Gymnastics season doesn’t start until January but when you take out the holiday breaks, it’s not too far off and the gymnasts have high hopes that they will win a national championship this year.
Kayla Nowak is a third year gymnast at the University of Oklahoma. She says that the fan base for women’s gymnastics is great. She says her first year, they broke a record for over 3,000 fans in attendance and for most meets, they get up to 2,500 fans. At home, they perform at Lloyd Noble and close half of the arena so the fans take up about a third of the seats. She says even though they have a lot of very supportive fans, they lack student fans which is something they are trying to change by my marketing more around campus. “We lack actual students and are focusing on that aspect of it.”
OU student Britney Atkins says in all of her 4 years at the university she has never been to a gymnastics meet. “I never know when they have them, I didn’t even know they were at Lloyd Noble. I’ve heard they are good though.”
Nowak says that many SEC schools are big on gymnastics and get up to 15,000 people at their competitions, especially at the University of Utah where they have won national titles. Other gymnastics powerhouses include The University of Georgia and Alabama. Nowak also explained how women’s gymnastics is more popular than men’s gymnastics because women’s is easier to understand and they also compete in the field house. It also helps that the women are a part of the Big 12 conference. She says that women’s gymnastics is very popular but of all the women’s sports at OU, basketball is probably the most popular.
Their first meet will take place on January 1, 2012 in Lexington, Kentucky. Nowak says she really thinks they will win a national title this year.
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| LLoyd Noble Center, Taken By: Siobhan Weathers |
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| Sam Viersen Gymnastics Center, Taken By: Siobhan Weathers |
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