With the final season of COVID-year eligibility behind us, we looked back at freshman appearances during the 2021 through 2025 seasons, which we’ll call the COVID-year era. We used this data to better understand how this change in eligibility rules impacted first-year athletes’ ability to compete.
All winter athletes who were on a roster in 2021 were allowed one extra year of eligibility to account for teams and individuals who opted out of the 2021 season due to risks associated with the spread of COVID. Gymnasts who were freshmen in 2021 just completed their fifth seasons, marking the end of this automatic extra year of eligibility. Before the 2025 season, we looked at the impact of the additional year of eligibility on lineup appearances, with a focus on upperclassmen and COVID-year athletes. Now, with COVID years behind us, we’re looking at the impact of this extra year of eligibility on underclassmen. Did freshmen compete less frequently in 2022-2025? Did gymnasts who were freshmen during the COVID-year era break into lineups later in their careers?
First, we looked at roster spots by class year. We analyzed data from 2018 through 2025 to see if trends changed during seasons with COVID years. The chart below shows each class’s percentage of roster spots with percentages higher than 25% in bold. Seniors and COVID years are grouped together as seniors. Freshmen accounted for a high proportion of roster spots in 2022, and seniors/COVID years made up a high proportion of roster spots throughout the COVID-year era.
| Class | 2018 | 2019 | 2020 | 2021 | 2022 | 2023 | 2024 | 2025 |
| Freshmen | 25% | 23% | 27% | 24% | 27% | 22% | 24% | 22% |
| Sophomores | 25% | 24% | 25% | 24% | 24% | 23% | 22% | 21% |
| Juniors | 25% | 26% | 25% | 27% | 22% | 27% | 24% | 27% |
| Seniors | 24% | 26% | 23% | 25% | 28% | 29% | 30% | 29% |
Next, we looked at the percentage of routines that freshmen competed. The gray-shaded sections in the charts below represent the COVID-year era.
On vault, freshmen competed 30% of routines in 2022. This is higher than their share of roster spots (27%). After a dip in 2023, freshmen routines accounted for 25% of vault appearances in 2024 and 2025. Opportunities for freshmen on vault did not seem to be limited by the extra eligibility.
However, the percentage of routines by freshmen did decrease on uneven bars, beam, and floor during the COVID-year era. Similarly to vault, the percentage of routines during COVID years peaked in 2022 before decreasing over the next three seasons. While freshmen competed about one of every four routines on each event in 2018, they competed about one in every five routines in 2025.
All-around appearances had greater variability than appearances on individual events. In 2022, freshmen made 30% of all-around appearances. This dropped sharply to 20% of all-around appearances in 2023, 15% in 2024, and 18% in 2025. The shift in appearances was covered by seniors and fifth-years, who accounted for 30% of all-around appearances in 2024, 39% in 2025, and 34% in 2025.
What is the impact of lineup opportunities on classes that started during COVID-year seasons? To analyze this, we assigned gymnasts to a cohort based on their freshman season. We then tracked the proportion of routines each cohort competed in during their subsequent seasons.
The freshman cohort of 2022 accounted for 27% of all routines during that season, which is in line with their proportion of roster spots. As sophomores in 2023, this cohort accounted for nearly the same proportion of routines (26%). There was a drop-off as juniors and seniors: this cohort accounted for 22% of all routines in 2024 and 20% of routines in 2025. The breakdown by event is shown in the chart below; the pattern remains similar across all events.
2023 freshmen accounted for 20% of all routines in 2023 and 2024 and 19% of all routines in 2025. This steady one in five routine pattern differed slightly by event. The 2023 cohort competed in less than 20% of uneven bars and beam routines each season. Despite this, they accounted for 27% of all-around appearances in 2025.
The 2024 freshmen cohort has only two seasons underway. They made up 22% of routines in 2024 and 23% in 2025. On vault, they accounted for one in four routines in 2024 and one in five in 2025. On all other events and in the all-around, they competed in a higher proportion of routines in 2025 than in 2024.
After looking at roster spots and lineup appearances, it does seem that freshmen had fewer opportunities to compete during the COVID-year era. The opposite was true during the first season of the COVID-year era, when 2022 freshmen competed more frequently than freshmen classes in 2023 through 2025. The 2023 freshman cohort has been most affected. Their share of lineup spots continues to decrease on three of four events and remains lower than the expected one in five routines. Things have changed for the 2024 cohort though: these freshmen competed more in their second seasons on three of the four events. Without COVID-year athletes in 2026, we’ll see if the freshman classes who started competing during the COVID era will move closer to, or surpass, 25% of appearances, or if open spots will go towards incoming freshmen and underclassmen who could remain in lineups further into the future.
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Article by Jill Walsh
