League of Their Own: Great Gator Gymnasts
Football, basketball and baseball — all historically dominant programs at Florida. But one is looking to reign above them all and it’s … gymnastics?
That’s right. Gators gymnastics is looking to get its fourth national championship Saturday at Dickies Arena in Fort Worth, Texas. While it missed out on the opportunity last season, Florida’s dominant 197.7875-point performance while facing LSU, Georgia and Stanford in semifinal 1 on Thursday secured it a spot in the Four on the Floor.
Coach Jenny Rowland has been a key component in the Gators gymnastic dominance. Florida has consistently ranked among the top four teams in the nation during her first 11 seasons. It was the only SEC team in the 2021 NCAA Championship Final.
Florida gymnastics is a powerhouse, there’s no denying that, especially seeing that it’s won seven SEC championships since Rowland took over and set the SEC unbeaten record at 26-0-1. Since 2016, 27 Gator gymnasts have collected 201 All-American honors. Five have claimed 11 NCAA event titles and three have achieved the height of their sport and claimed the Honda Award, which is given to the top collegiate female athlete in each of the 12 NCAA-sanctioned sports.
And, for whatever it’s worth, Gators gymnastics doen’t just excel on the floor, it also excels off the floor. With a 3.76 cumulative GPA for the fall 2025 semester, it maintained the highest GPA among all Florida athletics.
The other notable Florida sports, like football, basketball and baseball, haven’t seen close to the amount of success gymnastics has this season or in recent years.
What’s there to say about football other than how it ended its previous season not with a bang, but with a whimper. Florida was once again under .500, the fourth time since 2020. This, of course, caused a complete overhaul of the program, with Florida exchanging Billy Napier for Tulane coach Jon Sumrall.
Basketball started its season as a bright, shining star. But as many stars do, it burned out, and fast at that. After achieving the ultimate high in college sports by winning the national championship only a year prior, it should have been expected for Florida to have a more uphill battle this season. It’s just that no one expected that battle to end with a 73-72 loss to Iowa in the second round of the NCAA Tournament.
Baseball — oh, baseball. If there’s one thing to be said, it’s that it’s consistent at being inconsistent. The Gators will go on hot streaks, beating rivals like Florida State in a dominating fashion every time they meet, then lose a midweek game against some team like Bethune-Cookman for seemingly no reason at all. There’s still a lot more baseball to play, so maybe Florida can get over its midweek woes and end the season out right, but the trajectory of the Gators baseball program misaligned with that of its gymnastics dynasty.
But no matter how good — or bad — Florida’s other teams are, all eyes should be on gymnastics Saturday at 4 p.m. on ABC. After all, these gymnasts definitely are what most won’t admit.
The best among Florida sports.
Category: Gator Sports, Gators Gymnastics
