UCLA hoping to inspire next-gen gymnasts through nationally televised meet on Fox
Janelle McDonald remembers settling into the arena as a young gymnast in Washington, watching the Huskies and the now-defunct Seattle Pacific University women’s gymnastics team compete in college meets.
Exposure to the sport and eventually Onnie Willis — a fellow Washington native and the first UCLA gymnast to become an NCAA all-around champion — provided McDonald with a thrill as she turned to coaching gymnastics as a high schooler in 1999.
“In my gymnastics career, and as a coach, I was definitely inspired by a lot of former Bruins,” McDonald said. “I loved NCAA gymnastics because of the energy and the joy and the passion that's out there on the competition floor.”
Now, a new generation of gymnasts will get a firsthand look at the sport when No. 6 UCLA hosts No. 5 Michigan State at Pauley Pavilion on Saturday afternoon in the first gymnastics meet broadcast by Fox. The Bruins and Spartans are the top two Big Ten programs and feature the top four all-around gymnasts in the conference: UCLA’s Jordan Chiles and Chae Campbell and Michigan State’s Nikki Smith and Olivia Zsarmani.
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UCLA, which has recorded three scores of 197 points or more in a row, is no stranger to national television or going viral — having competed on ABC multiple times since last season.
“To be able to be one of the teams that gets to be [competing for] the first time on Fox, I think that that's a pretty exciting thing,” McDonald, the Bruins' third-year coach, said. “We get to be the team that gets to show, hopefully, a whole new audience what NCAA gymnastics is about.”
It wasn’t long ago that Macy McGowan was one of those gymnasts tuning in for UCLA meets. The freshman, who has competed on floor exercise, uneven bars and vault in all four meets this season, grew up in Seattle but said competing in Westwood was always her dream.
McGowan said she recalls tuning into Christine Peng-Peng Lee’s vlogs on YouTube, watching the NCAA balance beam champion on UCLA’s 2018 national championship team share what being a gymnast in Westwood was like.
“[The vlogs] just made me want to come here,” McGowan said.
Now, McGowan will compete in front of gymnasts like Lee at Saturday’s alumni meet.
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“I feel like I'm settling in well,” McGowan said about the start of her college career. “It feels different from competing in club [gymnastics]. I have the same mindset when competing … but we’re on a team now.”
McDonald said McGowan is a rare freshman who does not need the coaching staff's help to rise to “competitive moments." Instead, she focuses on week-to-week recovery with meets occurring at higher regularity compared to the club level. Her mentality has paid off so far, as she has scored 9.8 or above in all but three routines.
“She innately has competitive greatness in her,” McDonald said. “She gets to meets and she locks in. There's a spark in her eye when she's out there competing.”
Senior Emma Malabuyo is one of the veterans on the roster who has helped ease McGowan’s transition to college — not just athletically but also academically. Malabuyo roomed with the freshman during the last three meets and considers McGowan one of her closest teammates.
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Malabuyo represented the Philippines at the 2024 Paris Olympics and is ranked third in the nation on balance beam with a 9.925 average score across the first four meets. The two-time All-American said she views the team’s recent scores as a benchmark and believes UCLA can score even higher.
“Honestly, we are just grazing the surface of what we're capable of,” Malabuyo said. “I think we can even get better and better.”
McDonald, who traveled with Malabuyo to Paris as her coach at the Olympics, agreed with her gymnast.
“We're really excited about where we're at but we still got a lot of work to do to really make sure that when the season is wrapping up, we're where we want to be and we're the team that we want to be,” McDonald said.
This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
