Black History Month: Black culture is elevating the sport of gymnastics in an unprecedented way

February is Black History Month, a month long observance dedicated to the education of the history of Black people and the celebration of their historical contributions – historical contributions, something the 2023 NCAA gymnastics season has supplied in droves.

In honor of Black History Month and this historic NCAA gymnastics season, Gymnastics Now went directly to the source, speaking with the gymnasts who are making history. These women are changing and elevating the sport for Black gymnasts, and athletes, across the nation and around the world. They do so by simply being extraordinary humans who unapologetically take up space in the sport while being authentically themselves, letting their culture shine.

As this month-long celebration draws to a close, remember that Black history should be celebrated year-round, not just for 28 days.

Gobourne goes big with tribute to Fisk University and Black culture

“I think that it’s really cool to be able to share my culture with others, and just to let them know why it’s so important to us. I mean, they seem to love it. And so that really just makes me so so so happy” said the NCAA floor queen herself, Auburn’s Derrian Gobourne. “That’s all I want to do, is just share the culture, share the love, and let them know that we are here, and we are taking up space, and we’re here to stay.”

Gobourne isn’t a stranger to going viral, and this year, she has an HBCU-inspired floor routine. The routine, choreographed by her and her brother, Derric, features music from Beyoncé’s “Homecoming” album. It’s an ode to Fisk University, the first historically Black college or university (HBCU) to have an intercollegiate gymnastics program.

“I think that’s so important, and to be able to just be on a gymnastics team of people that look like you, and who can relate to you culturally [in] just every way possible, is so special,” Gobourne said. “That’s something that I wish I had, and so this is my kind of ‘welcome to gymnastics’ routine for Fisk.”

From a dream to reality: Fisk makes history

Attending an HBCU is an important cultural experience that Black students are unable to find at most predominately white institutions (PWIs). Now, it’s an experience the athletes on Fisk’s inaugural gymnastics team and their head coach, Corrinne Tarver, won’t have to sacrifice to continue competing in the sport they love.

Tarver knows firsthand what that experience is like. In 1989, she became the first Black gymnast to win an NCAA all-around title. At that time, she was the only Black gymnast on her team at the University of Georgia.

“I was around my teammates, and I was the only Black girl on the team, so I tried to fit in with my teammates. And at some point in time, [I realized] I love my teammates, but this is not my culture,” Tarver said while speaking about her own experience attending a PWI. “This is not the music that I want to hear. This is not the way I want to wear my hair. It’s little things that make us who we are.”

Little things like knowing how to do each other’s hair, lashes, or nails.

“They’re doing each other’s hair. You have some that can do box braids, which instead of them going and spending a couple $100 to get their hair braided, they got a teammate that does it for them,” Tarver explained. “That’s not something you would have on other teams.”

There are the little things, and then there are the big things, like representation, that are being highlighted by the Fisk team’s sheer presence.

“Some had been on a team where they were the only Black chick – some there’s only like two or three, some had more, depending on the gym,” Tarver said. “But to have an entire squad that understands all the different nuances and little things about each other.”

Now, these gymnasts are getting the full HBCU experience, which includes the spectacle that is an HBCU homecoming week. Homecoming is such a huge part of the HBCU experience that it is one of the sources of inspiration for Gobourne and Fisk freshman Morgan Price’s floor routines.

“My music is HBCU music; that was my vibe that I went for this year, and I feel like I hit that pretty well. I have some old school songs, like backyard dancing songs,” Price said of her routine. “I feel like when I do my routine, I feel like I’m also giving a tribute to the school, in general, for making this happen and making history.”

Price and her teammates got to experience their first HBCU homecoming this year and were asked to be a part of it, as well. The team did a balance beam exhibition during the week with the full support of the university behind them.

“It was so exciting just to be out there, especially during homecoming week. It’s the best week of the school [year],” Price said. “Everyone was out there and supporting us and it was just super fun.”

It’s one of those ‘pinch me’ moments that led Price to switch her commitment from Arkansas to Fisk, when the opportunity presented itself.

“Some people were confused as to why I did switch, but I knew, deep in my heart, I knew why I switched,” Price said. “I knew what type of change I wanted to make in the sport of gymnastics.”

The program has been warmly welcomed by athletes and teams across the country, but Fisk’s biggest impact might be on the little girls watching from the crowd or at home, dreaming of representing an HBCU like Price and Gobourne did.

