VANESSA ATLER TOSSES a Reese’s peanut butter cup into the air, throws a tumbling go atop a stability beam, catches the cup with one hand and takes a chew. “There is not any fallacious option to eat a Reese’s,” the 1999 advert says. Its underlying message: This woman goes to the Sydney Olympics subsequent summer time. You noticed her right here first.

Probably the most fashionable faces of USA Gymnastics on the time, Atler, then 17, signed with an agent, landed just a few offers and banked some money. The 1997 nationwide champion imagined making the staff and signing post-Olympic offers like Mary Lou Retton and members of 1996’s Magnificent Seven. “We thought, ‘I am in a very good place proper now,” Atler, now 40, says. “No means I am not going to make the Olympics. And I will make a lot cash afterward that I will be capable to pay to go to varsity.'”

That is not how her story performed out.

Atler was controversially left off the 2000 Olympic staff and her incomes potential went the best way of her Olympic desires. A number of of her contracts, she says, required she be named to the staff to pay out. As a result of Atler profited from her sport, she’d misplaced her novice standing and could not settle for an NCAA scholarship. (She deliberate to attend UCLA.) She watched from house as her friends who retained their novice standing competed for school packages on the rise. Atler’s story grew to become a cautionary story.

“That was the second it hit me,” she says. “I did not know something aside from gymnastics and when it was gone, I regretted my resolution [to turn pro]. I by no means thought the [amateurism] rule would change.”

Then, seemingly in a single day, it did. In July 2021, on the heels of a unanimous Supreme Court docket resolution, the NCAA modified its guidelines to permit athletes to revenue off their title, picture and likeness — to signal offers with Hershey’s, for instance — and retain their novice standing. Earlier than then, elite gymnasts — those that competed for the nationwide staff and within the Olympics — had two choices: settle for cash on the peak of their careers and forego competing in school or keep their novice (unpaid) standing and signal with an NCAA staff.

However now, gymnasts now not have to decide on. From reigning Olympic all-around champion Suni Lee to Louisiana State College social media star Olivia Dunne, they’ll compete in school and revenue like their friends who turned professional up to now. Within the 18 months for the reason that NCAA modified its coverage, NIL has supplied gymnasts at each degree of the game with extra choices, modified recruiting and blurred the strains between school and elite.

Now, elites can change their minds

Konnor McClain did not suppose she needed to compete in school. Very like Atler, the 2022 U.S. senior nationwide all-around champion was targeted solely on the Olympics. “All people turns professional after the Olympics,” McClain, 17, says. “So, I used to be like, ‘I do not need to compete in school as a substitute of creating all the cash I might as an Olympic champion.'”

In contrast to her siblings, who noticed school as a pipeline to the professionals and a method to increase their softball, baseball and soccer careers, McClain felt school was a roadblock. However after NIL handed, school coaches got here knocking with scholarship presents that weren’t contingent on turning down sponsorship offers. “I used to be like, ‘Oh, perhaps I do need to go to varsity,'” McClain says. In August 2021, lower than two months after the NCAA accepted NIL, she dedicated to LSU.

McClain is a part of the primary technology of elites who do not need to make the life-changing and unalterable resolution of whether or not to show professional. She additionally has the liberty to alter her thoughts. “That is the most effective factor about NIL,” Atler says. “It is giving the ability again to the athletes.”

At first, McClain’s older sister, Olivia, a softball participant at Niagara College in New York, suggested her on contracts. However she just lately signed with an agent, inked a handful of small offers and is working to construct her social media following, which skyrocketed after she received nationals in August. She’s constructing her model now so she will capitalize sooner or later, as an Olympian or an NCAA star.

McClain plans to defer her freshman 12 months till after the 2024 Video games to concentrate on her elite profession. And after watching Olympians Jade Carey (Oregon State) and Jordan Chiles (UCLA) efficiently juggle school and elite gymnastics, she’s even contemplating making a run on the 2028 Video games whereas competing for the Tigers.

“There’s so many selections I might make within the subsequent few years,” McClain says.

Collegiate gymnastics has soared in reputation lately. Final April’s NCAA championships was the most-watched school gymnastics meet on ESPN networks in historical past. In November, Auburn introduced its season tickets had offered out for the second 12 months in a row (and solely the second time ever). A month later, single-meet, standing room solely tickets went on sale and likewise offered out.

All that pleasure makes NCAA gymnastics — and its Olympians — extra enticing to sponsors. Competing in school retains gymnasts like Lee, Carey and Chiles within the media and in entrance of followers in non-Olympic years. “As a result of Suni can compete yearly, her viewers and connection will proceed to develop,” says Kamal Bhandal, vp of world shopper and model advertising for Invisalign, which partnered with Lee final 12 months. “For us, it is concerning the skill for an athlete’s story to remain alive within the market in an ongoing foundation.”

These athletes may bounce between packages. In November, Lee, who’s in her second season with the Tigers, announced plans to leave Auburn after this season and return to the nationwide staff in hopes of creating the 2024 Olympics.

McClain says she additionally feels the influence these gymnasts are having on USA Gymnastics when she attends nationwide staff camps.

