Why aren't there any Division I gymnastics programs in Texas? [View all]
FORT WORTH, Texas (AP) — Ragan Smith did not lack options when it came to choosing a college, as tends to happen when you're an elite gymnast with a national title on your resume.
One option was unavailable to Smith. It doesn't exist.
Texas, the site of this week's NCAA women's gymnastics championships, the state that's produced Olympic champions Carly Patterson and Nastia Liukin and Simone Biles, the state that has over 20 colleges and universities currently classified as Division I, the state that features some of the most prominent gymnastics programs in the country if not the world, has exactly six women's gymnastics scholarships available, all of them at Division II Texas Women's University.
That meant that Smith, who moved from Georgia to the Dallas suburbs as a 13-year-old to train at the gym owned by former world champion and Olympic bronze medalist Kim Zmeskal, had to leave Texas to compete at the Division I level.
“All these great clubs are in Texas, and you would think (the big schools) would have a program,” Smith said. “But they really don't.”
Read more: https://www.chron.com/sports/article/NCAA-women-gymnastics-program-texas-17084439.php
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