Gymnastics News Weekly: Suni Lee’s final collegiate season at Auburn will be hottest ticket in town
Plus, ESPN announces NCAA coverage plans and a look back at Shawn Johnson and Nastia Liukin at Beijing 2008.
Artistic Gymnastics
Seeing Suni Lee as she closes out her collegiate gymnastics career at Auburn University was always certain to be a big draw.
That was confirmed this week as Auburn’s athletic department announced that it had sold out season tickets to the women’s gymnastics home meets.
"Having Neville Arena sell out in early November is just simply amazing," head coach Jeff Graba said, according to a press release. "It's an exciting time to be an Auburn gymnastics fan and to be a member of this team. I can't wait to get into the arena and soak up that atmosphere. It's the best in college gymnastics!"
Tokyo 2020 Olympic all-around gold medallist Lee announced last month that she would compete in her upcoming sophomore season at the Alabama-based school, then return home to Minneapolis as she prepares for the Paris 2024 Olympic Games.
"Today I'm sharing a decision that has weighed on me for a very long time," Lee said in a video posted on her social media channels on 15 November. "This will be my last season competing at Auburn University. I'm so excited to share that after this season I will be returning to elite gymnastics. I have my sights set on Paris 2024 and I know what I have to do to get there."
• Olympic champion Sunisa Lee confirms Paris 2024 ambitions: 'I know what I have to do to get there'
ESPN announces groundbreaking NCAA coverage plans
For those unable to make it in person to see Lee, ESPN has a plan for that: more than 40 hours of action including 25 live meets featuring Southeastern Conference teams during the regular season, according to a press release from the network.
Lee’s Auburn Tigers will have seven of their regular season events featured, with the first set for Friday, 13 January against powerhouse University of Florida.
The network’s coverage begins during the opening weekend of women’s NCAA action on Friday, 6 January with Michigan State and Alabama facing off on the SEC Network, followed by LSU and Utah going head-to-head on ESPN2.
For the third year in-a-row, the NCAA Women’s Gymnastics Championships will air on network television, with ABC showing the action live at 4pm ET on Saturday, 15 April.
From the vault…
This week, we take a look back at the United States on balance beam during the qualifying round at the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing. Despite only putting four athletes up on the event due to injuries, the squad tallied the highest total on the event led by matching 15.975 scores from Nastia Liukin and Shawn Johnson. Alicia Sacramone was just behind at 15.950.