06 May “I wanted exactly what I’m having right now,” Kameron Nelson Soars At EVO
AN EPIC EVO-LUTION
Inside Gymnastics went in-depth with EVO Executive Director Kevin Mazeika and interviewed eight senior athletes in our April issue of Inside Gymnastics magazine for this very special behind-the-scenes look. You can see more with all of them on InsideGym.com, across our social media @InsideGym and on our Inside Gymnastics YouTube channel.
Christy Sandmaier, Nate Salsman, and Sarahy Mora Rincon contributed to “An Epic EVOlution.”
Photos by Michael Jaroh; Ricardo Bufolin and Lloyd Smith
“I wanted exactly what I’m having right now.”
Over the course of the last year, Kameron Nelson has put his name on the map, cementing himself as not just one of the greatest gymnasts in the U.S., but in the world. At the 2025 Xfinity U.S. Gymnastics Championships, Nelson took home silver medals on vault and floor, and locked a spot on the 2025 World Championship team in Jakarta, Indonesia. Nelson’s incredible ability on floor has caught the eyes of the entire gymnastics world. For most Elite gymnasts competing a triple back in a floor routine is simply something you dream about. For Nelson, this dream became a reality not once, but twice. In 2025, Nelson became the first gymnast to ever land two triple backs in one floor routine. Nelson has been known around the gymnastics world as the “Triple Back Guy” and for good reason. The ambition to put both a triple tuck and a triple pike in one routine came from taking his fifth year of eligibility at Ohio State.
“I could already do one triple back, and I attempted the triple pike, and after doing that one, I felt like doing both of them in one routine really wasn’t going to be too much harder,” Nelson told Inside Gymnastics in June. “Energy wise, it is a lot, but physically it’s something that I’m capable of.”
Nelson is also capable of competing a triple back dismount on rings. In Jakarta, he became the first person to ever compete two triple backs in one routine at a World Championships. He finished fourth in the floor final in his worlds debut, his 6.3 difficult score tied Jake Jarman with the hardest routine of the final, who went on to win gold in the event.
Prior to competing in Jakarta, the Ohio State graduate announced that he would be moving to EVO following the World Championships. He was ready to elevate his gymnastics to the next level and continue to improve. In November of 2025, just a week after returning to the U.S. Nelson, along with his girlfriend Kacey, moved from Columbus to Sarasota. They signed the lease to their apartment on the drive to Florida and prepared for the next chapter of their lives.
“We signed on the seventh, and then we got here on the seventh,” Nelson said. “We had no idea what it looked like. When we got here, we were like, ‘Oh, this is pretty nice!”
Nelson was all business from the moment he felt the warm Sarasota sun. He did not take any time off from training and entered EVO just two days after moving. The biggest change he noticed from NCAA gymnastics was being able to train longer hours, and have all the necessary training equipment in one space. From conditioning, to pre strength, and weight training, every aspect of their training is done at EVO.
“The biggest difference, is just the amount of work that we do now and the amount of structure that it is within each practice,” Nelson said. “It’s all written up on the board and everything, so we know what our assignment is going into the day. It’s just mostly a lot of work, but it’s been really fun to do it anyway. It doesn’t feel like work.”
The EVO Effect
One of Nelson’s goals coming into 2026 was to start competing in more events than just vault and floor. After qualifying to worlds, he took a break from training rings as he knew he likely would not compete in the event in Jakarta. He began training on the apparatus again in November and EVO coach Syque Caesar pushed him to immediately regain his most challenging skills.
“I started going to rings, and we’re starting to work halves,” Nelson said. “Immediately, Syque’s like, ‘alright, we’re doing the hardest skills in a routine that you could do.’ I went from not doing rings to doing my hardest ring set now in my halves. That was a lot of work to get back into the physical aspect of being able to do rings, because I’ve only done floor and vault for two and a half months.”
Nelson competed at the Cottbus World Cup in late February and showcased how successful his rings training was. His ultimate goal in Germany was to come home with a medal.
