The Alabama Crimson Tide gymnastics is a Division I gymnastics team representing the

University of Alabama The University of Alabama (informally known as Alabama, UA, or Bama) is a Public university, public research university in Tuscaloosa, Alabama. Established in 1820 and opened to students in 1831, the University of Alabama is the oldest and la ...

in NCAA competition. The Tide hosts its home matches in

Coleman Coliseum Coleman Coliseum is a 15,383-seat multi-purpose arena in Tuscaloosa, Alabama, on the campus of the University of Alabama. It is the current home of the Alabama Crimson Tide men's and women's basketball and women's gymnastics teams, and previ ...

on the university's

Tuscaloosa, Alabama Tuscaloosa ( ) is a city in and the seat of Tuscaloosa County in west-central Alabama, United States, on the Black Warrior River where the Gulf Coastal and Piedmont plains meet. Alabama's fifth-largest city, it had an estimated population of 1 ...

campus. One of only seven gymnastics teams to win the national title, the Crimson Tide has won six

NCAA championships The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) is a nonprofit organization that regulates student athletics among about 1,100 schools in the United States, Canada, and Puerto Rico. It also organizes the athletic programs of colleges and ...

, ten SEC championships, and an NCAA-record 32 Regional championships. The team is led by first-year head coach Ashley Priess-Johnston, who succeeded Dana Duckworth following the 2022 season.

History

The early years

With the passage of the 1972 Title 9 Amendment which provided for the inclusion of women in sports, The University of Alabama Gymnastics team existed as a club sport. With the first team acting as a club sport In 1972, The University of Alabama Gymnastics Team existed and competed with such teams as Jacksonville State until it was later sanctioned as a viable gymnastic team in 1975. The University of Alabama's first gymnastics team debuted in 1975 and began with a loss to

Georgia College Georgia College & State University (Georgia College or GC) is a public liberal arts university in Milledgeville, Georgia. The university enrolls approximately 7,000 students and is a member of the University System of Georgia and the Council ...

. The team moved along in relative obscurity, going through four coaches in four years, until the summer of 1978 when Sarah Campbell was announced as the fifth head coach of the Crimson Tide. Her first team finished the year 7-7 and she followed up in 1980 with the first winning season in school history. In 1983, the Crimson Tide made its first championship appearance in

Salt Lake City Salt Lake City (often shortened to Salt Lake and abbreviated as SLC) is the Capital (political), capital and List of cities and towns in Utah, most populous city of Utah, United States. It is the county seat, seat of Salt Lake County, Utah, Sal ...

Utah Utah ( , ) is a state in the Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. Utah is a landlocked U.S. state bordered to its east by Colorado, to its northeast by Wyoming, to its north by Idaho, to its south by Arizona, and to it ...

after winning the South Region, defeating the

Florida Gators The Florida Gators are the intercollegiate athletic teams that represent the University of Florida, located in Gainesville. The University of Florida, its athletic program, its alumni and its sports fans are often collectively referred to as t ...

The eighties

Alabama blossomed into a perennial contender under Sarah Patterson and continued to qualify for nationals as well as producing numerous All-Americans. Penney Hauschild became the Tide's first NCAA Champion in

1985 The year 1985 was designated as the International Youth Year by the United Nations. Events January * January 1 ** The Internet's Domain Name System is created. ** Greenland withdraws from the European Economic Community as a result of a ...

when she won the uneven bars as well as capturing the All-Around title, becoming the first non- Utah gymnast to do so. She would defend her All-Around title in

1986 The year 1986 was designated as the International Year of Peace by the United Nations. Events January * January 1 ** Aruba gains increased autonomy from the Netherlands by separating from the Netherlands Antilles. **Spain and Portugal ente ...

while also winning the floor title. The Crimson Tide continued to advance throughout the decade and finally won their first NCAA title in 1988. The Tide marched into Salt Lake City and defeated host

(189.50) and defending champion

Georgia Georgia most commonly refers to: * Georgia (country), a country in the Caucasus region of Eurasia * Georgia (U.S. state), a state in the Southeast United States Georgia may also refer to: Places Historical states and entities * Related to the ...

