UF senior Leanne Wong dazzled under the bright lights of the Stephen C. O’Connell Center in Friday’s meet against No. 23 Nebraska, No. 11 Michigan State and unranked Northern Illinois. On a night when she collected awards for every event but the vault, her all-around score of 39.725 is tied for the highest score of any athlete nationally so far this season.
For Wong, it’s been a long few months between the Gators’ Final Four performance in the 2024 NCAA Championships and the start of the 2025 season. With two trips across the Atlantic and her senior year at UF underway, she’s not only preparing herself for this season but for life outside college.
Wong served as an alternate for Team USA in the 2024 Summer Paris Olympics. Alternates don’t compete unless one of the other team members suffers an injury. However, during the USA Olympic Trials, two of her UF teammates, freshman Skye Blakely and sophomore Kayla DiCello, dropped from the competition after severely injuring their Achilles tendons. So, Wong had to stay prepared for a similar result in France.
“It was kind of disappointing to be an alternate for a second time,” Wong said. “But I was like, ‘Well, I'm on this team for a reason, and I have my role as an alternate, and I'll get to go to Paris and train.’”
Wong wouldn’t get the chance to compete in the Olympics, but she said her experience in Paris was better than Tokyo three years earlier. Team USA selected Wong as an alternate for the 2020 Olympics in Japan’s capital city, but her teammate tested positive for COVID-19. Pandemic restrictions forced both athletes to quarantine for the remainder of their time overseas.
“I just remember looking at the Eiffel Tower,” Wong said. “I think I went to go see it four times with the Olympic rings. It was just really special, I just really took a moment to be present.”
Her experience in Paris was likely her last Olympics. The average age of Team USA’s Olympic gymnasts has increased from 17 years old in 2012 to 22 in 2024, according to USA Gymnastics. But while Wong may just be 21 years old, the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics are still three years away. That’s a long time in the gymnastics world.
UF assistant head coach Owen Field, who has been there for Wong through her time at Florida, joined her in Paris as a coach.
Though she’s a quiet and more reserved person, her competitiveness is a force to be reckoned with, he said.
“We were traveling to national team camp in Houston, and I was sitting across the plane from her,” he said. “And most people you know, when they're on a longer flight like that, they'll watch a movie or take a nap or something like that. And I looked over and she was actually making tape grips.”
Field also joined Wong when she competed for the United States at the Swiss Cup in November. Her fall during her uneven bars performance seemed like a culmination of all the struggles she had faced to even compete in Switzerland.
First, she couldn’t find a male partner to compete with her. Then, she landed awkwardly on the edge of a mat, rolling her ankle. Her flight from the Gainesville airport to Atlanta was delayed multiple times, turning an hour-and-a-half flight into almost a twelve-hour trip. She missed her first transatlantic flight and stayed overnight in Georgia (with no change of clothes).
Once in Switzerland, the challenges continued.
“I was super thankful to get there 24 hours later, until all of my bags did not show up,” Wong said. “Everyone's bags, my coaches, my mom, like, all their bags showed up, except for mine. So, I was like, ‘OK, this is going great, I guess.’”
During the competition, she said that she didn’t have the best routine. Team USA, comprised of Wong and University of Oklahoma redshirt junior Fuzzy Benas, didn’t advance past the preliminary rounds and placed ninth overall.
“It was just an interesting trip and didn't end the way they wanted to,” Wong said. “But that's OK. Champions keep moving.”
As a senior, the pressure to perform and earn 10.000s only increases. But former Gator gymnast Trinity Thomas, who leads UF in events and all-around wins, isn’t worried about Wong.
As a friend of Wong’s, Thomas said she is excited to see how she continues to progress in the meets. She will be in person in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, to cheer Wong on.
“I'm just so excited for her this year, just knowing where she started and where she is now, and how much she's enjoyed the process and made so many great relationships along the way,” Thomas said. “[She] obviously has done some incredible things, both in elite gymnastics, in school and in NCAA gymnastics. She's definitely one of a kind, and I'm very proud of her.”
Every chance to compete for Wong — especially with her friends and family in the audience — is another reminder of the sacrifices others made for her to succeed.
Her father took her to gyms 45 minutes from her house six days a week when she first started gymnastics. Her brothers took off from school to watch her compete. Her mom helps make every bow selling in Wong’s online store, and she co-authored Wong’s memoir “My Journey: Trust the Process.”
For now, though, Wong is taking her gymnastics season one meet at a time.
“I'll probably just take it one day at a time and really just enjoy the season and see where it takes me for the rest of gymnastics,” she said.
Contact Liana Handler at lhandler@alligator.org. Follow her on X @handlerliana