“It means everything to me and also my teammates. Every single meet that we’ve been to, after there’s been at least 10 to 15 little girls lined up and asking for autographs, pictures, and things like that,” Price said. “So that truly shows us, as a team, that we are making a change [in] the gymnastics world and to keep going and keep being great, so that the little girls coming up behind us will have an opportunity as well.”

Price isn’t the only gymnast who decommitted from another university to join the history-making Fisk team.

Fisk freshman, Jordynn Cromartie and her uncle, a Fisk Alum, are actually how this team became a reality. Cromartie was in the height of figuring out where to attend college when her uncle said, “You should go to Fisk.”

“I was just like, ‘No sir. They do not have a gymnastic team. What am I gonna go to Fisk for? I’ve been doing gymnastics all my life.'” Cromartie told him. “Why would I stop now?”

Her uncle simply replied, “Okay, I’ll make it happen.”

“[I’m] thinking it’s not gonna happen anytime soon. Nothing ever happens this fast,” Cromartie said. “And during the process of him making it happen, I had already committed to Utah State for gymnastics.”

However, Cromartie said when it came time to make the decision, she knew what she wanted to do.

“I think what it [came] down to is, going to an HBCU is something I’ve been wanting to do my whole life,” Cromartie said. “Even with applying to colleges, I applied to Howard just for the fun of it, just to see if I would get in because I wanted to go so bad.”

Now, Cromartie gets the best of both worlds, something that wasn’t possible just a year ago.

“I know for me, I’ve never wanted to say this, but I feel like going to an HBCU was kind of a culture shock for me,” Cromartie admitted. “Not a big enough culture shock to the point where it’s drastic, but I’ve never been around so many people that look like me, so many people that are able to just wear their hair out and do what they want and not be judged for it.”

The sense of community Cromartie is experiencing every day at Fisk is something she never knew growing up.

“You’re able to be yourself and express yourself,” Cromartie said. “It’s such a community bonding, and that’s something I’ve never had in a school district. It’s such a community.”

The Fisk team is paving the way for the future, but the history making doesn’t stop when the Bulldogs’ inaugural season is over. The focus shifts to getting the word out there, building a recruiting pipeline, and getting more HBCUs on board.

Telling Tarver, Price, and Cromartie’s stories is key to achieving all of those goals. Just ask Cromartie’s little sister, who previously wanted to commit to an SEC program.

“Now, she’s like, ‘I want to go to a HBCU; I’m gonna fit in,'” Cromartie said. “That touched my heart.”

Fisk is setting the standard, breaking barriers, and leading the way, showing that now, more than ever, Black gymnasts have an important role to play in the landscape of the sport.

“We’re just leading the way for so many little girls to have the same opportunities [we have],” Cromartie concluded. “And I hope within the next couple of years, that so many more HBCUs have college teams and are able to prove themselves just how we’re proving ourselves right now.”

The snowball (or tornado) effect in action

Cromartie’s hope may be realized sooner rather than later.

Earlier this year, Talladega College announced it will be adding its own gymnastics team for the 2024 season, an effort made possible in part by Brown Girls Do Gymnastics and the HBCU Gymnastics Alliance. Former Alabama Gymnast Aja Sims-Fletcher will lead the Tornadoes’ inaugural team.

“When it came time for me to get the opportunity to interview for this position, head coach at Talladega gymnastics, I was like, ‘Yes.’ It was a no-brainer,” Sims-Fletcher said. “I knew right away that I wanted to help other minority female athletes to be able to share their love of the sport with, maybe, some other girls that looked like them, and not only looked like them, but also helped promote coaches that are also minorities.”

Like Tarver, Sims-Fletcher was an NCAA gymnast at a PWI, and she admits she hasn’t gotten the HBCU experience that her future gymnasts will have.

“I will be honest, I have not been able to experience the full HBCU culture yet,” Sims-Fletcher reflected. “That is one thing, I know as soon as I get on campus, I’m going to embrace; it’s a whole culture shock at first, but it really is like being able to kind of just feel your ground roots.”

Sims-Fletcher is excited for her athletes to find a genuine community and experience the unique culture that is HBCU life, but she also hopes to bring some new methods and techniques to the sport.

“Just feeling comfortable in our own skin, and then also being able to show some different techniques and ways that maybe the programs run,” Sims-Fletcher said.

While the Tornadoes head coach is patiently waiting on the sidelines to begin her own inaugural season, she is seeing the elevation of the sport by other Black coaches and gymnasts who are competing right now.

