LSU brings joy and confidence to its quest to repeat at the NCAA women's gymnastics championships

LSU's decades-long chase for its first national title in women's gymnastics finally ended last year, when the Tigers partied under the confetti inside Dickies Arena following a finals performance that was both emphatic and cathartic. No wonder they're so intent on trying to do it again. The Tigers lead a talented field of eight teams into Thursday's semifinals — a group that includes fellow superpowers Oklahoma, Florida, Utah and UCLA — eager to prove their breakthrough last spring was not a one-off. Asked if there's any pressure that comes with trying to repeat, senior Aleah Finnegan just laughs. "It's really just making sure we're saying to ourselves and proving to ourselves that we are who we say we are," she said. Finnegan received an up-close look at LSU's quest for a championship when older sister Sarah — an alternate for the 2012 U.S. Olympic team — helped the Tigers to three runner-up finishes in four years between 2016-19. The Tigers have long been at or near the leading edge in generating interest in a level of the sport that for decades was truly popular only in select regions of the country. Finnegan remembers going to LSU home meets to watch Sarah and marveling at the energy in the crowd. If only she knew what was coming. The groundswell of interest around women's college gymnastics that was building when Sarah competed for the Tigers has turned into a wave that shows no signs of cresting. LSU home meets have become so popular that the program has been searching for ways to add seats to the floor at the Pete Maravich Assembly Center. Their roster is dotted with some of the sport's most notable athletes, from Finnegan, who competed for the Philippines at the 2024 Paris Olympics, to fifth-year senior/influencer Livvy Dunne to former U.S. gymnastics national champion Konnor McClain. Throw in the rise of social media, the ability for college athletes to profit off their name, image and likeness and a steady stream of elites joining the fray and the profile of women's college gymnastics has never been higher or more competitive. "There's just so much more notoriety," Finnegan said. "And for the sport I mean, you just have to go to one (meet) and you'll get hooked afterward. A lot of these people don't know what they don't know. Once they get a taste of it, they keep coming back." It's not just the crowds who don't know what they don't know. It's the athletes, too, particularly ones like Finnegan, who admits there was a bit of a culture shock when she transitioned from elite training to college four years ago. She was almost consumed by her gymnastics, which at times felt an awful lot like a solitary pursuit. That has changed during her time in Baton Rouge, where she has found joy and, perhaps just as importantly, balance. "I personally think that (college gymnastics are) so much more enjoyable because you have the support system around you," said Finnegan, who is the reigning national champion on floor exercise. "It's hard to compete when it's just you and you're the only one in the gym for all those long hours. Just coming to LSU and having that team aspect has just helped tremendously." It shows. The Tigers do not compete as if they feel any sort of pressure at having to repeat. They won the Southeastern Conference title with a record-breaking team score, entered the NCAA championships as the top seed and had little trouble reaching the national semifinals. Oh, they have no trouble "goofing around," as Finnegan put it. For proof, look no further than a recent TikTok video in which the Tigers were pranked by being handed a camera for a selfie only to realize the filter had been set to make their eyes look a little farther apart than they are in real life. A whole lot of "wait, what?" and laughter followed. They understand they are in a different role this time around. You don't have to tell the Tigers that their long-awaited coronation has turned them from the hunter to the hunted. Of course, telling them is one thing. Having them listen to it is another. "We know how good we are," Finnegan said. "We're not focusing on external factors." There's too much to focus on internally anyway. Finnegan has spent most of the season dealing with a mental block on a tumbling pass she's been doing for a decade. While she didn't have much trouble with it during training, meets were another matter. After weeks of trying to gut it out, she opted to make a slight tweak instead, something she "never in a million years" thought she would have thought to do as a younger gymnast. It's that kind of flexibility that's helped her rediscover the joy she finds in something she's done for most of her life. Yet Finnegan also knows she's not going to be doing it for the rest of her life. There's a chance the NCAAs could be the final meet of her career. Finnegan has a post-graduation trip to the Philippines lined up where she will train a little and perhaps teach a lot. Then it'll be back to the U.S. to host a handful of invitationals. While Finnegan is not ready to "shut the door on gymnastics just yet," at some point she would like to "settle down and get a real job." She's hardly the only Tiger nearing the end of a chapter. Dunne has been dealing with a kneecap injury that's kept her out of competition. Whether she competes at NCAAs is unknown. A half-dozen other Tigers — including graduate student and defending NCAA all-around champion Haleigh Bryant — could also be competing for the last time. While their legacy as part of the first team to bring the Tigers a national championship is secure, they're hardly satisfied. "I think it's a little bit of a confidence booster that we know what it takes to make it to the top," Finnegan said. "We also have that same mentality. We're very hungry, very eager. We're ready."