A dream realized: Selena Harris-Miranda’s journey to Florida and competing in the SEC

By Eva Geitheim | January 22, 2025
Selena Harris-Miranda competing for Florida
Photo courtesy: Mike Erdelyi/Florida Gymnastics.

Selena Harris-Miranda entered uncharted territory when she was abruptly dismissed from the UCLA gymnastics program in May.

Less than two months after recording an all-around score of 39.900 in the Bruins’ regular season finale, becoming the final Pac-12 Gymnast of the Year, and winning the all-around, vault, and bars at the Pac-12 Championships, UCLA dismissed Harris-Miranda from their program for an undisclosed reason, causing her to hit the transfer portal.

In college football or college basketball, it’s routine practice for top athletes to hit the transfer portal these days. In NCAA gymnastics? Not so much. During the prime of a gymnast’s undergraduate career? That rarely happens. Harris-Miranda is the highest-profile all-around gymnast to enter the portal in recent years. She finished the 2024 season ranked top 20 in all individual categories, including No. 5 in the all-around, tied for No. 1 on vault, and No. 10 on bars.

Harris-Miranda transferring to Florida marks an unprecedented move in the sport, largely because of the impact it could have on the college gymnastics landscape. Her decision could simply be an outlier as a result of her dismissal from UCLA, but if Harris-Miranda helps Florida win a championship for the first time in a decade, could it start a trend within the sport? Few teams have capitalized on the transfer portal in recent seasons like Florida, which also added Victoria Nguyen from Georgia in 2023.

The Gators have made the Four on the Floor national team final for four consecutive seasons (2021-24), but competition will remain stiff for Florida. With LSU coming off its first national title, Oklahoma joining the SEC, and Cecile Canqueteau-Landi taking over as Georgia’s head coach, the SEC is set to be as fierce as ever this season. It will be the perfect environment for Harris-Miranda, who has dreamed of competing in the SEC since her club days.

Selena Harris-Miranda competing for Florida.
Photo courtesy: Lorenzo Vasquez/Florida Gymnastics.

“I love competing,” Harris-Miranda told Gymnastics Now. “It ignites it even more than already being on the floor. A lot of people say that being in the SEC, it gives ‘we’re going to war.’

Harris-Miranda has found that competitive atmosphere within her own team at Florida too.

“Everybody is on a grind to achieve something this year, and I think that really helps everybody in the gym, because it feels like a competition inside of us,” Harris-Miranda said. “We’re not really focused on the other teams out there.”

“I love it,” she added. “I love going into the gym because we are working towards something big.”

Harris-Miranda thrives when the stakes are high, yet her competitive fire is almost contradictory to how seamless her gymnastics often appears. Her back handspring to layout stepout to back handspring series on beam is practically automatic, as are her handstands that are usually perfectly on top of the uneven bars. It’s a huge reason she’s hit every single one of her college routines to date (111 total routines at time of publishing).

That combination of poise and consistency should be a fitting match for SEC gymnastics and what she describes as a “strong-willed” Florida program, which is looking to win its first national title under head coach Jenny Rowland“I really think we’re a strong contender, just from how we started in September. It’s insane. For how strong we look now, it makes me super excited to see that we also were ranked third going into season.”

Harris-Miranda could be just what Florida needs. Her composure under pressure has led several of her teammates to name her their “battle buddy” – a teammate they go to during a hard time.

“We had a recent team meeting where we had to talk about who are your battle buddies when you’re having a hard day, and we got the chance to name who. A lot of my teammates mentioned me, which was surprising to me because I just got there,” Harris-Miranda said.

If the addition of Harris-Miranda to the roster ends up being just the push Florida needed, the Gators could be hoisting the NCAA trophy in April. It will also make Harris-Miranda’s transfer a resounding success – and possibly encourage more gymnasts to utilize the transfer portal.


Coming out of high school as the No. 1 overall recruit in the 2022 class, Harris-Miranda recalled having just three offers: UCLA, Utah, and Iowa. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Harris-Miranda was not heavily recruited like many other No. 1 recruits would have been. Ever since Harris-Miranda decided to pursue college gymnastics, she pined to compete in the SEC. When she didn’t receive any offers from SEC schools in high school, she had to forgo those visions.

Instead, Harris-Miranda picked UCLA based off a visit she took to the school when she was just 13 years old – five years before she would become a student at the university. Because of COVID, Harris-Miranda said the only visits she took before committing were that visit to UCLA at 13 and a “visit” to LSU for a gymnastics camp at the school.

Unlike many other gymnasts who chose UCLA for its academics, diversity, the program’s history, the dream of having a viral UCLA floor routine, or a variety of other reasons, Harris-Miranda didn’t have much familiarity with the program. She considered entering the transfer portal during her freshman season, but ultimately, she remained a Bruin for another year. In the back of her mind, the idea of competing in the SEC never left. UCLA was not a long-held dream for her, SEC gymnastics was.

Selena Harris-Miranda
Photo courtesy: Carolina Schonhofen Chinn/Florida Gymnastics.

