The best college gymnast in America is coming back to LSU for one more run.
Haleigh Bryant, who less than two weeks ago led the Tigers to the program’s first-ever NCAA championship, announced Tuesday that she will return to the team for a fifth and final season in 2025.
Bryant made her plans public in a video released on LSU gymnastics' social-media platforms.
"The answer to the question you have all been waiting for … I am back for year five,” Bryant said in a video she recorded Saturday. She then looked up from the statement she was reading and flashed a smile and thumbs up for the camera.
Bryant, who turns 23 in December, said she thought early this year that she would want to return, but then considered how winning the Southeastern Conference and NCAA championships might make her feel.
The Tigers won both titles, putting together the best season in program history. When it was all over, Bryant said she simply wanted to keep going.
“There have been so many amazing people who supported me,” Bryant said Tuesday in a phone interview. “With the new people we’re getting, I wanted to be part of history again.
“I just wanted to keep giving to the fans and teammates who supported me. Jay (Clark, the LSU coach) always says the best way to honor someone is with your actions. They never gave up on me or this team, so I wanted to give it one more go.
“I wasn’t ready to be done yet.”
Clark was eager to recognize the person Bryant is on and off the gymnastics floor.
“I hope Baton Rouge and the community at large understands what an incredible ambassador she is and can be,” Clark said. “It’s not just about her gymnastics. It’s about the incredible human being she is.”
A native of Cornelius, North Carolina, Bryant committed to LSU as an eighth grader, telling her parents she did not want to visit any other schools.
When she finally arrived at LSU in August 2020, college athletics were trying to figure out how to restart during the pandemic. She is part of the last class that was granted a fifth so-called “Covid” year by the NCAA.
A 27-time All-American, Bryant’s 2024 season and LSU’s NCAA team title may have already cemented her as the program’s greatest gymnast ever.
Bryant won the NCAA all-around individual title during the national semifinals April 18, joining Susan Jackson (2010) as the only gymnasts from LSU to do so. She earlier claimed the all-around and vault titles March 23 in the SEC championships at the Smoothie King Center.
Bryant also finished first in the all-around and vault in the NCAA final, giving her 94 career individual titles, fifth-most at LSU.
During the 2024 season, Bryant performed 62 routines, 56 of them (90.3%) at 9.90 or better, with 31 of those (50%) at 9.95 or better. That included eight perfect 10s (at least one in every event) to secure the career and season gym slams. On March 8, Bryant set a school record in the all-around with a 39.925 in the Purple and Gold Challenge at the Raising Cane's River Center.
She is the NCAA’s active leader and ranks ninth with 18 career 10.0 scores; the all-time record is 28. Returning in 2025 will give Bryant a chance to match or break that mark, as well as LSU's career record of 114 individual titles held by Ashleigh Clare-Kearney Thigpen.
Bryant was named SEC gymnast of the year and won the AAI Award, given to the nation’s top senior gymnast. She is one of four finalists for the Honda Award, given to the nation’s best gymnast regardless of class. Winning the Honda Award would make her eligible for the Honda Cup and the Collegiate Woman Athlete of the Year award.
Gymnastics has 12 scholarships, and unlike baseball they cannot be split up among multiple athletes. For that reason Bryant’s return basically will be as a walk-on funded by NIL deals.
“I knew that from the beginning,” said Bryant, who will graduate in May.
Several other LSU fourth- and fifth-year seniors are also eligible to return, including SEC co-floor champion Kiya Johnson, Olivia Dunne, Alyona Shchennikova, Sierra Ballard and Chase Brock.
Dunne said on the “Today” show last week that she was still weighing her options but that “winning the national championship makes me want to come back.”
Definitely returning for their senior seasons will be NCAA floor champion and 2024 Olympian Aleah Finnegan and SEC co-floor champion KJ Johnson. Also back are rising sophomores Konnor McClain, the SEC beam champion, and Amari Drayton.
LSU brings in the nation’s top-rated recruiting class that includes Pan American Games gold medalists Zoe Miller and Kaliya Linclon, along with Kailin Chio and Lexi Zeiss.
“This team is going to be insane,” Bryant said. “The sky’s the limit. We have amazingly talented people all over the place. The big thing for us is to stay together as a team. It has nothing to do with gymnastics at the end of the day. It will be about how we all operate mentally and about being selfless.”
Miller recently announced she is ending her elite career because of a shoulder injury, which means she will not pursue a spot on the U.S. Olympic team. However, McClain and Lincoln are expected to try to make the U.S. team trials, June 27-30 in Minneapolis.
Bryant said she has no plans to attend the trials.
“I’m a college gymnast,” she said.
One more time.
The Haleigh Bryant file
Age: 22 (Born Dec. 20, 2001)
NCAA titles: 2 (2021 vault, 2024 all-around)
SEC titles: 3 (2021 vault, 2024 all-around, 2024 vault)
Career individual titles: 94
Career perfect 10s: 18
All-American honors: 27
Other major awards: 2021 Central Region gymnast of the year, 2023 Central Region gymnast of the year, 2023 Honda Award finalist, 2024 SEC gymnast of the year, 2024 Central Region gymnast of the year, 2024 AAI Award winner, 2024 Honda Award finalist