How gymnasts are extending their careers, cashing in on success

COLUMBUS, Ohio ( WCMH ) — In 2004, 25-year-old Mohini Bhardwaj became the first gymnast in recent memory to make the U.S. Women’s Olympic gymnastics team after competing in college.

“I had a lot of people just looking at me like, ‘Who is this old lady and do they really think they are going to make the team?’” Bhardwai said with a laugh.

She did make the 2004 Olympics and was a captain for the U.S. women’s team that won a silver medal.

For many years, college gymnastics wasn’t taken seriously. It was seen as a retirement home .

“Because we start at such a young age and the way people are pushed, we just didn’t have athletes who were able to continue past college because their bodies were so broken down,” Bhardwai said.

“With Marta Karolyi at the helm, she never encouraged college athletes to come back,” gymnast Dominique Moceanu, who grew up and trained at the Karolyi’s gym in Houston and won an Olympic gold medal in 1996, said. “It wasn’t part of her culture and what she believed would produce the best athletes. I remember when Bela Karolyi told my father at 15 that I should retire.”

For Olympians like Moceanu, who competed before they finished high school, it wasn’t that they didn’t want to compete in college; rather, it was simply a non-factor. After accepting endorsement deals and/or money from their Olympic achievements, they were not eligible for NCAA competition.

“It really was we felt like we were stuck,” Moceanu said. “For so long, gymnasts careers end because there’s not opportunity and options and it’s like, ‘What do you do the rest of your life?’ You’ve invested your whole childhood into the sport. NIL and college has opened up a lot of doors for athletes that were never there.”

This generation of elite gymnasts is flying through those collegiate doors. Three members of the Paris squad have competed in college: Suni Lee at Auburn, Jordan Chiles at UCLA and Jade Carey at Oregon State.

“There are so many benefits to being a part of a collegiate program: you’re competing in front of a spotlighted audience all the time, and there’s a lot of energy and you learn how to be a team,” Moceanu said. “I think the college programs do bring out that perfectionist in the performance which is every detail matters which will also make you a better elite gymnast.”

“They already have that college mentality of the team being more important than, you know, the individual,” Bhardwai said.

It is also no longer “Olympics or bust” to have monetary success as a gymnast. LSU star Livvy Dunne has proven that by being one of the most successful first-generation NIL athletes making millions of dollars before graduating.

“She’s probably the number one example of how that has benefited someone who has not gone to the Olympics, was not someone who was touted the next superstar, but she became one in her own right by building up her fanbase on TikTok” Moceanu said. “Now she’s doing commercials and interviews and Sports Illustrated – I mean, who would’ve thought that would’ve been her future? She is one who has benefited tremendously from NIL.”

“I always thought, like, how unfortunate and unfair for our sport, like we can’t market and make money the way these other athletes do and they set themselves up for life,” Bhardwai said. “We’ve spent our whole life doing this sport, so I feel like we should be able to walk away with something.”

Now, top-level gymnasts don’t have to choose.

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