Dodanli’s Destiny! Oklahoma's Emre Dodanli’s Journey To NCAA Stardom And Beyond

26 Mar Dodanli’s Destiny! Oklahoma’s Emre Dodanli’s Journey To NCAA Stardom And Beyond

Posted at 13:10h in 2025 NCAA Headquarters, News & Features by The Inside Gymnastics Team 0 Comments

By The Inside Gymnastics Team

Editorial Contributor

From almost quitting the sport to competing in Paris, Emre Dodanli’s journey to NCAA stardom, and beyond.

As Oklahoma star Emre Dodanli gets set to finish his college career as one of the most accomplished athletes currently competing in the NCAA—team captain, 4.0 student, five-time All-American, CGA Specialist of the Year, Nissen-Emery Award nominee, Olympian—it’s hard to believe how close it all came to never getting started.

Five years ago, amidst the global pandemic, Dodanli had resigned himself to setting gymnastics aside in favor of college in Canada. Out of the gym for more than a year, he had no NCAA interest from any of the feelers he’d put out.

“No one responded to me,” Dodanli said with a shake of his head. “No one. I was in terrible shape. I wasn’t even doing gymnastics. No one was interested, but then Mark (Williams) took a chance on me.”

Which is how Dodanli, born in Turkey and raised in Ontario, Canada, where his family emigrated when he was a toddler, took his own chance on Oklahoma, a place he’d never visited and barely heard of before signing his National Letter of Intent.

Not that it was smooth sailing from there to NCAA stardom. “It was rough,” Dodanli remembers. “Really rough. I didn’t know if I was going to make it, and I think my coaches wondered that, too. I came in unable to do most of my skills, because I’d been out of the gym so long. I basically had to relearn everything, and it was a long process.”

Inside Gymnastics sat down with the soft spoken, self-described “kind of shy,” Dodanli to discuss that process, how he hopes to wrap up his collegiate career, and what comes next for the Paris Olympian…

Has it hit you yet that this is your final season in the NCAA?

It definitely has. I realized it at our first home meet and started counting down the meets, and it’s gone faster and faster. I’m a little sad, knowing that, after NCAAs, I’m done for Oklahoma. These guys have become my family, and I just want to compete to the best of my ability for the two competitions that we have left: Conference and then Nationals. I have goals, but mostly I’m just grateful for all the opportunities that this team has given me. I’m trying to take it all in.

What are your NCAA post-season goals?

This year I don’t really care what I do. I just want to compete as strong as I can for my team, and I feel like, if I do that, that’s enough. I think that would be better than anything I could achieve for just me.

You’re a captain this year, how has that changed the dynamic?

Trying to adjust to the captain role was a little tough for me, because I’m not naturally a vocal person, but I take the role very seriously, because I know how influential past captains have been on me. My co-captain Zach (Nunez) and I wanted to create an environment that set a standard for everybody, and I think doing that unified us. I believe we’re creating a culture we want to see continue. We want to make everyone feel like they’re part of the team, where we are picking up the individuals that are needing help, so that we can all train to the ability we have and meet that Oklahoma standard throughout the season.

As a captain, I’ve pushed myself more than I ever have in the past and realized that what I do matters to everyone else on the team. Zach and I have focused on keeping everyone accountable, and setting that standard, inside and outside the gym. I think I’m finally getting used to that leadership role, even enjoying it—just in time to be done. I hope I’ve impacted the team in a positive manner. That was my goal.

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You talked about team culture; what does that mean to you? What is the Oklahoma standard?

Team culture is everything and the culture we’ve been striving for is one where we’re all giving 100% on the playing field and respecting each other. Where it’s about the team, and no individual is any more important than anyone else. No one. No matter if they’re a walk-on or a National Champion, someone that does one event, or the all-around. Even if you’re injured, you’re still a part of this team. We still need you. No one has more value than anyone else. Everyone has the same goal, and every time you step into the gym, that’s the focus.

And we have to keep each other accountable to that goal. It only works together. If one person isn’t doing their best, it’s up to everyone else to speak up. To be that role model. To encourage. To make each other better. And it doesn’t matter if you’re a freshman, or a senior. We all learn from each other.

