SCORECARDdefinitely more electronic music
getting put into elite gymnastics
floor routines, but nothing
compares to college floor when
it’s done correctly and done well,”
Frazier says. “It’s like you’re going
to a concert.”
And gymnasts are just tapping
into popular music. Florida starTrinity Thomas has a routine built
around music from the Netf lix
show Squid Game. Michigan’s
Gabby Wilson performs to a mix
of the Fresh Prince and Everybody
Hates Chris theme songs.
Cami Weaver of Arkansas uses
music from Tr o l l s. And Minnesota’sLexy Ramler, the NCAA all-around
runner-up in 2019, borrows from
the Fast and Furious franchise.
It’s tough to pinpoint exactly
when collegiate f loor routines
started to veer away from
classical instrumental pieces.
Jeremy Miranda, Florida’s
choreographer, says the trend
of selecting more mainstream
music seemed to coincide with
growing fan bases and “big TV
networks start[ing] to pick up
gymnastics.” (In 2022, ABC will
air regular-season gymnastics
meets for the first time.) Michigan
coach Bev Plocki points to recent
social justice movements like
#MeToo as forces that empowered
athletes to “use their voices” when
constructing their routines.
UCLA’s Dennis did exactly that
last season through a routine that
celebrated Black culture and was
inspired by the Black Lives Matter
movement, and gymnasts like
Mya Hooten are following her
lead in 2022.
Hooten, a sophomore at
Minnesota who scored the program’s
first perfect 10 on floor last season,
is using Beyoncé’s “Freedom” for her
music and says she wants to “shout
out the little girls who look like me. I
want them to not be afraid to just do
their thing and not to hold back.”
Using songs or dance moves that
are widely recognizable can result
in videos of the gymnasts’ routines
going viral, but Frazier says that isn’t
a motivating factor. Especially this
season, when she wants her voguing
routine “to be seen more as an art
form than just a floor routine” that
conveys her respect and admiration
for the ballroom culture.
“I have a goal of being respected
in the sport, being an icon and
making a legacy for myself. That’s
so much better than being viral,”
Frazier says. “That’s forever.”20 SPORTS ILLUSTRATED | SI.COM
WITH BETTORS
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NEW YORK has had in-person
sports betting since 2019,
though per the Action Network,
the state has generated a
meager $3.7 million in tax
revenue at its four commercial
books, all of which are at least
an hour from New York City.
A better alternative was to
take a much shorter trip: into
New Jersey, where online betting
is legal, turning a pizza joint just
over the George Washington
Bridge into a makeshift betting
parlor on football Sundays
(SI, September 2021).
That finally changed in mid-
January, when the NewYork
Gaming Commission allowed
four online books to begin
taking bets, with five more
to join later. State Senator
Joseph P. Addabbo Jr. told
SI that revenue generated from
online betting will be allocated,
in part, to educational funding
and gambling awareness.
And the revenue should be
substantial: A study found that
in 2019, New York residents
wagered $837 million in
New Jersey. “We’re usually out
front,” Addabbo said, “but here
we have been that wobbly car
in the right lane and all these
other fast cars, like Jersey and
Pennsylvania, are whizzing
right by us.” —Ben PickmanSTRIKE A POSE
Frazier looked to the Harlem
ballroom scene and drag
culture to formulate her new
vogue-heavy performance.KA
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