“Unfortunately Terrible”: Gymnastics Community Disappointed as Winter Cup 2025 Falls Short of Expectations

Almost every gymnastics star with a chance to enter Winter Cup 2025 backed out from the list. Several elite gymnasts had to lose the train because of injury. Then? Why should the audience flock to Kentucky to watch the contest? Was there any special reason? Well, the Olympian Hezly Rivera was present on the stage and a few rising stars, Ashlee Sullivan, Tatum Drusch, and Claire Pease, were present in the arena. Moreover, names like Jayla Hong and Simone Rose were present to take themselves up to a further height. Altogether, Winter Cup 2025 had the spices to justify the tag of being the season-opening gymnastics contest. But something different took center stage.

In the end, Ashlee Sullivan from Metroplex took the crown in the senior women’s all-around event. But the gymnastics fans’ argument seemed to be the disruptor of the party. How so? Several fans watching the gymnastics contest live in Louisiana submitted complaints pointing out the major flaws in the hosting of the event. Not only them, but a sizable chunk of fans noted the faults visible in the broadcasting part. Such as?

After the contest was over, someone wrote on X, “Hi @USAGym we appreciate the free streams but it might actually be less work to just have 4 feeds and let people pop to the event they want to watch instead of trying to make someone operate the switching of cameras (which they are unfortunately terrible at).” Notably, USA Gymnastics decided to broadcast the Winter Cup 2025 on YouTube at absolutely no cost. The history-making step surely has a distinct place of honor. However, the camerawork was not enjoyable to watch. 

Throughout the contest, the cameras captured the events from a far distance, without zooming or switching cameras to focus on the gymnasts’ movements. Such an irregular approach ended the chances of making the visual experience a memorable piece. Additionally, the low light in the Kentucky International Convention Center made the issue far more painful. As per the fans, zoom work might have faced issues there. However, the attendance at the Winter Cup 2025 is also something concerning. 

On February 22, the Winter Cup had the women’s gymnastics events scheduled. The previous day, i.e., on Friday, the contest had the men’s gymnastics events at the same venue. Surprisingly, on both days, there was a tremendous difference in the footfalls in the arena. Something unexpected? For the last several decades, men’s gymnastics in American colleges have been facing crunches in scholarships. 

In recent times, Ohio State has removed the athletics scholarships from men’s gymnastics. Yet in the middle of such issues, Team USA men’s gymnastics squad earned a bronze medal in the Paris Olympics, the first one in 16 years. And the Winter Cup 2025 was the first elite contest after the Paris Olympics. So something huge could have been expected in the number of footfalls. Isn’t it? But the reality was different, and the authority has yet to call the issue. Apart from these, there were a few more issues spotted by the gymnastics fans in the contest. 

Expecting fire in the Winter Cup 2025, gymnastics fans get ashes 

“Never watch the Winter Cup expecting jaw dropping gymnastics but a flop fest I need to remind myself this every year,” someone wrote on X. Last year, the contest had almost similar issues- low light, problematic announcements. Fans are now tired of spotting these shortcomings again and again. However, this time, there were a few more to load up the list of problems. Such as? Someone wrote on X, “Winter cup has no commentators? And who is using Jordyn’s music?” Well, this counts as two, right?

First, there were commentators in the Winter Cup 2025. But that arrangement might have been only for online viewers. In the venue, there might have been no one except the announcer. A big problem for the audience! Another is using Jordyn Wieber’s music at the floor exercise event. That usage has no restriction, though. Meanwhile, there was another problem for the online viewers. Someone addressed it in the comment box, mentioning, “Enjoying the Winter Cup but I wish names would pop up more often! My brain can’t rely on hearing it once.” That’s correct; the issue was prevalent this time.

In the live stream, the participating gymnasts’ names came on the screen on their arrival at the main event. But after their events, this practice became hard to follow. Example? Hezly Rivera’s name came late on the screen after the event. There was an issue regarding showing the scores on the screen. 

A gymnastics fan put this problem on x, penning, “someone tell me why we are using meet scores online which doesn’t show both vault scores at all and messes everything up.” In several cases, there were issues in showing the full scores in the list. However, in the end, everything was settled. But fans found it hard to settle with so many problems and some of those were recurrent issues. 

In the end, someone mentioned, “So I know winter cup is normally messy, but this year it seems extra messy.” The messy situation can be attributed to the number of absent gymnasts at the 2025 Winter Cup. However, the overwhelming issues made the competition difficult for fans to watch. Let’s hope solutions emerge soon.