Charlie Larson: Paving His Own Way

An Unconventional Beginning  

Charlie Larson of Team USA caught the world by storm with his dynamic and difficult tumblings passes on floor exercise, combined with picture perfect form. In 2025, the Michigan junior helped the Wolverines win their first NCAA National Title since 2014. However, his path to that title was unique and had its own set of challenges. Larson began his gymnastics career at age 6 in tumbling and trampoline…. a completely different gymnastics discipline. Larson found major success in his previous discipline. He was a member of the U.S. National Team, and even competed at the World Championships. However, the desire to chase collegiate and Olympic dreams was only possible if he made the switch to artistic gymnastics. 

 “I would watch the Olympics and envision myself doing artistic gymnastics at the Olympics and not tramp and tumbling,” Larson said. “It wasn’t until I was in high school that I realized that I actually really liked artistic and it’s something I wanted to try. And I felt like my gymnastics was capable of being artistic.”

Larson began to make the transition to artistic gymnastics during his sophomore year of high school. The switch was not easy. The gym he was training in did not have a men’s team past level four, and he could not find proper coaches. His trampoline and tumbling coach elected to coach him in both disciplines while he was in high school.  

“I did my whole first season completely by myself, with my coach, who also had no idea what was going on,” Larson said with a laugh. “There were so many meets. Every single meet, I would get some type of deduction for not having something or doing something wrong, like, every single meet because we just didn’t even know. We knew the rules, but there were so many rules that we didn’t know. The whole first year was crazy. It was crazy that I made it to Nationals my first year. I don’t know how I did that.”

Larson spent his childhood and teenage years training with some of the greatest female gymnasts in the United States and the world. During his senior year of high school, he switched training location to Twin City Twisters, and trained alongside Olympic team silver medalist and World Champion, Grace McCallum, as well as U.S. National Team members, Lexi Zeiss and Elle Mueller. This group of women helped motivate Larson in the gym, and helped him fall in love with women’s gymnastics. 

As a child, Larson trained with a gymnastics icon before she was a legendary athlete, 2020 Olympic All-Around Champion Sunisa Lee. Larson and Lee are the same age, and were on similar skill levels. Lee immediately pushed him in the gym. If she gained a new skill, then Larson knew it was time for him to achieve the same skill. 

“I would tell my parents oh my god, Suni got a double layout. I need to get a double layout and then I would get a double layout the next week,” Larson said. “She definitely pushed me to get all these new skills. She was such a big inspiration for me since I was 6.”

Minnesota >>> Michigan 

Larson understood the risk of  switching to artistic gymnastics so late into his career. Competing in gymnastics collegiately was a major motivation behind the switch. This risk paid off. Larson joined the Minnesota men’s gymnastics team and was immediately a star on floor exercise. Competing for the Gophers was a dream come true for multiple reasons, not only did he have the opportunity to compete in the sport he loved, he also was able to compete as himself. The team is encouraged by head coach Mike Burns to be themselves and have freedom in their gymnastics. 

“Mike Burns was very open to letting us do whatever we want,” Larson said. “They definitely helped me with that, in just creating and finding myself within gymnastics.” 

The Minnesota men’s gymnastics team is a part of the GymACT program, a division of college gymnastics that is unaffiliated with the NCAA and not funded by the schools. Larson was perfectly content in competing in this division, and was finding joy in and out of the gym. He was also the GymACT National Champion on floor and with the Gophers. However, hardships occurred when the team’s gym was shut down. There were no gyms near campus for the team to train at, forcing Larson to drive three hours a day just to Twin City Twisters, to his strength and conditioning coach, and finally back to school.

“I would drive 30 minutes to strength and condition, back to school, another 45 minutes to Twin City Twisters, back to school. After a while I was like, this is really unattainable. I can’t keep driving three hours a day being a college student, it was really hard,” Larson said. 

These difficulties left a gymnast as talented as Larson at a crossroads. Larson did not have plans to transfer schools, until he was encouraged by a friend to put his name in the transfer portal and see what happens. To Larson’s surprise, multiple coaches began reaching out to him the day after he entered the portal to come visit their schools. 

“This was in August a few weeks before school started,” Larson said. “I even had a college ask if I could start in three weeks. I was really overwhelmed. I was freaking out because they wanted to fly me out the next day to get me on the team. I just didn’t expect it, because in high school nobody wanted me, and then all of a sudden every college was asking.”