(186.80) with a commanding 190.05. 1988 also marked the Tide's first SEC title, when the competition was hosted in

The nineties

The 1990s began with a bang for the Tide as Alabama was crowned the 1990 SEC Champions. The team won its second national title in 1991 before a home crowd in Tuscaloosa. A rivalry between Alabama and

, which endures to this day, began around this time. Patterson and Georgia coach Suzanne Yoculan hosted frequent dual meets between their teams to inspire the rivalry. The Tide first sold out Coleman Coliseum on February 1, 1997, when 15,043 fans watched Alabama take on Georgia; the Tide continues to report some of the highest fan turnout of any program, with an average attendance at home meets in 2014 of 12,826 (second only to

). In 1995, the Tide won their third SEC Tournament championship in Gainesville. Alabama went into their final rotation in fourth place before scoring the highest team vault total in NCAA history as all their gymnasts scored 9.9 or higher, with junior Kim Kelly capping off the night with a perfect 10. Alabama finished the 1996 season with their third national championship, recording a record team score of 198.025. However, 1997 saw the Crimson Tide fail to reach the Super Six for the first time since 1983.

The new millennium

Alabama captured their fourth SEC title in 2000, but only managed a fifth-place finish at nationals that year, improving to fourth in 2001. The Tide looked dangerous once again in

2002 File:2002 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The 2002 Winter Olympics are held in Salt Lake City; Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother and her daughter Princess Margaret, Countess of Snowdon die; East Timor gains East Timor independence, indepe ...

as Andreé Pickens, Raegan Tomasek, Alexis Brion, Kristin Sterner, and freshman Jeana Rice led the Tide to a fourth national championship at home in Tuscaloosa, defeating two-time defending national champion

UCLA The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) is a public land-grant research university in Los Angeles, California. UCLA's academic roots were established in 1881 as a teachers college then known as the southern branch of the California St ...

. In 2003, the Tide won their fifth SEC title with the youngest squad in program history, with seven freshman, three sophomores, three juniors and one senior. Nationally, Rice won the All Around in 2004 while freshman

Ashley Miles Ashley Miles Greig (born March 3, 1985) is a retired American artistic gymnast and current head coach of the Iowa State University Women's Gymnastics team. She was a member of the U.S. women's artistic gymnastics team at the 2001 World Gymnasti ...

won the first of her three national titles on vault. The Crimson Tide added their first Olympian to the team with

Terin Humphrey Terin Marie Humphrey (born August 14, 1986, in St. Joseph, Missouri) is a retired American artistic gymnast. She competed at the 2004 Summer Olympics in Athens, where she helped the United States team place second and won an individual silver ...

, a two-time silver medalist at the

2004 Olympics The 2004 Summer Olympics ( el, Θερινοί Ολυμπιακοί Αγώνες 2004, ), officially the Games of the XXVIII Olympiad ( el, Αγώνες της 28ης Ολυμπιάδας, ) and also known as Athens 2004 ( el, Αθήνα 2004), ...

, who joined Alabama in 2005 and would go on to win two national uneven bar titles. In 2007, the Tide marked their first absence from the Super Six since 1997. In 2009, Alabama was the first gymnastics program to draw two crowds of over 15,000 in one season. They finished the season in second place behind Georgia, their best result since 2005.

The 2010s

Alabama maintained a rank of No. 1 throughout the 2010 regular season, but struggled at the SEC championships and finished the night as runners up behind Florida. Despite putting on one of the top performances of the preliminaries, Alabama stumbled in their first rotation at Nationals, sinking as low as sixth place during the final competition before rallying back to finish 3rd. The Tide began the 2011 season with eight freshmen on the team, making it the largest class in school history and accounting for nearly half the roster. The Tide finished the regular season at 11–1, and won the 2011 SEC Championship, taking down No. 1 Florida in the process. Alabama entered the Super Six that year as the No. 1 seed and defeated defending champions

with a winning score of 197.650, their highest Super Six score since 1996. The Tide defeated the overwhelming favorite

Florida Florida is a state located in the Southeastern region of the United States. Florida is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the northwest by Alabama, to the north by Georgia, to the east by the Bahamas and Atlantic Ocean, and to ...

to win a second consecutive title in 2012 with a score of 197.850. Alabama entered the 2013 postseason primed for a close battle with Florida in the Super Six, but uncharacteristic mistakes saw Alabama slip to third place behind

Oklahoma Oklahoma (; Choctaw language, Choctaw: ; chr, ᎣᎧᎳᎰᎹ, ''Okalahoma'' ) is a U.S. state, state in the South Central United States, South Central region of the United States, bordered by Texas on the south and west, Kansas on the nor ...