It’s a system that’s worked for a long time at Oklahoma. We’re all a link in the chain, and we’re stronger when we pull together. We’re a close team, and we’re very comfortable with each other. We all have different personalities, but no one is afraid to speak up, speak out. I think that being able to be who you are in the gym every day, and enjoy what you do, is a really important component of success.

How did a kid who grew up in Canada and competes for Turkey, end up at Oklahoma?

Well, Oklahoma was the only place that gave me a shot and I’m thankful for that. In Canada, we don’t have college gymnastics, so I was basically taking a leap of faith. It was a choice between Oklahoma, or just quitting gym, because education is very important to me.

That first year was rough. Really rough. Because, you know, COVID had hit and I wasn’t able to train for over a year and I also had surgery on my wrist, so it wasn’t a great way to start.

My freshman year, especially in preseason, was a bumpy road. It was frustrating, because I knew what I was capable of, but couldn’t do it because of my physical condition. But I just really tried to take it day by day and celebrate the little victories. Like, if it was getting back one skill that I used to do I was happy. I set small goals and just tried to gain my confidence back.

It wasn’t until we started to compete that I really began to understand the team and how I needed to contribute. And once I started to embrace that role, I also realized that all the work was starting to pay off. I began to enjoy the process.

It was the first time in my life that I realized the importance of team effort. I never realized what a team was until I started competing for this team. And it’s really shaped my view on the sport and how I do gymnastics, because now that’s why I do gymnastics—for my team. Originally, I’d only done gymnastics for myself, and it was something I enjoyed, but I didn’t understand the power of having 19 guys behind me, relying on me.

It made me want to be better. I wanted to clean up my gymnastics. I cared about things I’d never even thought about before, because I wanted that extra tenth for my team. Looking at it that way made me realize how much I could improve.

Without this team—without Oklahoma—well, I probably wouldn’t be doing gymnastics at all, but I know I would never have done even half the things I have, including the Olympics.

You said you began to enjoy the process, when did everything start to click for you?

I think it was mid-season of my freshman year, when I suddenly realized, like, I’m consistent. That was always something I’d struggled with, but I’d also never competed every week.

Once you start to get the groove of that, then you understand, okay, this is automatic. I’ve trained for this, and I’ve done this, so once I raise my hand, it’s the same thing as what I do in the gym. It’s nothing different. When I was competing as a junior, everything felt different. I’d go to a competition and try to do everything better than I did in practice, because I didn’t always practice well.

OU is known for their consistency, what’s the secret sauce?

It’s not a secret. It’s just being able to fall back on all the reps you’ve done and, I’m not gonna lie, we do a lot. But we do a lot for a reason, because it gets to a point where, when you do a set, it doesn’t matter the condition you’re in, you can always hit.

That’s the Oklahoma system, and it works. I think most of us try to fight it a little bit in the beginning, because it is really hard, but it’s undeniable.

Like, last year at NCAAs, I was sick. I competed with a fever, and I wasn’t perfect, but I was still able to do what I needed to do—what I wanted to do for my teammates—because of the reps I had put in before that. I absolutely wouldn’t have been able to do that before I came here.

You grew up in Canada, but compete for Turkey, was that a choice you had to make?

I was born in Turkey and my mom, dad, brother, and I moved to Canada when I was 2-years- old.

Growing up, we spoke Turkish at home, and, in the summers, I would go back to Turkey to see my family and eventually started working with the Turkish National Team. At first, gymnastics was just for fun, but when I was 10 or 11, I decided to get serious about competing, and then when I was 13, 14 I had to choose if I was going to compete for Canada or Turkey.

I talked about it with my mom and dad and realized that Turkey’s my home country, and I wanted to make my family there proud. At first it was hard, since I was only there in the summer, but I started to make friends, and everyone was very welcoming. I’m thankful for that environment and how accepting they were.

I did that for three or four years, and it was going well, and then COVID hit, and I couldn’t train, so by the time I came to OU, I wasn’t really a part of anything anymore. In 2022, I reached out to Turkey and shot my shot, and they invited me to Turkish National Championships in 2023.

After that, they wanted to see me in more competitions, because they were trying to build a team that could make the Olympics, so it was a process throughout that summer, and I had to travel a lot, while still going to school, but I knew the sacrifice—I didn’t get to visit my family in Canada for three and a half years—was needed to make my dreams to come true.

Can you tell us more about your experience in Paris?

