From anchor weights under the podium and lightning-fast equipment changes, discover the unseen details that bring the Xfinity U.S. Gymnastics Championships to life.
By Sarah Firth, USAG Creator Program
When a USA Gymnastics competition is happening live, the focus remains squarely on the athletes, both inside the venue and on television broadcasts and livestreams. The broadcast highlights the competitors and each event, never lingering on volunteers adjusting equipment or on crews handling behind-the-scenes logistics. Though their work is essential, it remains hidden.
With domestic elite competition concluded for the year, this story shifts the spotlight to them.
The team behind the equipment
The first challenge for any major USA Gymnastics event? Getting the equipment to the arena – and that’s no easy feat. Mat Goldsmith, an equipment manager from Spieth America, offered insight into the complexity of that process. During peak season, the equipment used at major USA Gymnastics competitions remains packed in a trailer and travels from meet to meet across the country. Last year, just two hours from the USA Gymnastics Championships in Minneapolis, a trailer carrying essential gear blew a tire. Goldsmith sprang into action to ensure the equipment would make it to the competition.
“I said [to the T-shirt distributor], ‘Hey, I need to steal your box truck,’ and drove the two hours to this truck stop where this guy was wrecked,” said Goldsmith. “Me and four other people unloaded one floor into that box truck, drove that back, and then we waited for another truck to show up to unload the other floor.”
Weather can also affect the equipment – especially when it is moved from the cold of northern winters to the warmth inside an arena.
“Velcro and foam actually will shrink and grow in extreme temperatures. The [equipment] will stay in the truck, shrink up, and then we’ll lay it out in the venue and it’ll look great – lay down nicely,” said Goldsmith. “After it sits in that temperature overnight, we’ll come back in the morning and all the Velcro will have shrunk up again. It’ll look like we did a really bad job putting the Velcro down, even though it looked great the day before.”
At the 2025 Xfinity U.S. Gymnastics Championships this summer in New Orleans, podium training was the most stressful moment for the equipment team because of the limited time to switch apparatus between men’s and women’s training. The still rings and pommel horse share the podium that holds the balance beam, while the horizontal bar and uneven bars also share a podium.
“We have 30 minutes to get all the men’s apparatus down and all the women’s back up…. I need to make sure the bars are at the right setting and the right height and everything,” Goldsmith said. “And, sometimes the men’s athletes don’t leave right away and the women try to get up there early, so it really limits most of the time.”
It could be worse. Floor manager Mike Buckley, a 17-year veteran event contractor with USA Gymnastics, remembers the logistical challenge of events like the American Cup, where men’s and women’s competitions took place concurrently and necessitated mid-event apparatus transitions.
“We would do rings here, but they would be broadcasting [uneven] bars way over there. So, we would have to be as quiet as possible and ripping Velcro off is not quiet,” said Buckley. “And while the people watching on TV couldn’t see anything, anybody sitting in the arena would see us taking the ring tower down while the athletes compete on bars or vice versa.”
Another unseen component of setup at an event are weights, which are secured beneath each podium to stabilize it and prevent tipping. Each weight has a designated spot beneath its podium, where it is always placed. Two weights hang directly under the ring tower and pommel horse and stay in place when the podium is swapped for the balance beam. Although the balance beam isn’t strapped down, the two weights provide the podium with sufficient stability. Similarly, a heavy weight anchors the podium right below high bar and uneven bars, crucial for resisting the torque from athletes’ dynamic moves. The vault table too is anchored directly above a weight. The podium that holds the floor exercise requires none, and likewise the parallel bars have no weights underneath but are securely strapped to their podium to prevent movement.
Ensuring the equipment is level is crucial once the everything is set up. Arena floors aren’t always perfectly flat, so even well-assembled podiums can be slightly uneven. For elite athletes, even minuscule differences—especially on beam—can affect performance. To correct this, shims, or wooden planks, are placed under the beam as necessary, which is then checked with a level to ensure it’s perfectly flat.
“As of late, our women’s High Performance Leaders Chellsie [Memmel] and Alicia [Sacramone-Quinn] will usually be up there with us when we level it so they can ensure it’s correct,’” Goldsmith joked. “In ‘23 when I was in Belgium [for the Artistic World Championships], I would take a selfie with the level every day we put the beam up and text it to Chellsie.”
If anything goes wrong with the equipment during competition, Goldsmith is on hand to fix it. For more serious issues, a full backup set is kept at the practice gym, which in New Orleans was located at the Ernest N. Morial Convention Center, where the USA Gymnastics National Congress was held.
Managing the floor
With the equipment properly set up and leveled, attention shifts to the crucial role of floor managers and the sophisticated video system that supports communication and judging throughout the competition.
“We’re connected up to everybody on the field of play,” floor manager Mike Buckley said. “If a judge needs something, we can talk to them and inform them of any issues. If a coach wants to inquire about a score, they only have so many seconds to do it. So, they’ll run over and say ‘Mike, tell them I’m going to [protest] the floor score,’ in my case, and we let the competition director know.”
In addition to the equipment and logistics, there are more than 28 cameras on the field of play, capturing every angle of the competition. NBC uses its own cameras for broadcasting, while USA Gymnastics cameras record every routine for archival purposes, streaming and potential inquiries. Judges may review video only when an official inquiry is filed.
There also is a special camera hidden in the spring underneath the vault table that is used specifically to determine whether a gymnast landed inside or outside the lines in case of an inquiry. USAG 3D printed a unique holder to ensure the camera was pointed at exactly the right angle to see both the mat and gymnasts’ feet.
For broadcasting, NBC places microphones on each apparatus to capture sound. One is wired inside the pommel horse to pick up the noise of hands on leather; another goes on the ring tower upright; and there is a set on each side of the vault. The floor is mic’d to catch tumbling sounds over the music. Women’s uneven bars have microphones on both bars, while men’s high bar has one similarly placed. Parallel bars feature four microphones near the orange handles, positioned low to allow equipment adjustment.
Making sure everything runs smoothly on the competition floor requires no small number of people.
“I only have six guys on my team, basically, but a lot of times we get up to 20-30 volunteers,” said Buckley. “We also get people from each venue to help us out, so from setup to breakdown, there could easily be 30-40 people.”
While the athletes perform under the bright lights, it’s the invisible efforts of the support crew, from equipment managers to floor coordinators, that truly make each event possible. Every gymnastics competition is a testament not only to the athletes’ talent but also to the dedication of the behind-the-scenes teams who manage the complex duties and communication essential to the sport.