“They’re bringing the enjoyable,” she says. “We did not all the time have enjoyable like they do on NCAA groups. Elite was so severe and now it is a bit of happier. And followers who solely watched NCAA are watching elite now. NIL is bringing the 2 worlds collectively.”

Now, juniors haven’t got to decide on

Dulcy Caylor is simply too younger for school coaches to recruit. A 15-year-old freshman, she’ll earn her highschool diploma in 2026, two years after the Paris Olympics and two years earlier than the Los Angeles Video games. Her childhood dream was “being on a Wheaties field, performing some enjoyable commercials after which competing in school.”

Earlier than NIL, she and her mother and father would have had to determine which a part of her dream Caylor needed most. As a result of, like Atler earlier than her, being on a Wheaties field and “doing enjoyable commercials” would have precluded Caylor from competing for a school staff.

However with NIL, the dinner-table conversations on the Caylor home shifted, whereas her desires did not need to. “We’re grateful she does not need to make that life-altering option to be one or the opposite,” Caylor’s mother, Amy, says.

Amy has spent hours studying and researching NIL, following its ever-changing guidelines and state-specific pointers. She checks with USA Gymnastics to ensure her daughter does not jeopardize her NCAA eligibility. She learns from older gymnasts akin to College of Florida super-senior Leah Clapper, who just lately launched NIL Island, an internet useful resource for athletes and their households. When the time comes, the extent of NIL help a college presents will issue into the Caylors’ resolution. (Spoiler alert: Caylor already has her eye on the Gators.)

Some colleges, like Florida, supply NIL courses for credit score. Others supply specialists, coaching and software program packages to teach and help student-athletes and their households. And whereas NIL expanded the recruitment pool for school coaches, it additionally modified the calculus for younger gymnasts and their households in the course of the recruiting course of.

“Mother and father need to know if the athletes are being promoted extra domestically or nationally,” Gators head coach Jenny Rowland says. “They need to know what sort of offers our athletes are getting, how a lot they’re making.”

Due to the person and performative nature of gymnastics, its younger athletes are as social media savvy as any in sports activities. Many have accounts run by their mother and father and a few select to showcase their personalities exterior of gymnastics. Kristi Dosh, a sports activities enterprise and private branding skilled who teaches an NIL class at UF, says gymnasts have been notably poised to capitalize on NIL.

“Gymnastics mother and father, particularly on the highest degree, have been fascinated about this and brand-building for years, particularly if their children have been elites with out plans to compete in school,” Dosh says. “Gymnasts are likely to have massive, engaged followings. It is a sport the place athletes compete on the highest degree earlier than school. Greater than different sports activities, lots of youth athletes observe them, and they’re very engaged.”

Though Caylor has an Instagram web page with round 1,700 followers, she posts solely about gymnastics and principally about her meets. “I am camera-shy,” Caylor says. “I am not likely into social media.”

Amy Caylor says she appears to be like to former school athletes akin to Katelyn Ohashi for example of the kind of gymnast her daughter would possibly develop into. Had Ohashi competed for UCLA within the NIL period, her viral ground routines doubtless would have earned her main offers.

“Katelyn wasn’t any individual who was pushing herself on social media, making an attempt to model herself,” Amy Caylor says. “She went viral as a result of she had nice routines. Even any individual as shy as Dulcy on social media might succeed like that.”

Now, faculties can increase recruiting

“The vast majority of the previous Olympic staff is in school and nonetheless doing worldwide competitions,” Rowland says. “I get goose bumps simply pondering of it. There’s a new path being carved out by these younger girls.”

Pre-NIL, Rowland was the most effective within the nation at recruiting elite gymnasts. She and her program had a rising status for figuring out what elites wanted, mentally and bodily, after leaving the nationwide staff and for encouraging them to take possession of their careers. However her recruiting choices with elites have been restricted.

“After I first bought to Florida, I began having conversations with elites who have been deciding, ‘Am I going to go professional or am I not?’ I bear in mind getting a telephone name in the midst of the 2016 Olympics from a gymnast saying, ‘Hey, I made the dedication [to UF] however actually I’m going to go professional,'” Rowland says. “We knew there was a very good likelihood that was going to occur, and I appreciated her openness and transparency.”

That gymnast was Olympic gold medalist Laurie Hernandez. Whereas it was disappointing to lose an athlete of her caliber, Rowland knew Hernandez made the most effective name for her future. However Rowland nonetheless wonders what might have been if Hernandez had competed in the course of the NIL period. Seven members of Florida’s present roster have been nationwide staff members, together with 2017 world all-around champion Morgan Hurd, 2019 world champion Riley McCusker, 2021 world all-around bronze medalist Kayla DiCello, 2022 NCAA all-around champ Trinity Thomas and 2022 world champion Leanne Wong, who double-dipped as a Gator and nationwide staff member final season.

