Olympic gold medalist Jordyn Wieber was introduced as the head coach of the Arkansas Women’s Gymnastics program on Wednesday, April 24, 2019, by Vice Chancellor and Director of Athletics Hunter Yurachek.
During her fourth season in 2023, Wieber guided the Gymbacks to their 19th consecutive regional appearance. The team set a new regional team score record of 197.275, and a new regional floor record of 49.500. The team finished the year ranked 17th in the country, maintaining the program’s 18-year streak in the top 20.
Graduate transfer Norah Flatley and freshman Lauren Williams both earned berths to the NCAA Championships as individuals, extending Wieber’s unblemished national appearance streak in each eligible year. Flatley earned her fourth All-American honor at the event on balance beam with a score of 9.9375, which is the best-ever score by a Gymback as an individual beam qualifier.
Arkansas’ 196.825 at SEC Championships in 2023 is a new program best, and the Hogs also earned SEC highs on vault (49.425) and bars (49.175). Five Gymbacks earned All-SEC or All-SEC Freshman honors at the meet: Norah Flatley (VT, FX, AA), Lauren Williams (VT, FX), Reese Drotar (UB), Frankie Price (VT) and Cami Weaver (VT), which is the most since 2018 and second-most ever for Arkansas.
The Gymbacks also broke several records and hit new milestones in the regular season, with a new program score record of 197.475 against LSU on Jan. 27, a new program vault record of 49.525 against Kentucky on Feb. 17, and a new program beam record of 49.525 against Missouri on Feb. 24. Arkansas posted five scores above 197 for the second time in program history in the 2023 slate, the first in 2021, also under Wieber.
The Gymbacks continued to grow their fanbase with new single meet (11,031), home single season (36,619), and average attendance (7,324) records in 2023, the latter two ranking sixth and seventh in the country. Arkansas also sold out Barnhill Arena for the first time in program history on Jan. 27, when 7,147 fans were in the building to watch the Hogs take down the LSU Tigers.
Wieber has coached three regular-season All-Americans in Sophia Carter (2020), Maggie O’Hara (2021) and Kennedy Hambrick (2020, 2021). Hambrick became the new all-around score record holder (39.750) during the 2021 season, a record that had gone unbroken for seven years prior. Under her guidance in and out of the gym, the Gymbacks were awarded the Arkansas Athletics Lee Spencer Cup for the first time ever in 2022, which is awarded to the team that earns the most points in the areas of personal and career development, community engagement, and academic and athletic excellence. Arkansas also saw its first SEC Scholar-Athlete of the Year in 10 years in 2022 with Bailey Lovett.
The Gymbacks earned their first-ever spot in the SEC night session in 2021 and advanced to the NCAA regional final after scoring a post-season program best 197.250 on day one. In total, Arkansas registered fives scores of 197.000 or better in 2021 for the first time in program history.
In 2020, the Gymbacks ranked as high as fourth in the nation on floor and finished the season ninth in the nation. It was against No. 13 Kentucky on Jan. 24 that Arkansas scored a 49.525 on the floor, the second-highest event total in program history. Headed into 2022, Arkansas is holding onto the thirdlongest active streak for meets with a score of 49.000 or higher, coming in with 32 straight meets, behind Alabama (33) and Florida (35).I n Wieber’s first year, Arkansas scored a 49.00 or higher in 14 of 16 events over the course of four home meets, nearly 90 percent of all events.
The Razorbacks’ success on the floor helped them lock in back-to-back SEC wins against No. 20 Missouri and No. 10 Georgia mid-way through the season. The consecutive wins marked the first time since 2017 that Arkansas won two-straight conference meets and consecutive meets against a ranked opponent.
Arkansas saw six Gymbacks wrap up the 2020 season ranked in the top 100 by Road to Nationals in at least one event, with four Hogs finishing with multiple top 100 rankings. With Wieber’s lead, Arkansas won 27 event titles through 10 meets. Hambrick finished the season with the most individual titles among the Gymbacks, securing 11 event titles including a team-high four all-around titles.
The first home meet of the Wieber era was held on Jan. 17 against No. 3 Denver, bringing a then-record crowd of 6,714 fans to Barnhill Arena. On Feb. 21, Coach Wieber and her Arkansas squad hosted Auburn for a Women’s Empowerment Meet, the first of its kind in NCAA gymnastics and now an annual tradition for the Gymbacks.
Wieber wrapped up her third season as a volunteer assistant coach at UCLA and her sixth with the program in 2019, assisting the team in a variety of roles during her first three years in Westwood following her Olympic career. Wieber coached the Bruins on floor exercise, an event in which UCLA finished the 2018 and 2019 regular seasons ranked No. 1 in the nation. In 2019, the Bruins recorded scores of 49.5 or better in 11 of 14 meets, averaging a national-best 49.604 on floor. UCLA hit a season-high 49.825 on March 16, which ranks No. 3 all-time in school history, behind five scores of 9.925 or better in that meet, including two perfect 10s. The floor squad also posted marks of 49.775 (March 23) and 49.750 (Feb. 16) over the course of the year, as four Bruins earned regular season All-America honors in the event – Katelyn Ohashi, Kyla Ross, Gracie Kramer and Felicia Hano. At the NCAA Championships on April 19-20, Wieber coached Ross to the individual floor title with a score of 9.950, the program’s second in as many years after Ohashi took home the crown in 2018. After winning their semifinal session with a 197.650 (49.6125 in the floor), UCLA finished third overall in the finals.
The 2018 Bruins scored 49.4 or higher in 11 meets and 49.6 or higher in three meets, including a national season-high of 49.775 set Feb. 25. She and her fellow UCLA coaches were named the 2018 West Region Assistant Coaches of the Year, as they helped lead the Bruins to Pac-12, NCAA regional and NCAA national titles.
Wieber, who has been a vocal advocate for safe sport, has won many awards in the past several years, including the Arthur Ashe Courage Award at the ESPYs, the Rising Star Award by the Los Angeles Business Journal, and the Giant Steps A Hero Among Us Award.
A member of the “Fierce Five” United States squad that won team gold at the 2012 Olympics, Wieber was a two-time U.S. all-around champion (2011 and 2012) and the 2011 World all-around champion. Her illustrious elite career included three medals (all-around and team gold, beam bronze) at the 2011 World Championships, four U.S. senior national titles (all-around, bars and floor in 2011 and all-around in 2012). She was also the 2008 U.S. junior all-around, vault and floor exercise champion and the American Cup all-around champion in 2009, 2011 and 2012. She dominated the competition at the 2010 Pacific Rim Championships, winning four gold medals (all-around, uneven bars, floor exercise, team) and one silver (vault). In her first international competition at the 2007 Junior Pan American Championships, she won gold medals on uneven bars and balance beam, silver in the all-around and bronze on floor exercise. Wieber officially retired from competitive gymnastics in 2015.
Wieber, from DeWitt, Mich., graduated from UCLA in 2017 with a degree in Psychology. She was a 2016 inductee into the Greater Lansing Sports Hall of Fame, a 2021 Michigan Sports Hall of Fame Inductee and is also a member of the USA Gymnastics Hall of Fame.
