Clark told them: “You don't have to be perfect today, guys, but you don't have to sleepwalk through it either.”
By the time LSU rotated to the beam and then the floor, the Tigers were wide awake. In the final two rotations of Thursday's semifinals, LSU had him score 9.9 or higher in 10 of 12 routines. This success rate will ensure the team is in the championship range.
The Tigers stayed calm during the beam, secured the landing, and soared with a high-flying tumble. By the end of the session, chants from LSU fans filled the Dickies' arena. This is a program that commands attention here and everywhere.
LSU, the No. 2 team in the nation, is loaded with star power and performed well all season, winning the SEC Championship and breaking the school's team scoring record. Away from the competition floor, LSU gymnasts have even more fame, fortune and a following that extends far beyond gymnastics enthusiasts.
That's largely thanks to senior Olivia Dunn, an elite gymnast turned influencer. Her online influence (8 million on TikTok and 5 million on Instagram) makes her one of the most popular gymnasts on the planet.
Some of her teammates have big followings, perhaps because of their connection to Dunn or her lead. The result was a multimillion-dollar sponsorship deal for LSU gymnasts, taking advantage of new NCAA rules that allow athletes to make money in their own names.
LSU has been in the spotlight as a team and consistently produced. The Tigers had the highest attendance in the nation, with over 12,500 people attending each event. Mr. Clark is known as an excellent recruiter, and when top athletes arrive, they train in what he considers to be one of the best facilities in the country.
In other words, LSU gymnastics appears to have everything but a national title.
To win their first championship, the Tigers must defeat Utah, Florida and California in Saturday's final. Despite the Tigers' lackluster vault rotation, he posted a best score of 198.1125 in the semifinals. However, all four of the winning teams earned points with a difference of less than 0.5 points. The top-ranked Oklahoma Sooners seemed unstoppable this season, but they stumbled in the semifinals and were unable to advance.
The Tigers started competing seriously about 10 years ago. Since 2016, LSU has been national runner-up three times and fourth twice. Head coach Clark, who previously worked as an assistant under legendary coach DD Breaux at LSU, said he still values one of Breaux's words before going to Fort Worth. ”
“Whether it's this year, next year, next year, next year, I believe LSU will win a national championship,” Clark said. “We have to stick to the formula that's working for us instead of focusing on specific, tangible results. Otherwise, it feels like we're always chasing our tails. ”
LSU's veteran roster includes a senior and seven graduate students, led by senior Hailey Bryant, who scored a 9.9 or better on each instrument en route to the individual all-around title. But seven gymnasts achieved that mark at least once in the semifinals, showing LSU's depth.
LSU has 22 gymnasts on its roster. The other teams that will advance to the finals will have between 14 and 17 players. The program only has 12 gymnasts eligible for athletic scholarships, but if the school has a track record of athletes earning significant income through endorsement deals, it becomes more attractive to continue.
Since July 2021, when the NCAA began allowing athletes to profit from their name, image and likeness (NIL), LSU gymnasts have made a total of 490 payments, according to data obtained by The Washington Post through a public records request. It said it disclosed 75 transactions worth $10,000. That's about the same amount as the football team ($5.6 million) and the high-profile women's basketball team ($5 million), and much more than the men's basketball team ($1.3 million) and every other LSU program.
It's not clear how much of the gymnastics team's $4.9 million went to Dunn, as LSU does not publicly disclose the deal amounts revealed for each athlete. Dunn told the New York Times in 2022 that he made a “seven-figure” profit while refusing to give up. specific amount. (Dunn was not in any of LSU's lineups in the semifinals, but appeared on floor eight times and twice on bars this season.)
“When NIL started, I was one of those people who thought, 'Oh, this is going to destroy everything we talk about and want in terms of culture,'” Clark said. “Liv is, so to speak. [NIL]But she did a great job of creating an atmosphere of being a good teammate. ”
An athlete's earning potential is often correlated with the number of followers on social media, suggesting that many LSU gymnasts, not just Dunn, are benefiting from lucrative deals.
Elena Arenas, a close friend of Dan's who did not compete this year, has nearly 500,000 followers on Instagram and TikTok combined. Some of the Tigers' most important contributors have close to 100,000 followers or more. Most of the gymnasts here who have similarly large followings were top elite gymnasts before college. Some of LSU's gymnasts are outliers. did not do it We are building these individual brands and further increasing attention to our programs while competing on the world stage.
At LSU, each sport has its own “creative pod” focused on social media, photography and video, a rare resource for Olympic sports. Gymnastics Pod meets regularly with Clark, and the coach has access to Clark's programs, including a documentary series that began last season, according to Cody Worsham, chief brand officer for athletics. They are very happy to provide this. When the school described the launch of a subscription video service at LSU, Worsham said Clark was initially skeptical of the strategy.
According to Worsham, the coach asked: If everything is behind a paywall, how can new employees see it?”
Ultimately, last season's docuseries “went really viral” and generated revenue, Worsham said. Mr. Clark saw the quality of the work and understood its value. The video team then created short clips for social media, fulfilling Clark's recruitment drive.
“As a recruiter, you have to listen to your new hires,” says Worsham. “You have to anticipate where they are going and what their needs and trends are. [Clark] Before NIL, we foresaw that content, branding and social media were extremely important to athletes. ”
LSU has everything it needs to get noticed, build a top-level team, and compete for a national title. For years, it seemed like a breakthrough was just around the corner, but now the Tigers are closer to reaching it, one powerful move away from celebrating the highest peak this program has ever reached. Competition is coming.
Albert Samaha contributed to this report.
