When most people think of gymnastics factories, they think Texas. Partly because Texas gyms seem to work harder than Kathy Johnson Clarke’s salivary glands, and partly because Al Trautwig tells us so. But what about other states like California? According to the information compiled by Taylor Anderson, California produces more high-level gymnasts than Texas does. Taylor chose to add the qualifiers to the Nastia Liukin Cup (this meet can be even harder to quality to than level 10 nationals), number of Division I athletes, and number of elite championships competitors to find the top states. Do you agree with this method? Tell us what you think. The data below depicts the top three gymnast-producing states: California, Texas and Illinois.
Elite (Data taken from 2015 P&G Championships and 2015 Nastia Liukin Cup):
NCAA (Data taken from 2016 DI rosters):
Total:
Does this surprise you? Tell us what you think!
This was neat to see — I am taking this info into consideration to help pick a gym for my daughter — especially after hearing Coach Rick, last week (?), talk about observing the number of older teen girls still in a program as a helpful indicator of a happy gym. Thanks!
If you do it by population, crude estimate of gymnasts on this list per million:
Texas 4.2 gymnasts per million
California 3.3
Illinois 4.9
Michigan 6.0
Seems California has done very well lately. But over the past 10-20 years i’d argue Texas has been the most productive ELITE State.
Three Olympic AA Champions: Mary Lou, Carly and Nastia. Them’s braggin’ rights.
My guess is that Michigan has been the most productive NCAA State per capita. Geddert’s factory has certainly helped. Region 5 is amazingly good at producing strong College gymnasts.
I would redo this analysis to include only gymnasts who make the US National Team (junior or senior) at least once, JO National Team, Nastia Liukin Cup qualifiers, and NCAA All-Americans (regular season or at championships. Each of those represent elite gymnasts within international elite, JO, and NCAA ranks. Using all division 1 gymnasts is too broad.