Watch Sanne Wevers on balance beam where she won gold in Rio back in 2016.
When she won for that routine (a surprise win over both Laurie Hernandez and Simone Biles), Wevers became the oldest woman — 24 years old — to win Olympic gold in gymnastics since 1968. By comparison, the average age of the US Men’s Gymnastics team in Rio was 25 years old. There are a lot of reasons why female gymnasts at the elite level are younger and retire earlier than their male counterparts. Some coaches say younger girls are lighter and more fearless, which makes it easier for them to do high flying stunts and tumbling passes on a 4-inch wide beam 4 feet above the ground. Others say girls typically start training earlier than boys, 3 or 4 years old versus 8 or 9 years old, so they have a five year head start and hit their peak sooner. Additionally, many elite level skills for men’s gymnastics can only be perfected with a particular kind of upper body strength that men don’t develop until college or later. (x)
Whatever the reasons, female gymnasts in their mid-twenties or older are a rarity and many retire in their late teens.
Mary Lou Retton, who won the individual all-around gold at the 1984 Olympics, retired in 1986 at the age of 18. Carly Patterson, who competed in Athens in 2004, was the first American woman to win the all-around gold since Retton’s win. Patterson was 16 when she competed at the Olympics and 18 years old when she retired from the sport because of back problems. Jordyn Wieber, who competed in the 2012 Olympics, announced her retirement in 2015 at the age of 19. The laundry list of young retirees could go on and on.
When Chellsie Memmel came out of retirement to compete at this year’s US Classic and US Nationals after two kids at the age of 32, it was a great moment, not only for moms inspired to keep pursuing their passion, but for women in gymnastics who want to compete past typical retirement age. What started as a way to get back in shape after children quickly turned into serious training again when she realized she could still do many of the elements she performed at the height of her elite career. She came back to elite gymnastics and her joy after a solid routine was palpable.
While Chellsie hasn’t had quite enough time to get into peak form to compete with the world’s best, there are other gymnasts above the typical 21/22 cutoff that you should look out for, starting with the GOAT herself.
Simone Biles, 24
There’s not much you can say about the greatest gymnast of all time that hasn’t already been said, but I find it interesting that her age never comes up in conversation since she’s a full 5 to 8 years older than most of her strongest competitors.
I’m not privy to Simone’s training regimen and I don’t know enough about gymnastics to make any sort of informed hypothesis, but considering Simone is past the typical cutoff and still performing so far out of anyone’s league that no one can touch her in an all-around competition (she hasn’t lost one since 2013), I don’t see any reason why she wouldn’t be able to go for a third Olympics if that’s what she wants to do. Typically gymnasts retire after a series of injuries where their body takes longer and longer to bounce back, but Simone is relatively injury free for such a powerful performer who has been punishing their body for a decade. She’s recently started taping her ankles before floor exercise (the most physically taxing event), but she hasn’t had to take weeks off for major surgeries. The only thing standing in the way of Simone and another ten years of elite competition is whether she wants to do it or not.
MyKayla Skinner, 24
MyKayla is a polarizing presence in women’s gymnastics but I love her fight and I’m rooting for her to make this year’s Olympic team.
Back in 2016, she finished 4th at the Olympic trials, but she was passed over for the final lineup in favor of Gabby Douglas, 2012’s All-Around champ who had a much better bar routine, and Madison Kocian, another bars specialist. Uneven bars was a weak spot for team USA and MyKayla’s strengths on floor and vault were well represented with Simone and Aly Raisman.
She retired from elite gymnastics and competed at the college level instead — much lower difficulty with a higher emphasis on execution. In 2019 she made an almost unheard of return from college gymnastics to elite, and she’s been pushing herself to make the 2021 team. Unlike Simone, MyKayla has been plagued with injuries (she’s currently competing on a bone spur) and though she excels at vault (coming second to Simone in most competitions), Team USA already has Simone and Jordan Chiles. If MyKayla can pull more consistency across all four events, she could make it to Tokyo.
Oksana Chusovitina, 46
You can’t talk about vault specialists without mentioning Oksana Chusovitina.
With nine medals on vault, Oksana has more World Championship medals on a single event than any other gymnast and in 2016 she became the first female gymnast to compete at seven Olympics Games. Oksana already had five World Championship medals and an Olympic gold by the time Simone Biles was born and, coming of age during the political upheavals of the 90s, she has competed under three different flags at the Olympics: The Unified Team, Uzbekistan, and Germany. When she competes at her eighth (and final) Olympics this year, she will be looking to translate her recent international success into Olympic Gold, recently winning five silver and two gold since 2017 on the World Cup circuit.
This was a 41-year-old mother launching off a vault table on the world’s most competitive stage.
And she’s about to do it again in just a few weeks.
Vanessa Ferrari, 30
Vanessa Ferrari is back in peak form and she’s coming to finally get that Olympic medal she keeps missing out on.
In 2006, Vanessa won Silver on Floor Exercise at the European Championships. In 2014, she won Gold at that competition on the same apparatus. Since then she hadn’t medaled at the European Championship until April of this year when she took bronze on Floor, 15 years after her first one and 7 years after her last one. She didn’t have a great showing at the Olympic Games in 2008, but she got 4th on Floor Exercise in 2012 and 2016, just missing out on a medal.
Sanne Wevers, 29
Sanne is the reason I wanted to write this real quick because I got a Google alert about her earlier today.
In 2016, Simone’s Olympic haul consisted of Team Gold, Gold in the All-Around, Gold on Vault and Floor, and a Bronze on Beam. She was bested by Laurie Hernandez (silver) and Sanne Wevers who won gold with a routine that was unlike most of her competition. Whereas most gymnasts on beam count on a higher difficulty score by connecting acrobatic elements and tumbling, Sanne went heavy on turns and pirouettes. When she won gold, she became the oldest woman to win gold in gymnastics at the Olympics since 1968. If her preparation leading up to 2021 is any indication, she may make it a repeat in Tokyo: during lockdown she had a balance beam delivered through the 2nd story window of her home so she could practice.
The Google alert I got today wasn’t about beam though. Instead, I got an alert because, at 29 years old, Sanne Wevers is still creating skills. She’s working a skill on uneven bars that will be named after her if she competes it in international competition and it will have the highest difficulty of any uneven bars element.
Not bad for an athlete on her worst event past typical retirement age!
Women’s gymnastics will always favor the younger athletes because the training is so physically demanding and there’s not much you can do once your body starts to sustain injuries. With athletes like Sanne continuing to compete at the top of the field and other athletes like Chellsie possibly returning to the competition floor, it’s exciting to think this could be the beginning of a trend where athletes don’t retire as early and instead train different skills as their body changes. In Tokyo, I’ll be rooting for Team Everybody Over 21.
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