New Orleans Welcomes USA Gymnastics Back After Three Decades

The last time New Orleans hosted the U.S. Gymnastics National Championships, most of the 2025 competitors hadn’t been born yet.

The 2025 U.S. Gymnastics National Championships will take place August 7–10 at Smoothie King Center in New Orleans, 30 years since the 1995 competition in the Crescent City, which saw 13–year–old prodigy Dominique Moceanu win the women’s all–around title and John Roethlisberger, a three–time Olympian who currently does commentary for the event on NBC, winning the men’s all–around title.

“We all shook our heads and said, ‘Wow, how has it been 30 years?’ I would be surprised if it’s another 30 years before we’re back and we’re looking forward to getting there this year,” said Jill Geer, USA Gymnastics chief communications and marketing officer.

Jay Cicero, president and chief executive officer at Greater New Orleans Sports Foundation, was there in 1995 and is looking forward to welcoming the event back.

“I was actually the vice president of operations for our organization back in 1995 when we hosted this event on the floor of the Superdome,” Cicero said. “The Smoothie King Center was not even a thought to be built yet. I remember it was really fun to have that on the floor of the Superdome. But to have it back 30 years later is great.”

A Strong Partnership Renewed

The names and faces at the forefront of USA Gymnastics have changed since 1995, but one thing remains the same — the National Championships, which are held in conjunction with the annual USA Gymnastics National Congress, is always the biggest weekend of a non–Olympic year for the national governing body.

“The only event that’s bigger than this event is our Olympic trials,” Geer said. “The crown jewel of every year for us is the Xfinity U.S. Gymnastics Championships and National Congress, which also includes our Hall of Fame induction. We have roughly 5,000 people who come into the city as participants of those events, and that doesn’t include fans coming in.”

Hosting that influx of tourism — across the city in both Smoothie King Center and the Morial Convention Center — might make some cities nervous. But not New Orleans or the Greater New Orleans Sports Foundation.

“Our organization has served as the host committee staff for the last four Super Bowls here, last four Men’s Final Fours, last three Women’s Final Fours, NBA All-Star Games and more,” Cicero said. “So I’m definitely not saying this event is light work by any means, but New Orleans is built to host events like this.”

“Working with New Orleans and Company and the Greater New Orleans Sports Foundation — there are few, if any, cities in this country who do big national sporting events like New Orleans,” Geer added. “We were so pleased for them to put the bid forward and the reaction from everyone from the gymnastics community was universally positive.”

In addition to the competitions taking place in Smoothie King Center and the National Congress down the street in the city’s convention center, USA Gymnastics will also have fan activations, an expo hall with plenty of shopping, educational experiences and chances for fans to celebrate the sport together.

It takes a great relationship between a host city and event organizer to organize a successful event and each side feels they have that.

“Jay and his team have been very supportive from the start,” Geer said. “We did a press conference last fall when we announced that we’re heading to Smoothie King Center and it was the best attended press conference we’ve had in quite some time.”

“The staff for USA Gymnastics has been very consistent in their abilities in the past 30 years,” Cicero said. “I remember having a great relationship with their staff back in 1995 leading up to the championships here. We’re just delighted to have them back, and it’s great business for us, especially over the summer when we tend to have a little bit lighter convention schedule.”

New Orleans Ready to Bring the Energy

The National Championships is the event that decides which gymnasts will be on the U.S. national team, and from that group, the team for World Championships.

It’s an opportunity for young competitors to break onto the national stage and make a name for themselves, while the veterans are hoping to hold onto their spots.

“Specific to 2025, fans are going to see the next generation of athletes in the run up to LA 2028,” Geer said. “We had one of our oldest women’s teams ever in Paris. And out of the crop of women’s athletes right now who are competing, there are only two who are over age 20. So it really is the next best generation coming up.

“And for the men, you are going to get to see several of the heroes from Paris including Stephen Nedoroscik, AKA ‘Pommel Horse Guy,’ who has also gone on to fame with ‘Dancing with the Stars.’ You’ll also see Fred Richard, who was our all–around champion at the Olympic trials; Brody Malone, who’s a world champion in the high bar, and Asher Hong, who was a former all–around champion.”

A particular competitor on the women’s side will have some homefield advantage in New Orleans. Hezly Rivera, a 17–year–old member of the 2024 gold medal–winning Team USA squad, will be competing in New Orleans. She has committed to join LSU in 2026, making her a local favorite.

“We think it’s going to be loud and proud, as usual,” Cicero said of the crowds in the Smoothie King Center. “The success of the LSU gymnastics program has led us to host two SEC Gymnastics Championships in the past five years. And we had record attendance for both of them. So that gave us the confidence that we could start looking at USA Gymnastics events and be successful with it.”

The Smoothie King Center, home of the NBA’s New Orleans Pelicans, has nearly 18,000 seats for the gymnastics fans to fill. While the floor of the Superdome was a unique venue for the 1995 U.S. Gymnastics Championships, Geer thinks the arena setting will provide an electric atmosphere.

“Having the right-sized arena is always critical for an event like our championships,” Geer said. “An arena that is suited for either basketball or hockey is usually the best venue to go to. Smoothie King Center in particular is a surprisingly intimate venue for its size. So the floor layout is actually quite tight, in a good way. Because that means all the energy is focused and the fans are really close up to the athletes.”

“We just hosted a very successful UFC 318 event where Louisianan Dustin Poirier fought his final fight here and it was electric,” Cicero added. “I compared it to a Saints playoff game. It was that much fun to be in the facility that day.”

Both Geer and Cicero are looking forward to a successful and lucrative four days as the best gymnasts in the country take center stage in one of the top sports cities in the nation.

“There’s only one New Orleans,” Geer said. “It’s a must-visit city, so it’s great for fans and it’s great for our attendees at our National Congress. It’s just a city that people are really excited about.”

“Louisiana, and New Orleans in particular, are very attractive for people to travel to,” Cicero said. “So we’re going to have not only the folks who are familiar with the participants or family of the participants, but those fans in the region or around the country that want to come in for this event — we think that they’ll be here in droves. We think it’s going to be very successful and hopefully will lead to many more events with USA gymnastics. It won’t take another 30 years.”