Everything was all good for Kyrstin Johnson and her Talladega College gymnastics teammates until it wasn’t.
“We were told there was a mandatory meeting on a Thursday at 9 a.m. on Zoom,” Johnson recalled of the university’s sudden decision to eliminate the gymnastics program, just one year into existence. “It was a shock to all of us. We had no idea that this would even happen.”
The Tornadoes gymnastics team experienced several high points during the 2023-24 season, becoming the first HBCU to win a meet.
Johnson herself won the United States Association of Gymnastics’ vault championship with a score of 9.925.
She describes the meeting as very short, with limited options for the gymnasts to return to Talladega.
“They didn’t even let us come together and say ‘we’re struggling financially, this is what we can do to save the program.’ Just ‘The program is cut, you guys have to suck it up, this is it.’”
Kyrstin and her mother Scharon, along with the rest of the team, decided they weren’t going out without a fight, so they started an ongoing crowdfunding campaign with a temporary deadline of Tuesday to raise $500,000 to save the program.
“Have you ever heard of an HBCU dismantling a program like this?” Scharon Johnson asked. “Our goal was just to start the fundraiser and put it out there.”
Relying on Kyrstin’s massive social media following, as well as that of the team, was the starting point.
Then something unusual happened.
“The school dismantled the gymnastics page, which was disheartening,” Scharon Johnson said. “Here you are, saying you support the girls and yet it seems like you’re trying to erase their existence.”
The stress is weighing heavily on each gymnast’s mind as the 2024-25 school year looms closer. Some girls will be forced to sit out a year or attempt to walk on at other gymnastics programs if the fundraiser is not successful.
Even with so many questions about the future of Talladega gymnastics, Kyrstin and Scharon Johnson have no ill feelings or regrets about their Talladega experience.
“I don’t feel like that at all,” Kyrstin said when asked if she felt the school had taken advantage of her and her teammates, who are all still very close. “I feel like this was just an unfortunate circumstance.”
Scharon Johnson added, “We just don’t like the way this is being handled.”