“USA Gymnastics and the NCAA have found out easy methods to make that work,” Rowland says. “The athletes on the nationwide staff need to attend camps each month and that is actually difficult for an NCAA athlete, particularly from January to April, when we now have meets each weekend.” USAG, Rowland says, now permits NCAA athletes to overlook nationwide staff camps, supplied they’re coaching with their faculty. “Three athletes went during this previous NCAA season and made the world championship staff,” Rowland says. “They confirmed it is potential, however it’s difficult.”

Together with their fan bases, elite gymnasts have introduced upgraded expertise to NCAA gymnastics. Final February, Lee grew to become the primary NCAA gymnast to carry out a Nabieva — a launch transfer with the very best issue ranking in elite gymnastics — on bars. However Rowland says whereas she will see the NCAA making a modification to its code of factors to encourage gymnasts to try harder expertise, she does not see the game transferring too far within the course of elite gymnastics.

NCAA gymnastics nonetheless judges on a 10-point scale, which favors flawlessness however does not reward athletes for trying elite-level expertise. Elite gymnastics makes use of an open-ended scoring system that values issue and leads to scores akin to 16.9 and 15.8, which might appear arbitrary to the informal fan.

“Once we discuss elites, we’re speaking a couple of slight share of the extremely aggressive athletes we now have within the U.S.,” Rowland says. “If something, I feel [elite gymnastics] goes to come back again to the ten. Persons are gravitating to NCAA gymnastics as a result of they know what an ideal 10 is.”

Now, collegiate gymnasts have extra alternatives

NIL or not, there’s little doubt Lee, Chiles and Carey would have signed offers after Tokyo. However Olympians make up .00001 p.c of all gymnasts, so NIL is not nearly them.

“NIL offers aren’t all primarily based on an athlete’s skill as a gymnast,” Dosh says. “For some, it is primarily based on her following and elements of her life and her private model exterior of sport.”

Take Olivia “Livvy” Dunne, a junior at LSU. Dunne is a former nationwide staff member and uneven bars specialist, however she is not an Olympian and is not the highest gymnast on her school squad. She started constructing her social media following across the age of 10, after which, as a freshman in 2020, began making TikTok movies in the course of the pandemic to entertain herself and her followers.

Dunne — who in the present day has 2.9 million followers on Instagram and 6.7 million on TikTok — was uniquely positioned to capitalize on NIL. She has signed a reported $2.7 million in model offers up to now 12 months and a half and, in accordance with most metrics, is the most well-liked lady athlete in school sports activities.

“For girls’s athletics, there’s not lots of skilled leagues after school,” Dunne says. “So being a girl and being on the forefront of this NIL stuff means the world to me.”

Residence-schooled since seventh grade, Dunne was capable of concentrate on gymnastics and slot in her research within the evenings and on weekends. However since returning to in-person class at LSU final 12 months, she has needed to be taught to run a enterprise whereas juggling her research, practices and meets.

“It is lots of work,” Dunne says. “It is all about balancing after I could make the adverts. I follow, I’ve faculty and now work is thrown in. I carve out sure instances of the day the place I make time to [create content]. I’ve realized loads about time administration.”

She’s additionally studying what kind of content material will increase her following and attracts new companions. “It is vital to make my adverts entertaining to my viewers,” Dunne says. “My model is gymnastics, athletics, way of life. And I attempt to cater to women and boys. Proper now, the boys are outweighing the ladies due to TikTok. However gymnastics is so vital to me. I’ve an enormous following of ladies from that, so to be a very good instance to them is essential.”

With massive manufacturers selling her in campaigns and fixed media protection, Dunne has develop into a star the likes of which NCAA sports activities has not often seen. At LSU’s sold-out season opener on the College of Utah in early January, tons of of followers — most of them teenage boys — disrupted the meet by screaming loudly for Dunne, who was out of the lineup due to harm.

That kind of consideration may very well be disruptive to not solely her teammates’ beam routines, however the staff dynamic. Dunne says she works onerous to maintain her work life out of the gymnasium. “Once we’re within the locker room, no person talks about model offers,” she says. “No person’s speaking about cash. We’re simply speaking about regular school child stuff. And each time I do a private model deal, I need to get one thing for my complete staff. Final 12 months after I signed with Vuori, I gifted them leggings, sports activities bras and stuff.”

Dunne says she takes her time earlier than signing with manufacturers and, when potential, reaches long-term offers that permit her to create relationships that might final past her gymnastics profession. NIL has proven Dunne and Clapper, who graduated with a level in promoting and is working towards a grasp’s in entrepreneurship at UF, that they’ll run profitable companies.

Clapper realized she had a knack for collaborating with manufacturers and creating campaigns that spoke to her group. She used her following to land model offers, launched NIL Island and based a direct-to-consumer firm and e-commerce web site the place she sells a gymnastics board recreation she created. “One of many largest issues that has come out of NIL for me is realizing I am already an entrepreneur,” Clapper says. “It is affected my profession targets.”

It has additionally affected her each day life within the gymnasium.

“At Florida, we had this basket we needed to put our cellphones into throughout follow,” Clapper says. “You could not contact it. However since NIL, we’re allowed to make vlogs about our bars routines and the coaches are tremendous with us pulling out our telephones within the gymnasium, which I am grateful for. They’ll see how a lot NIL is altering our lives.”