At Simpson, they’re flipping over gymnastics
New program taps into the growing popularity of the sport at the women’s collegiate level
The sports world being what it is, it’s not that remarkable at an event to see a bunch of dudes in the stands with their chests painted — even on a frigid winter day. At the Cowles Fieldhouse at Simpson College in Indianola last month that was indeed the scene, but the venue wasn’t a chilly football field or a balmy basketball arena.
It was at a women’s gymnastics meet.
Such is the world of college gymnastics, where things are just a little bit different than what you catch on TV every four years at the Olympics. It’s constant cheers and high fives, it’s teammates dancing along the sidelines to the floor routines and, yes, it’s dudes with painted chests.
It’s also all part of the appeal.
Women’s college gymnastics is having a moment and Simpson is the latest school in Iowa to join the party. The Storm launched its program last season, starting from scratch as the school has added sports for both Title IX reasons and to distinguish itself in a market competing for a shrinking demographic of college students. The Simpson women’s team joins Iowa and Iowa State as schools in the state offering the sport; Simpson is now the sole team offering men’s gymnastics after Iowa dropped its program as a pandemic cost-cutting measure.
“It fits who we are,” said Simpson Athletic Director Marty Bell. “We’re close to Des Moines and the gymnastics community there that goes back to (Olympic champion) Shawn Johnson and Chow’s (gym). We thought it would resonate here.”
Bell’s instincts proved correct. In the programs’ second season, they’ve already hit the roster numbers Bell suspected it would take four years to reach.
The chance to be part of a new program was part of Coach Emily Barrett Payne’s pitch, and the athletes bought in, she said.
“We sold them on the idea of being part of a brand new program,” Payne said. “You make a difference on any team you are on, but being part of that first team is something not a lot of people get to say they’ve done.”
Payne’s husband, Colin, coaches the men’s team. The couple came to Simpson in fall 2021 and immediately set out building the programs. Recruiting gymnastics is different than most other sports – clubs are more dominant at the youth level than high school programs – and Payne tapped into that network. Social media plays a role as well.
“Instagram is a really big recruiting tool for gymnastics,” she said. “Gymnasts can post videos, quick videos of skills or routines and tag the colleges or college coaches.”
Payne had a team full of freshmen last year, and all but one returned this season. She recruited nationally, and has two Iowans on the team. One, Morgan Svec of Cumming, trained at Chow’s Gymnastics and Dance Institute, the famed West Des Moines gym where Olympians Shawn Johnson and Gabby Douglas trained.
Svec is a gymnastics lifer, starting at Chow’s when she was 18 months old as part of the club’s Mommy and Me classes.
“Gymnastics is pretty much all I know,” said Svec, who competes in the bars and the vault for the Storm.
But she thought her gymnastics career was over and planned to go to the University of Iowa as just a regular student when Payne reached out to her about Simpson’s new program.
“It was a chance to create a legacy,” Svec said.
Gymnastics has taken a PR hit in recent years with the sexual abuse scandals that have rocked the sport at the elite level. College, however, has been different. It has long had pockets of popularity but has gained more attention in recent years.
“We are sort of the beacon of goodness in our sport right now,” LSU Coach Jay Clark told The Associated Press. “Our sport has taken so many negative hits for various reasons over the last five to six years, people look at college gymnastics as the saving grace.”
A variety of factors have contributed to women’s college gymnastics’ rise. The Name, Image, Likeness (NIL) deals that college athletes can make now have helped top athletes cash in and create a market for their talents, as well as drawing former Olympians into the college ranks. Social media has created viral moments for the sport, such as when UCLA gymnast Katelyn Ohashi scored a perfect 10 on a floor routine in 2019; a video of it has now racked up 242 million views on YouTube.
Additional sports channels have helped; Iowa’s Big Ten opener at Minnesota was on the main Big Ten Network. The NCAA championships have been on ABC since 2021.
Fans have followed. Utah has been the national leader in attendance all but four years since 1984 and last year averaged 13,427 fans per meet. LSU sold out its season tickets before the season began. Iowa State ranked 15th in attendance nationally last season with 3,505 fans per meet; Iowa was 19th with an average of 3,108 at Xtream Arena in Coralville. (Iowa and Iowa State compete against each other March 8 at Hilton Coliseum.)
Payne said part of the appeal, too, is just the sport itself.
“It’s a hard sport,” she said. “It’s physically demanding and grueling. But when they go out on the floor, they make it look so easy and that’s exciting for people.”
College gymnastics just has a different vibe, too, that makes it fun for athletes and fans.
“College gymnastics is more team-oriented,” Svec said. “With club gymnastics you just compete for yourself. In college, we all contribute in some way and we get to let loose. This is our fun time.”
The team aspect stretches to the men’s team, too. The dudes with painted chests were members of the men’s team.
“They’re like our brothers,” Svec said.
The Storm have one home meet left this season, Feb. 25 at Cowles Fieldhouse.
Jane Burns is a former sports and features writer for the Des Moines Register, as well as other publications and websites. Over the course of her career she’s covered pretty much everything, which is why her as-yet-to-be-written memoir will be called “Cheese And Basketball: Stories From A Reporter Who Has Covered Everything.”
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How inspiring to have growth in sports other than football!