Two Olympians and a number of U.S. and world champions are in Tulsa to compete at the 2026 USA Gymnastics Championship, running Thursday, June 26 through Saturday, June 27 at the BOK Center and Arvest Convention Center.
Among the competitors is Kayden Brown, a 10-time world championship medalist and six-time defending U.S. tumbling champion.
Brown joined News on 6 at 4 p.m. to share more about the competiton.
Q: How big is this competition in the world of competitive gymnastics?
Brown said the event is one of the most significant meets on the calendar.
“This is really big,” he said. “It’s three basically disciplines combined into one — rhythmic gymnastics, acrobatic gymnastics, and trampoline and tumbling, which is what I do. This is our national championships. It’s our biggest domestic meet of the year, and this is where the national team as well as the world championships team will be named.”
Q: How long have you personally been doing this?
Brown is competing in his 14th national championship, a milestone he said reflects a journey that started far from the gym.
“I used to do baseball and taekwondo,” he said. “I was flipping all over the dojo, all over the field, over the house, and they were like, ‘We got to put him in the gym.’ And I was like, ‘Absolutely not. This is a girl’s sport. I would never do it.’ They finally convinced me, and I decided to try it and fell in love with the sport. It’s brought me to where I am today.”
Q: For somebody that’s never attended an event like this, what can they expect to see?
For those unfamiliar with the event, Brown said it looks nothing like the gymnastics most fans see during the Olympics.
“This is very different than your typical artistic gymnastics, like what Simone Biles does,” he said. “Trampoline and tumbling is more fast-paced. Trampoline is more elegant and slow — trampoline is in the Olympics, tumbling is not. We have rhythmic gymnastics, which is more elegant, a ball and hoop discipline. And then acrobatic gymnastics, which is basically an introduction to what you’d see in the circus, like Cirque du Soleil.”
Q: What’s the prep work for something like this?
With national team and world championship selections on the line, Brown said the preparation has been intense.
“Hours and hours and hours of training,” he said. “This is the biggest competition of the year. We’ve trained all season for this. This is our last selection meet for the world championships team and the national team. This is kind of the big one.”
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