When she wound up in the transfer portal last spring, Harris-Miranda got the experience she never had in high school. Following her dismissal from UCLA, Harris-Miranda immediately sent out emails to the schools she was interested in – top SEC programs like Florida, Alabama, Georgia, LSU, and Oklahoma. This time around, Harris-Miranda garnered significantly more interest.

“Hearing everything from all the coaches I was like, ‘Oh, wow!’ It really is my choice,” Harris-Miranda said. “I can be picky if I want to, and what I want, what I don’t want. I was asking all the questions.”

Navigating the transfer portal wasn’t as simple as hearing all the interest these schools now had in her two years into her collegiate career. When she was initially dismissed, Harris-Miranda put her emotions aside for the time being to find her school. As a first-generation college student, she felt an urgency to pick a new college home and continue her education.

With two years as a student-athlete under her belt, Harris-Miranda knew what to look for in schools during the search. Starting at UCLA as a freshman in 2022-23 was far from easy for Harris-Miranda, who initially struggled to balance her coursework with a strenuous athletic schedule. During that first year, she learned to ask for help. This time, Harris-Miranda prioritized finding a strong support system that would help her in all aspects of student-athlete life. That school turned out to be Florida.

Rowland heard that Harris-Miranda was entering the transfer portal from Associate Head Coach Owen Field, who texted the news to their group chat. Roughly five minutes after seeing that text, Rowland received an email from Harris-Miranda asking if she was interested in speaking with her.

“My initial reaction was, ‘Let’s go!'” Rowland recalled to Gymnastics Now. “[I] was super, super pumped, super excited, and always grateful to see if we would be a great fit for any young woman coming into our program and seeing how we can best support them and help them.”

One day after Harris-Miranda reached out to different programs, Rowland was one of the first two people to respond. Rowland found that initial conversation between her and Harris-Miranda “really easy.” In Rowland, Harris-Miranda felt “mom energy” and appreciated the organization from the coach, which has helped soothe the transition.

“Talking to Jenny, I had that comfort because she’s a mom,” Harris-Miranda said. “The way that she reassured me that I’d have extra help in the classroom, outside of the gym, and everyone’s gonna help me navigate how to be so far away from home.”

Harris-Miranda found the school that she ultimately believed to be the best fit, but that didn’t change what had been a tumultuous year for her. 2024 didn’t go the way she or UCLA had hoped. Coming into the season off of a No. 5 finish at the NCAA Championships in 2023, UCLA struggled with consistency. The Bruins could score above a 198 in one meet, only to stumble to a 196 in another. In February, Harris-Miranda was praised for emerging as a leader for her team in a critical meet against Utah. By May, she was dismissed. In between, UCLA recorded one of its most disappointing finishes in program history when the Bruins failed to qualify for the regional finals.

It was a long year.

“Once I came to Florida I met with a therapist, and then I’ve continued to meet with her,” Harris-Miranda said. “Having her definitely helped me manage the emotions. The main thing she was telling me is just to trust that they are here to help.”

Outside of the gym, Harris-Miranda finds the semester system easier on her as a student than the quarter system UCLA utilizes. She enjoys Florida’s training schedule, she “loves” her tutors, and finds that her classes are aligning with her future career plans in coaching.

Selena Harris-Miranda laughing with a Florida teammate
Photo courtesy: Mike Erdelyi/Florida Gymnastics.

She seems more at ease, and it’s allowed her to “play gymnastics” once again.

“You can just tell Selena loves doing flips,” Rowland said. “That’s what she says – ‘I love flipping’ – and I know that she is making the most of an opportunity that has been given to her in all areas of life.

“I really just love to see her happy in the gym. When she’s happy in the gym, when she’s loose, she’s playing gymnastics, and when she plays gymnastics, it really is unbelievable.”

At heart, Harris-Miranda is obsessed with the sport. When she’s not flipping around the gym, she is often watching gymnastics routines and videos in her free time. She likes to spread that joy she takes from the sport by reminding her teammates, “All we do is cartwheels!”

“It’s recess time! That’s how it feels.”

Because beyond her accomplishments and consistency, Harris-Miranda’s most important asset this season might just be her genuine smile. After a turbulent yet successful 2024 season, Harris-Miranda feels at ease, and she looks happier – “A lot of my friends and family have said [I] just seem so much happier out there.”

“I feel a lot more grounded,” she added. “I feel a lot more stable. I just feel more well-rounded and happy in all areas.”

“I’m really grateful that Selena made the decision to be a Florida Gator,” Rowland said. “[I] love seeing her grow and thrive in all areas of her life.”

One thought on “A dream realized: Selena Harris-Miranda’s journey to Florida and competing in the SEC

  1. Selena just went after UCLA in an instagram posting where she re-posted a pic of the rankings and purposely covered over UCLA to block them and she put kisses over it “PERIODT”. It really caused and online stir— some going as far as reporting it to the Gator coach, while others voiced their displeasure calling her petty and childish— while others found it hilarious and not a big deal. UCLA vs Fl rivalry is hearing up!

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *