DiCello Is Back! Kayla DiCello Prepares For 2026 NCAA Season!

In 2023 Kayla DiCello was the freshman star of the NCAA season. Competing for the Florida Gators, she set career-high scores of 9.95 or better on each event, including a perfect 10.0 on uneven bars. Prior to her time at Florida, DiCello was a 2021 U.S. Olympic Team alternate and 2021 World All-Around bronze medalist. Following her freshman year, she decided to take the year off from NCAA gymnastics in order to focus on competing at the 2024 Olympic Games in Paris. 

DiCello quickly found success back on the Elite stage. She was the traveling alternate to the gold medal winning World Championship team in 2023 and won the All-Around title at the 2023 Pan American Games. She carried this success into 2024 by winning the Winter Cup All-Around gold in February before winning the All-Around bronze medal at the 2024 Xfinity U.S. Championships behind Simone Biles and Skye Blakely. In June of 2024, DiCello entered the Olympic Trials as a favorite to book a ticket to Paris. Unfortunately, she tore her right Achilles on day 1 of competition on vault forcing the Paris dream to come to an end. The injury also kept her out of the 2025 NCAA season. With her right Achilles in need of surgery, DiCello decided the year off would be the best time to also have a surgery on her left Achilles, in order to return to the sport stronger than ever. 

 “It was definitely a long process, because my right Achilles was feeling really good, and that was a really easy recovery and transition,” DiCello said. “Right now my Achilles, it feels great. I have no issues with it. My left heel is still coming through the works, there is still some pain with it, but overall, I would say, I’m doing really good, and I’ve seen so much progress from when I first got the surgery up until now, which I’m really happy about.” 

Now, DiCello is ready to return to NCAA gymnastics for her second year of competition, and intends to use each of her remaining three years of eligibility. As she looks ahead, she tells us there isn’t one specific area in her recovery process that excites her the most, she has made incredible progress on every event and is overjoyed to be training all four events. 

 “Just being able to be back on all four events and train them every day like everybody else, I think that’s the biggest thing that I was most excited for, because there was a point where I felt like my body wasn’t getting any better.” 

DiCello’s love for her sport is evident each time she salutes to compete. Having an extended time away from gymnastics was the hardest part of her recovery process. 

  “It was definitely hard because of how I got hurt in the first place, and then just being back in college and watching it was hard because I wanted to participate as much as I could. I think it was also a really good learning experience for me, and an area that I could grow in just by being able to just take a step back from gymnastics and just watch, and be able to help out where I can and motivate everybody else,” she said. 

DiCello did find many positives from her recovery process, including being able to appreciate every aspect of life in and out of gym. 

 “Gymnastics is a big part of my life, but my life doesn’t revolve around gymnastics,” she said. “I was able to do more things outside of the gym that I haven’t done before.”

The Comeback 

The time away from her sport has lit a fire under DiCello, and based off social media videos, she is looking better than ever in training. On Instagram she’s shown a massive Church + Pak combination on bars and she tells us she is planning on including that in her bar routine. This would make her routine more difficult than the routine she competed during her freshman year. She is aiming to compete in the All-Around in 2026 and is proud of her progress on vault after regaining her difficult Yurchenko 1.5. 

“Vault’s going really well, DiCello said. “I started doing one and a halfs maybe two weeks ago. I’ve done them on the soft side only so far. I think I’ll start moving them over to the harder side soon. But that one actually surprised me, because one and a halfs are not my favorite skill, but it actually came back pretty good.”

While DiCello may be taking this year as a way to ease back into gymnastics, she still has big goals for 2026, including helping the Gators to SEC and NCAA team titles, and hopefully receiving a couple of perfect 10s!! Despite the time out of the competition arena, she is fully prepared to be back in the high pressure environment. 

 “I think that I will be back at home once I get back into competing,” DiCello said. “I do a lot of stuff here already to simulate the pressure. That’s something that’s really helpful. But also, I’ve always loved the pressure when competing.”

Support From All Forces 

DiCello felt the support from many different people in her life including family, friends, teammates, and coaches. One of those supportive teammates was Skye Blakely. Blakely also tore her Achilles at the 2024 Olympic Trials before heading to Florida. This allowed Blakely and DiCello to be on the road to recovery together, sometimes making things easier in the gym. 

“So many people behind me, my parents, my sisters, family, my coaches, and my teammates.” DiCello said. “Really, just everyone that was around me helped me stay motivated. When I was struggling, they did help  pick me back up and made things a little bit more fun. Sometimes I just got bored doing the same thing in the gym over and over again, because all I could do was bars at some points, and I couldn’t even put my feet on the bar, so I’m just swinging. A lot of the time when me and Skye were first hurt together, we would play games, and we would just make up challenges for each other so that we could give ourselves something to do.” 

DiCello also turned to her sisters during times of hardships. Both her younger sisters are competitive gymnasts themselves. Her sister Kyra just committed to Kentucky, and Karleigh is a sophomore at West Virginia University. In 2028, the trio will all compete in NCAA gymnastics at the same time, and the Florida home opener in January will include West Virginia University. 

“I’m really excited because West Virginia is coming, and my sister competes at West Virginia,” DiCello said. Last year we went to West Virginia, but I wasn’t able to compete then, so this will be the first time we’re actually competing together.”

DiCello has always been a major factor in helping her younger sisters navigate the difficult gymnastic world. Especially as they both went through their college journeys.
“With Kyra helping her through the decisions of college and then Karleigh with navigating her first year and up till now,” DiCello said. “I’m really excited, because we are going to have one year together, and it’ll be me, and Karleigh’s last year, and then Kyra will be starting as a freshman. So I think that year will just be really exciting. And I can’t wait for it.”

Looking Ahead 

Now, DiCello is back in full force and ready to support the Gators in every way possible. However, she has not closed the door in returning to Elite gymnastics to achieve some of her personal goals. 

“I definitely have not ruled it out yet,” DiCello said. “It is still something that I want to do. I think I’ll just get through this first season and then decide.  I think it is definitely helpful that there are multiple people here that go back to Elite. It is hard going back from college to Elite, and just being able to be with coaches who have done it before, with other athletes, but also other athletes here, so you can do it together, is something that’s definitely helpful.”

She has grown in many ways since the devastating injury at the 2024 Olympic Trials. “I would tell myself not to give up and just to keep pushing. Because every day there’s a baby step and you’re making progress,” she said when asked what she would tell her 2024 self. DiCello brings a unique level to gymnastics that has been sorely missed over the last two years. Her skill selection and level of difficulty is a breath of fresh air in the world of NCAA gymnastics. Her personality and joy she brings to the competition floor always leaves us with a smile, and we just know that the world better watch out because DiCello is ready to meet every moment that the upcoming season will bring.

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