“I’ve been thriving [while] watching gymnastics this season, kind of on the backside as a spectator right now,” Sims-Fletcher said. “Because [tons] of floor routines I’ve been seeing [are] really showing black excellence and just really highlighting it.”

Black excellence elevates gymnastics as a whole

Programs like Fisk and Talladega are creating more opportunities for Black gymnasts to embrace their culture, get the true HBCU experience, and still shine in their sport, but we’d be remiss if we didn’t acknowledge the strides that Black gymnasts have been making in the sport for decades.

We can’t name them all, but the short list speaks for itself: Tarver, Sims-Fletcher, Dianne Durham, Sid Oglesby, Gabby Douglas, Dominique Dawes, Ron Galimore, Luci Collins, Betty Okino, Dionne Foster, Donnell Whittenburg, and Simone Biles.

Now, Gobourne, Price, Cromartie, and UCLA’s Selena Harris and Jordan Chiles are part of that prestigious group.

“I just feel like us, as black women, we have more representation now, and we have a standard now,” said Price, who went on to reference the attention, hype, and praise Gobourne, Harris, and Chiles have received this season.

It’s hard to argue that there is any better event for Black culture to take center stage than on floor exercise, where Chiles’ ’90s-inspired hip-hop routine takes the crowd all the way back to the good ole’ days. Harris, whose dad is Black and mom is Guatemalan, dedicated her first college routine to her Hispanic side. On this apparatus, gymnasts are encouraged, especially at the collegiate level, to embrace their differences and let their personalities shine through.

“We’re just able to show we’re all different, because each routine on our team is completely different from the one going next,” Harris explained. “It shows that there’s different personalities on this team for sure.”

UCLA is known for its high energy, entertaining floor routines, but the Bruins have seen a trend over the last few years, with their their spunky, personality-filled, themed routines inspiring athletes across the nation.

Now, Chiles is hopeful this type of artistic evolution will spread to the elite side of the sport.

“I kind of started changing the game a little,” Chiles said, in regards to embracing her personality and letting it show while competing. “People are just like, ‘How did you do your routine like that? That’s so amazing.’”

The Olympic silver medalist and world champion said the change actually started while she was still only competing elite, predating her jump to the NCAA.

“Towards the end of 2021, when I was at the Olympics and stuff, I was kind of smiling in my routines and all that because I just felt the energy, the hype, the everything that needs to be put [into] our sport – [it] comes from who you are as a person,” Chiles explained.

The 21-year-old’s latest routine is the newest iteration of her embracing who she is and pushing the boundary of what is “typical” of NCAA and elite floor routines.

“This one is a little more upbeat and a little more hype, I should say, and we’re gonna see how it turns out,” Chiles said about this season’s routine. “I just feel like now that the artistic side of this sport for elite is coming out more – like it’s a deduction if you don’t smile here, it’s part of the Code [of] Points now – and I think that’s an amazing thing, because I feel like it’s gonna bring a lot of people’s personalities out in many different ways.”

Chiles is no stranger to making history. In 2022, the World Champions gymnast was a part of the historic all-black all-around podium sweep at the U.S. Gymnastics Championships. Chiles won bronze and was joined by silver medalist Shilese Jones and gold medalist Konnor McClain. It was the first time in history that there was an all-Black podium at this event.

“You can only change yourself; nobody [else] can change you. You can’t control the uncontrollable. All those things that come into play, not just in our sport but also in life as well,” Chiles said. “Knowing that, I think, is a huge thing for the younger generation to understand. Just go out there and be you.”

It wouldn’t be possible for Black excellence to truly shine in this sport if these waymakers weren’t able to embrace themselves and let their authentic selves shine. The landscape of gymnastics today is better than any previous iteration, and that’s due in large part to the revolution these women are leading. They’re inspiring people from all walks of life, all cultures, while being true to their own.

“I think it’s great for not just gymnastics as a whole, but I think it’s great for the athletes to kind of feel more comfortable to show their heart and show the joy,” Sims-Fletcher said. “I think it helps them perform better. We’re seeing lots of 9.0s, 9.5s, and 10.0s awarded to these routines, and I think it really lets them get out of their comfort zone, so they can really excel.”

Excelling and changing the sport for the better while they do it – something Tarver says should’ve happened a long time ago.

“The fact that these athletes can now do college gymnastics and still embrace that culture is… You know, it’s taken too long,” Tarver reflected. “It should have happened a long time ago, but that’s okay. It happened now, and that’s all it matters.”