Gymnastics Legend Sends Strong Message to the Fans as NCAA Season Nears Its End

Can you define gymnastics only by its scores and numbers? Let’s take Jordan Chiles’s floor routine, for example. The energy, the emotion, and the vibrant exuberance that she exhibits enthralls the whole arena. And the fans vibe to her groove as she gracefully dances across the mat. At that moment, they are not thinking about her score. She is so immersed in her routine that, for a while, Jordan stops being a competitor. She is just a performer expressing herself, talking to the world through her art. That’s what makes gymnastics beautiful. Gymnasts like her bring passion to the sport. And one legend is paying tribute to the amazing women who make it happen.

Kathy Johnson Clarke is a name that gymnastics fans associate with authenticity, validation, and credibility. The Olympian has always seen that numbers have never aptly expressed what gymnastics is supposed to stand for. For her, it’s always art first. And the gymnasts who make the sports more beautiful are the ones who are “loved, respected, admired and celebrated”. So, when she is impressed, you know you have been able to elevate the sports. So, let’s see what the icon has said.

US gymnastics legend describes what brings gymnastics alive

The 2025 NCAA gymnastics season got underway on Friday, January 3. And it has been yet another exciting season of breathtaking performance. Kathy has been thoroughly entertained throughout, but what has caught her eye (or rather her soul) is the way these gymnasts have gone about their trade. Taking to Instagram, the former commentator shared a story with the caption: “In the end, it isn’t the score that matters as much as the way you make people feel as you elevate the room by telling a story with perfectly nuanced movement, human emotion, exquisite elegance, execution and precision.”

As we said in the beginning, if you think gymnastics is a robotic execution of flexibility, skill, and strength, you are not getting the essence of it. These women pour their hearts and minds into it when they perform. Take, for example, UCLA Gymnastics star, Brooklyn Moors. Her floor routines are just beautiful pieces of art that she creates with the help of skill, technique, and flexibility. The muscles are the tools she uses. But what she is doing is composing everlasting beauty that just makes people smile and enjoy.

In fact, talking of creation, Moors herself shared to International Gymnast Magazine Online in 2023 on how she gets inspired: “My routine is based off the show Euphoria. We really took what it means in this day and age to go through these hard times, in this generation.” Continuing, she explained why the floor is such a unique event for her: “I always say that, with this floor routine, you can interpret it how it comes to you. For me, I can take my personal experiences and show them throughout this floor routine.”

What makes Floor the soul of gymnastics is that you get to express yourself, like Brooklyn does: “I do keep it kind of personal … I’ve had a few things in my life where I’ve learned to just be able to climb over the mountain a little bit. It’s been a journey to get where I am, and I can show it through it through this floor routine – the struggle, the fight, the drama and everything.”

And it all comes spontaneously. Would something like that happen if gymnastics were a soulless physical activity? The UCLA star said, “As soon as I get out on the competition floor, it’s whatever comes to my mind and however I feel I need to perform it and show it to other people – and to grab people in, and grab their attention.”

UCLA assistant coach BJ (Bijoya) Das has been in charge of designing the choreography for the floor routines. What BJ Das composes is transcendent. And Brooklyn brings that alive on the mat. Kathy Johnson Clarke wants to thank those two magicians for treating us with such aesthetic concepts. The former Olympian said, “Well done, @brooklynmoors_ @beejaydas @uclagymnastics.”

It’s not just Brooklyn. The floor is where every gymnast gets to share her story with the world. Like Chae Campbell. She brought her collegiate period a full circle on Senior Night – by bringing back the choreography she performed in her freshman year. It’s her way of reminiscing all the good moments she had at UCLA and remembering how it all started. It’s her way of saying “UCLA for life”.

The arrival of Senior Night is the indicator of the season inching towards its end. In less than two weeks, Championship rounds are going to start. And there have been many eventful happenings in the 2025 season, as it happens every season.

Some trends are coming to an end, the highs and the controversies

The 2025 season started with a supposedly unwanted record. The first week saw no perfect 10s scored. This was the first time in almost 4 years that it happened in the NCAA women’s competition. But then again, we do know why it happened, don’t we? It was because the infamous collegiate judging issue (CJI) system was introduced to evaluate the judges, with a note to bring down the number of 10s awarded. Mission Accomplished.

But at what cost? The controversy that has erupted because of the way the judges have implemented it has been overwhelming. Last week only, fans were crying out that LSU’s Konnor McClain and Georgia Bulldogs’ Ja’Free Scott have been robbed of their deserved 10s. And we are just mentioning one meeting of one week. This has happened almost every other weekend.

But good things were there, too. It has to be when Jordan Chiles, Haleigh Bryant, Jade Carey, etc., are on the list. LSU scored 198.575 against Georgia on March 7, registering the highest score in the program’s history. As far as the championship is concerned, it’s Oklahoma Sooners and LSU at the top. No surprises there, right? But who is going to clinch it this time?