“I told the guys before I left, Evo, I was like, ‘I’m coming home with a medal. If I don’t have a medal, you won’t see me,”
Nelson was off the podium on floor after a bouncy routine. He went into rings just wanting to have fun and deliver a strong routine. He was amped up from the crowd and did not feel any nerves while competing. He delivered a solid set and earned a 13.8, a seven tenth improvement from the 13.1 he scored in qualification. The score soared him towards a bronze medal, something he may not have been expecting when he entered the competition.
“Going in the rings, I was like ‘I’m just gonna have fun,’ put it all out there and just try to hold everything for as long as I can, as well as I can, because if I fall, at least I tried going all out for it.”
Nelson has also added high bar back to his repertoire and hopes to show that he can also be competitive in that event as well.
When arriving at EVO, Nelson was looking to be pushed in ways he had not in the past. He wanted the coaches to be strict and help him make simple presentation adjustments, such as making his hands look sharp, and overall improve the package of his gymnastics.
“I’m not going to take it hard if you’re picking on me, I’m not going to take it that way,” Nelson told Caesar. “I want you to be really strict on that, because I don’t want to look like I’m just kind of going and tumbling and doing all these skills and I’m just doing it, like I’m not actually performing them.”
When Nelson was switching gyms, he searched for the struggle. If the long days training and conditioning are difficult, he reminds himself that this is what he wanted.
“I wanted exactly what I’m having right now,” he said. “I wanted it to be hard. I wanted to struggle through it, because I know in the end, that’s going to make me a better athlete.”
Walking into the gym everyday and being surrounded by the best gymnasts in the world is a simple way to find motivation. Every member of EVO has their own strengths, Nelson is able to look at teammates such as Donnell Whittenburg and Alex Diab to improve his skills on rings, and he is working extra hard to continue to be the best version of himself.
“We’re all building off each other, which I think is really cool,” Nelson said. “I try to work harder than they do, just to try to catch up with them. I think that’s been really helpful. Everyone is kind of in that same mindset with that as well.”
His teammates also continue to support each other on those difficult days in the gym. Athletes like Danila Leykin and Josh Karnes keep the mood fun and lighthearted.
“If one of us is having a bad day, we’re good at joking around with everyone and being like, ‘come on. get back up. What are you doing? Like, you can’t have a bad day right now. Just keep going.”
He also loves watching Jackson Harrison train and continue to make upgrades, watching their progress has inspired Nelson. The two push each other as they spend time training floor exercise together.
“I know if they can do it I can learn a lot from them and make my pushes as well. So I talk a lot with Jackson, and we relate well. We relate a lot on a lot of outside gym stuff as well, just friends and experiences, since we’ve both been to college.”
The International Stage
“I would like to expand my brand more on an international level, rather than just here in the United States,” Nelson told Inside Gymnastics in June of 2025. “I know people around the world know who I am, but I haven’t been able to fully show who I am yet. So that’s my main goal, is to bring my gymnastics more internationally.”
Since then, Nelson has competed at the World Championships, the Cottbus World Cup, DTB Pokal Team Cup, and the Osijek World Cup, and was selected for the Pan American Championship team in June. That marks five international assignments in the last six months, and DTB marked his team event debut. Getting assigned to his first team competition was something he did not expect.
“I really didn’t expect to make team events already, because I only saw myself as floor vault and rings,” Nelson said. “That was one of my goals, was to make a team event. I was kind of expecting to do that after showing I could do high bar as well. But I did make this team and now I’m just trying to do as well as I can and be a big contributor on the team, because I do want to make the world team in 2026.”
Nelson did not grow up on the U.S. junior national team, the success in 2025 and beyond has been a huge boost of confidence.
“I’ve just been riding the wave since making the world team believing that I am one of those guys, and it’s been helping me in the gym and with improving.”
Nelson continues to showcase high level gymnastics, and can see his quick improvement after just four months training at EVO. When he’s not in the gym you can catch working on his “Triple” t-shirts, hanging with his girlfriend, teammates, while enjoying the beautiful Sarasota weather. Every step in his journey brings him closer to his ultimate goal of competing at the LA 2028 Olympic Games. After LA? That is to be determined, but for now his eyes stay laser focused on an Olympic debut, and continuing to push the possibilities of the sport.
For More
Stephen Nedoroscik: Our Mission Is For Team USA
Alex Diab: “We Wanted The Best. We Wanted To Represent EVO.”
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