The Brandeis Gymnastics Club recently traveled to Birmingham, Ala. for the National Association of Intercollegiate Gymnastics Clubs Nationals meet. This year, the Brandeis Gymnastics Club sent six athletes to compete. The NAIGC is a non-profit organization whose mission is to create opportunities for adult gymnasts. While groups from universities make up most of the participants, nonaffiliated clubs may compete as well. The six gymnasts from Brandeis competed in the Nationals meet from April 8 to 11 in the individual Women’s Artistic Gymnastics and Men’s Artistic Gymnastics categories. Within the women’s category, Ella Majeski ’26, Vicky Sagan ’27, Sanya Pandit ’28, Summer Holmes ’28 and Ivana Marinkovic ’29 competed in the silver and platinum categories and Elliot Richter ‘27 competed in the advanced group of the Men’s Artistic Gymnastics section, which is the highest level category within the men’s competition. 

The national meet of the NAIGC is the organization’s biggest competition every season, and the Brandeis Gymnastics Club’s biggest competition as well. This year, there were 12 athletes on the club’s competition team, which is about double the number of competitive athletes the club had last year. The location of the meet switches annually and the majority of the club’s budget and fundraising money goes towards traveling for the meet. Although only half of the competition team was able to attend due to budget restraints and Brandeis’ break schedule, the six athletes each showed stunning performances and exceeded expectations. Majeski explained that the Nationals meet normally has thousands of athletes from many different colleges all over the country and had limited opportunities to place in a competition. 

Within the women’s competition, the NAIGC combined the two types of skill categorizing used in women’s gymnastics: the levels system, which goes from 1 to 10, is used primarily for gymnasts training to compete on behalf of a college or professionally. A Level 1 gymnast is able to do skills such as a handstand and a forward roll well, while a Level 10 gymnast would be eligible for national competitions and college athletics. The other system of categorization is Xcel. Xcel is a more creative and slightly less intense program for gymnastics. Instead of levels 1-10, gymnasts are placed in a bronze, silver, gold, platinum or diamond group, with bronze being the lowest and diamond being the highest. At the NAIGC’s National competition, gymnasts can compete in a silver, platinum, diamond or Level 9 category. Within the women’s competition, Sagan competed in the silver level, Majeski competed in the platinum level and Holmes, Marinkovic and Pandit competed in the diamond level. 

The organization hosting this event, the NAIGC, is a nonprofit meant to help college students and adults with a love of gymnastics continue to perform in a competitive environment. The NAIGC was one of the first organizations within competitive gymnastics to allow transgender athletes to compete with their preferred gender. They also allow men and women to compete in events traditionally restricted to one gender. If a female athlete would like to, she may compete on parallel bars and a male athlete can compete on the balance beam. Athletes can also compete in a “decathlon” where, regardless of gender, the gymnast is expected to compete in disciplines across artistic gymnastics. The inclusivity of the NAIGC is another reason why Majeski, who has competed at this meet for the past four years, loves the organization. She believes that the values of the NAIGC align with Brandeis’ values of inclusivity and social justice, and the NAIGC “blurs the lines between gender binaries in gymnastics.”

Although this past meet was Majeski’s last with Brandeis, the gymnastics club has greatly expanded in club membership and competitive prowess. Brandeis gymnastics has only improved so far, and that pattern is not looking to change any time soon.