Larson began quickly taking official visits to multiple schools, including Michigan. Originally, Michigan had offered him a spot to begin competing in the 2026 season. However, in the fall of 2024, a spot for the 2025 season opened forcing Larson to make another life changing decision. Initially Larson turned down the offer. He wanted to finish his last season at Minnesota and arrive in Michigan in the fall of 2025. In his head he continued to replay something that Michigan Head Coach Yuan Xiao said to him, “I think with you, we will win the National Championship. Without you, I don’t think we will.” 

This stuck with Larson and ultimately gave him the courage to take the chance with Michigan. Xiao’s intuition was correct, the squad would go on to win the National title by one tenth, Larson’s floor routine was ultimately the missing piece of the puzzle. Larson chose Michigan because of the culture he felt on his official visit. Teammates Landen Blixt and Eli Osuna are major factors to what makes the culture special. 

“Those two I’m always turning to at practice,” Larson said. “We plan all of our events together.. They’re definitely my best friends. We get along really well outside of the gym, we’re always hanging out.”

His Own Path

Larson has always been known for paving his own way throughout his career. His bright and humorous personality shines through on his mic’d up videos on social media that he creates with former Minnesota teammates, Jude Norris and Ben Letvin. The trio have gone viral for the content they create together. The ideas started while recording themselves in training. Norris would then edit the content and the group eventually started making regular videos together. 

“Everything was always unplanned, and we just went into practice and put on the mics and recorded a video,” Larson said. There were always hours and hours that we would have to cut down. It was so fun making videos because they’re so genuine. We didn’t plan any bits. It was genuinely how we are at practice and they were such a big part of my breakout year in artistic because they made the gym so fun. It didn’t even feel like I was training at that point. It felt like I was just hanging out with my friends, and we were doing some flips. I give them a lot of credit for why I did so well that first year in Minnesota, because I liked being in the gym again.”

Larson is known for his unique ability to perform extremely difficult skills on balance beam, and dance elements on floor. As for his beam skill set? He has a separate college routine and Elite beam routine. Larson plays around with beam skills on Tuesdays and Thursdays which are his days off from training vault and floor. 

“I know some people argue that it’s not helpful, and it’s just more strain on your body,” Larson said. “I actually don’t think so, because you have to be quick. I think it helps my other events, especially floor, a lot like staying straight, staying straight on the vault table. “I’ve seen payoff, and it’s also good leg strength and ankle strength.”

The new men’s Code of Points is encouraging athletes to bring in different dance elements and creativity on floor exercise. Larson is looking forward to implementing different leaps and turns into his routine. 

“My plan this year is, like every meet, I want to change my artistry somehow, because I do think it can get boring doing the same thing over and over and over again,” 

The skills include a switch leap, an aerial, a wolf turn and more. Another change he would love to bring to men’s college gymnastics is bringing in music to go with his floor routine. Not necessarily a choreographed floor routine, but music similar to how women have music behind their beam routines. 

 “Not necessarily choreographed too, but either a remixed song or just one song that kind of aligns with my passes, that just plays, because that can be fun. It’s not like anything choreographed. It’s just like when I salute, like this song plays.”

Big Dream, Big Goals 

Entering Michigan, Larson had no expectations, he was simply there to enjoy the experience and adjust to being in a new environment. Winning a National team title was not on his mind. The success in 2025 shifts Larson’s eyes to even bigger success in 2026. In the offseason he worked hard to implement major vault and floor upgrades. He would like to add a Yurchenko triple twist or a Yurchenko double pike on vault, and is working on a half on double twist off. On floor he is planning to add more forward tumbling. He hopes to continue to add more upgrades in the leadup to the 2028 Olympics. As he prepares for Winter Cup in late February his goal is to make the U.S. National Team for the first time. As for gymnastics post 2028….. Never say never. 

 “I really like gymnastics, for fun,” Larson said. “I don’t think I’ll ever stop doing gymnastics,as exercise or for fun. I just might tone down competing a little bit. But the timeline is, push till 2028 and then decide, decide what I want to do from there.”

No matter what the future holds, Larson’s success in the sports thus far is extremely inspirational, and shows Larson that everything happens for a reason.

  “When we won [NCAA Nationals] I was just instantly balling, because it was just a feeling of it all paid off,” Larson said. “Everything I went through my whole childhood, everything I went through with transferring, because I was so scared with transferring, it just felt like this was like I was exactly where I needed to be. This is exactly what’s supposed to be happening, this is exactly what was meant for me, and I’ve never felt like that. It was just like overwhelming emotion.”

Larson exudes joy in every aspect of his gymnastics. Watching him achieve his biggest dreams has brought joy to all gymnastic fans. He brings an unmatched level of art to his floor routine that captivates the audience. Catch Larson’s spectacular gymnastics every week throughout the 2026 season.

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