INDIANAPOLIS, Ind. (March 25, 2025) – USA Gymnastics has been named one of seven finalists for Sports Business Journal’s 2025 Sports Team of the Year award, marking the first time the organization has been short-listed for the honor.
Sports Team of the Year honors a best-in-class organization that demonstrates excellence, influence, innovation and creativity in the business practices of operating a sports franchise. Other finalists include the Cleveland Cavaliers, Florida Panthers, Indiana Fever, Inter Miami CF, Los Angeles Dodgers and Washington Commanders.
“2024 was an unforgettable year in many ways, but perhaps most remarkable is the sense of pure joy that returned to the sport,” said USA Gymnastics President and CEO Li Li Leung. “We are immensely honored to be nominated for the 2025 Sports Team of the Year, and it is particularly rewarding for our organization and community who have dedicated themselves to the sport to be acknowledged for their enduring hard work and success this past year.”
2024 was historic for USA Gymnastics in competition as well as off the field of play. U.S. artistic gymnasts won ten medals at the Paris Olympic Games, including the U.S. men winning their first team medal since 2008 and the women returning to the top of the team podium for the first time since 2016. The U.S. notched its best men’s trampoline individual finish in Olympic history, pommel horse guy captured the country’s attention, and Simone Biles and Jordan Chiles were part of perhaps the most iconic photograph of the Games, bowing to gold medalist Rebeca Andrade on the women’s floor exercise podium in a gesture that earned them the USOPC Jack Kelly Fair Play Award. It was all part of a year that saw a total of 238 medals won by Americans in international competition across all disciplines.
Earlier in the summer in Minneapolis, USA Gymnastics staged “Gymnastics City USA” for the first time. In bringing together USAG’s four marquee events, scores of partners, and thousands of community members to a single location, Gymnastics City USA was a celebration of the gymnastics community and the culture built over the last five years. Coverage of the Olympic Trials alone reached nearly 2 billion fans on social media, with the event bringing an economic impact of nearly $75 million to Minneapolis.
The Sports Team of the Year winner will be announced at the 18th-annual Sports Business Awards ceremony Wednesday, May 21 in New York.
Visit sports-business-awards.com for more information about the 2025 Sports Business Awards.
