teams but competed at only one—Johnson Clarke was named to the 1980 team that boycotted the Moscow Games. In 1984, Johnson Clarke was the captain of the U.S. women’s team for LA ’84, where she won team silver and balance beam bronze. After her career, Johnson Clarke had a lengthy career in sports broadcasting, including stints at NBC, CBS, TBS, and ABC. She was beloved as an ESPN commentator for NCAA gymnastics and helped create ways of displaying scores that are still being used. She retired this year.
Bart Conner
Conner attended Oklahoma beginning in 1976. He was a 14-time All-American and helped Oklahoma win two national titles. As an elite, he was named to three Olympic teams and competed at two, winning team gold and parallel bars gold (coming back in dramatic fashion from a second torn bicep to do so) at the 1984 Los Angeles Games. Conner coached at Oklahoma and owns Bart Conner Gymnastics Academy in Norman, Oklahoma, with his wife, Nadia Comaneci, herself an Olympian of some renown. They have one son, Dylan. After his athletic career, Conner worked for NBC, ABC, and ESPN as a broadcaster; his partnership with Kathy Johnson Clarke at ESPN was legendary.
Bridget Sloan
Sloan attended Florida from 2012-16. She is the only woman to win U.S., world, and NCAA titles and the first Florida gymnast to achieve a gym slam (perfect 10s on all four events). She is a nine-time NCAA champion, including the 2013 and 2016 all-around titles. She won the Honda Award in 2016. Sloan competed on the 2008 women’s gymnastics team in Beijing where she won team silver. In 2009, she won the world all-around title. Sloan commentates NCAA gymnastics for ESPN and runs a podcast, Flipping Out With Bridget Sloan, which she is currently co-hosting with Johnson Clarke.
Gymnasts
Danusia Francis
Francis competed at UCLA from 2012-16 and was the 2016 NCAA beam champion. She competed elite for Great Britain until 2012, where she was named an alternate to the British Olympic team for the London Games. In 2015, she began competing for Jamaica, and in 2016 secured Jamaica a qualification spot to Rio Games. She was ultimately replaced by fellow NCAA star Toni-Ann Williams in Rio by the Jamaican federation, but in 2021, Francis competed at the Tokyo Games for Jamaica despite tearing her ACL in practice. Francis got married in 2022 and works as a gymnastics coach, presenter, and stuntwoman.
Houry Gabeshian
Gebeshian competed at Iowa from 2008-11. She was the Big Ten beam champion in 2010 and qualified to the 2011 NCAA national championships as an individual athlete. She competed at the 2016 Olympics in Rio, getting a bars mount named for her while there. Gebeshian works as a surgical physician’s assistant in Ohio. She is also the founder and co-owner of Full Out Collegiate Recruiting, a consulting service for gymnasts to assist with the college recruiting process.
Missy Marlowe
Marlowe competed for Utah from 1989-92. She was a four-year All-American, the 1992 NCAA all-around champion, and won both the Honda Award for best female gymnast and the Honda Cup for best female athlete in the NCAA her senior year. Her daughter, Milan Clausi, competed at Cal from 2019-22. As an elite,Marlowe competed at the 1988 Olympics in Seoul. She is the owner and head coach of Missy Marlowe’s Gymnastics and Sports Center and previously did commentary for Utah gymnastics meets.
Kelly Garrison-Funderburk
Garrison competed for Oklahoma from 1986-88. She was a four-time national champion and a seven-time All-American. She also won the Honda Award twice. She scored the first perfect 10 in NCAA gymnastics, on beam. As an elite, Garrison was on the 1988 Olympic team that competed in Seoul. She graduated from Oklahoma in 2013, has commentated Sooner meets, and works as a public speaker as well as a gymnastics consultant and choreographer.
Jamie Dantzscher
Dantzscher attended UCLA from 2000-04. She got a perfect 10 on bars in her first college routine and went on to hold the NCAA record for 10s with 28 (a record she shares with Trinity Thomas and Jenny Hansen). She is a four-time NCAA champion and three-time NCAA team champion. Dantzscher competed on the 2000 Olympic team in Sydney that won team bronze, albeit 10 years after the fact. She was vocal about her disappointment with training conditions at the Olympics and would eventually become one of the first elite gymnasts to accuse Larry Nassar of abuse. Dantzscher was an assistant coach at Arizona State for a season in 2009 and has worked as a club coach and motivational speaker.
Kristen Maloney
Maloney attended UCLA from 2001-05. She was the first UCLA gymnast to get a perfect 10 on beam. She came back from leg surgery and two years off to help UCLA to a team title in 2004. She was a five-time national champion, a nine-time All-American, and won the Honda Award in 2005. As an elite, Maloney was part of the 2000 Olympic team in Sydney that won team bronze. She has also performed with Cirque du Soleil, has been an assistant coach at New Hampshire and Iowa State, and works with Precision Choreography.
Elise Ray
Ray attended Michigan from 2000-05, where she was the program’s most-decorated gymnast. She won the national all-around title in 2001. Ray was on the 2000 Olympic team in Sydney that won team bronze. She was a favorite for an all-around medal but fell victim to the Sydney Vault Debacle and finished 13th. Ray performed for Cirque du Soleil for three years and was also the head coach at Washington from 2016-20 following five years as assistant coach for the Huskies.
Tasha Schwikert
Schwikert attended UCLA from 2004-08. She was the 2005 and 2008 NCAA all-around champion and in 2007 won not only the all-around but vault, beam, and floor as well. She got that elusive bars title in 2008. Schwikert was part of the 2000 Olympic Team in Sydney that won bronze and an alternate to the 2004 Olympic team. Currently, she is a senior assistant at the Houston law firm Munck Wilson Mandala and co-chairs its NIL practice.
Mohini Bhardwaj
Bhardwaj attended UCLA from 1998-2001. She won the NCAA bars title in 2000 and the floor title in 2001; UCLA also won two team titles while she competed, in 2000 and 2001. Bhardwaj competed on the 2004 Olympic team in Athens and won team silver. Now, she is the owner and head coach at OOA Gymnastics in Oregon and is a Brevet-rated judge.
Terin Humphrey
Humphrey competed for Alabama from 2005-08, winning the NCAA bars title as a freshman. Humphrey was part of the 2004 Olympic team in Athens that won team silver and also claimed individual silver on bars. She became a police officer in Missouri in 2010 and was part of the Olympic selection committee in 2012 and 2016 as an athlete rep.Humphrey currently works as a gymnastics coach and has studied to be a massage therapist.
READ THIS NEXT: Kathy Johnson Clarke’s Love of Gymnastics Guides a Storied Career
Article by Lela Moore and Claire Billman
You left off Lynnzee Brown, former Denver gymnast, current assistant coach at Penn State and competing in Paris.
Also with KJC, you stated she retired this year, not necessarily true, according to her Tweets, she was forced into retirement.
This isn’t an exhaustive list. We couldn’t list every single Olympian who has also done college gymnastics, so we picked a handful of gymnasts folks would find interesting.
Regarding Kathy Johnson-Clarke, I did not know she was asked to retire. I’m so pleased that we will continue to hear her voice in podcasts and more. Kathy is such a great broadcaster of artistic gymnastics.