Fisk University in Nashville, Tennessee, has announced that it will debut a women’s gymnastics team during the 2022-23 academic year. Fisk will be the first historically Black college or university to have a women’s gymnastics team.
In a statement, the university said that “in recent years, the university has focused on increasing its athletic profile considering the growing interest among student-athletes for an elite HBCU experience. Student-athletes depend on an institution that enables them to translate their unique skills to professional success.”
The university has already begun securing scholarship funding for these future student-athletes in gymnastics. Fisk also plans to host several conferences, clinics, and invitationals in partnership with organizations like Brown Girls do Gymnastics.
Over the past decade, the percentage of African Americans in women’s gymnastics at the NCAA Division I level has increased from 7 percent to 10 percent. The remarkable success of African American gymnast Simone Biles, the winner of seven Olympic medals, will undoubtedly be a catalyst for increasing the presence of African Americans in the sport.
Let’s be honest for a moment. Vann Newkirk and Larry Glover should be duly ashamed for expending finite resources, time, and material resources for a women’s gymnastics team. Do these higher education buffoons know they amount of space and expensive equipment needed to adequately support a gymnastics team?
What Vann and Larry need to do is refocus on their current sub-par athletic teams first and foremost. Case in point, the athletic websites for Fisk University is sub-par, grainy looking, and has sparse information. Somebody need to seriously revisit that decision ASAP.