, while Florida won its first national title. As the host school in 2014, Alabama won their eighth SEC Championship with a team score of 197.875, but fell to fourth place at Nationals after having to count a fall. Alabama's win at the 2014 Seattle Regional marked Patterson's thousandth career win. In 2015 Dana Duckworth was announced as the head coach after Sarah Patterson retired. She led them to their second straight SEC title, 9th overall, their 21st regional title and a fourth-place finish at Nationals.

The Power of Pink

The Power of Pink is the name given to one of the Crimson Tide's home meets each season in which all the participants and fans wear pink to support

breast cancer awareness Breast cancer awareness is an effort to raise awareness and reduce the stigma of breast cancer through education on symptoms and treatment. Supporters hope that greater knowledge will lead to earlier detection of breast cancer, which is associ ...

. The first Power of Pink meet, designated the "Drive 4 the Cause" meet, was held in February 2005 at Alabama's home meet against Auburn; Coach Sarah Patterson ordered pink leotards for her team and requested that all fans show up wearing pink. The meet, now known as the "Pink Meet", is an annual crowd favorite with each following "Pink Meet" selling out. The movement quickly spread among other NCAA gymnastics teams, with many schools participating in at least one Pink Meet per season, usually in late February or early March. Among Patterson's early supporters was the local DCH Regional Medical Center, which created the DCH Breast Cancer Fund. The fund was set up to provide disadvantaged women with means for early detection and treatment for breast cancer. Other supporters include the University, community leaders and Tuscaloosa Toyota. Tuscaloosa Toyota became more and more involved donating free pink shirts to give away at the meets and prize give-aways during the meet. Over a decade of Pink Meets, almost $1.5 million has been raised for cancer research at the DCH Fund. Each Alabama gymnast escorts a breast cancer survivor during team introductions at Pink Meets hosted in Coleman Coliseum.

Head coaches

NCAA titles

Alabama has won 29 individual NCAA championships.

Current roster

*Head coach: Ashley Priess Johnston *Assistant coaches: Justin Spring, Gina Quinlan *Volunteer assistant coach: Kyana George *Strength and conditioning coach: Casey Metoyer *Athletic trainer: Monica Decker Kirkpatrick

Team records

Top team total

Top vault total

Top uneven bars total

Top balance beam total

Top floor total

Past Olympians

(

2004 2004 was designated as an International Year of Rice by the United Nations, and the International Year to Commemorate the Struggle Against Slavery and its Abolition (by UNESCO). Events January * January 3 – Flash Airlines Flight 6 ...

)

* Dominique Pegg (

2012 File:2012 Events Collage V3.png, From left, clockwise: The passenger cruise ship Costa Concordia lies capsized after the Costa Concordia disaster; Damage to Casino Pier in Seaside Heights, New Jersey as a result of Hurricane Sandy; People gather ...

) *

Kylie Dickson Kylie Rei Dickson (born February 12, 1999) is an American artistic gymnast who represented Belarus in international competition. Level 10 career Dickson started her Level 10 career in 2013. She qualified to the Junior Olympic Nationals and f ...

(

2016 File:2016 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: Bombed-out buildings in Ankara following the 2016 Turkish coup d'état attempt; the impeachment trial of Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff; Damaged houses during the 2016 Nagorno-Karabakh ...

) *

Shallon Olsen Shallon Jade Olsen (born 10 July 2000) is a Canadian artistic gymnast. She is the 2018 World silver medalist and 2018 Commonwealth Games champion on vault. She is also the 2018 Commonwealth Games floor exercise bronze medalist and the 2019 Pan ...

(2016,

2020 2020 was heavily defined by the COVID-19 pandemic, which led to global Social impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, social and Economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, economic disruption, mass cancellations and postponements of events, COVID- ...

)

References

External links

The Official Web Site of Alabama Crimson Tide GymnasticsGymTide.com Coverage of Alabama Gymnastics
{{DEFAULTSORT:Alabama Crimson Tide Gymnastics