Looking ahead to the 2025 season, one thing we have to take into consideration for the final time is the COVID-year cohort. In 2021 as the COVID-19 pandemic raged on, the NCAA granted winter athletes an extra year of eligibility to try and accommodate the teams or individuals who opted out of the season. We saw gymnasts take their COVID year in 2022, 2023, and 2024, and now the 2021 season’s freshmen are deciding whether they will use their final year of eligibility or move on from the sport.
While there are many reasons beyond scores to take a fifth year, we wanted to dive into the data to see how the fifth-year athletes have contributed over the last three seasons. What types of scores have fifth years contributed? How have gymnasts who transferred for their fifth year fared? Has anyone peaked during their fifth year?
Who did we consider to be a fifth year?
To begin this analysis, we created a list of gymnasts who appeared as seniors on Road to Nationals rosters more than once, as well as gymnasts included in College Gym News’s 2022, 2023, and 2024 tracking articles as returning for a fifth year. One important caveat is that the Ivy League schools did not grant an additional year of eligibility, so any gymnast who competed at an Ivy and wanted to take…