I was the youngest guy on our team, and I didn’t really realize I was truly there—at the Olympics—until I started doing the podium practice. You know, watching those other athletes that I admired since I was a kid. Training along with them was really cool and it made me realize that I’d made it to that level, that I was a part of it now.

My parents came to France, and, after my high bar routine, I turned around and saw them jumping up and down in the stands and that really hit me, because they haven’t been able to come to as many things as they’d like, because they’re in Canada and it’s expensive.

It’s weird because even though it was the biggest meet of my life, it didn’t feel like that when you were there. I don’t know if you saw the celebration I did after high bar—the Kevin Gates chest emote—but it was just this thing I did to make my teammates smile, and it exploded. Like, when I got back to Turkey people recognized me, and I was like, How do you know me? What is even happening?

You forget that this is the Olympics, and there are so many people watching, all around the world.

Right before I began, I stepped into the chalk box, and, when I looked down, I noticed the Olympic rings on the carpet and the chalk footprints from all the other athletes, and I just had this moment where I was like, ‘Wow, next my footprint will be there,’ and it was this small thing that stuck with me. Like, I made it.

Do you feel like you got everything you wanted out of the Olympic experience?

I mean, I don’t think anything’s ever everything you want it to be but just being there and competing and doing what I needed to do made me proud.

The minute I stepped on the floor, all my nervousness went away, and I felt totally confident. My first pass was just kind of a fluke where, you feel good, but you open early, and it’s just gone. It happens super quick.

I was competing a new, more difficult routine, in hopes of making finals and, yeah, that slip stung a bit, but after that I felt like I did everything I could have possibly done to help my team as much as I could, and I’m happy with that.

At 2023 Words, just qualifying to the Olympics as a team for the first time, that was huge. It felt like, ‘Whoa, we did it,’ you know? It was kind of frustrating when we missed team finals by less than .3 tenths, but that’s okay because it’s also motivating. We know we are still capable of more and I’m excited to see what we can do in the upcoming Olympic cycle.

Has being an Olympian changed your goals going forward?

Once I finished the Olympics, I came back to Oklahoma really motivated, and I still am. There are upcoming competitions—European and World Championships—and I have some goals I want to fulfill there.

I haven’t really looked at the long term, as in 2028, but we’ll see what the process brings. Right now, my focus is fully on 2025, and what’s coming up this year.

How do you feel about the new Code of Points and adjusting to those changes? You’ve been playing around with the construction of your floor routine, trying to find the right mix of difficulty and consistency.

Yeah, I’ve been kind of struggling with the new Code, because of the double front requirement, and trying to figure out what’s the best double front pass for me, and where to do it. But, overall, I kind of like how it’s tailoring our skills. I think going to eight skills, rather than ten, was smart, and allows us to do more difficulty overall. I also think it’s going to make the competition a little closer between teams, not just at the NCAA level, but the world.

It’s exciting to see what everyone else is doing. How they’re adjusting, what new skills they’re able to put out there, because with eight skills you worry less about endurance.

There are some requirements I don’t love, like the scale. I don’t struggle to do one, but I mostly think it’s a little silly. It’s hard to find the time, because they’ve not only lowered the time on floor by five seconds, but they added the scale requirement, so it’s really like they’ve lowered the time by ten seconds. So, I don’t quite get that one.

But, overall, I think changes like increasing the value for double layout skills and triple backs, has been cool. Increasing the importance of dismounts also really pushes athletes to do more. And the stick bonus, which we already had in NCAA, makes finishing well more valuable.

Are you still tweaking your floor routine? Anything else new we might see before the end of the season?

I’ve got a lot of ideas, so it’s not set forever, but I think that last floor routine I did at William & Mary—I think that’s going to be the main set I’m working on for NCAAs, and then we’ll see for Euros and World Champs. There might be some tweaks here and there, but I really liked that one more than all the other combinations I’ve tried. It felt good and scored well.

I’ve been working on some new things for p-bars and high bar, so there are a few things there I want to add or change up. But, overall, I feel good. I feel confident about where I am at this point.

You did have a setback, breaking your hand early in the season. How has that affected you?

I think that injury kind of put a hold on what I was working on and shifted some of the goals I had for the NCAA season. Getting hurt is never what any athlete wants, but I’m grateful it was early in the season, and I still found ways to help the team. To lower my D-score and compete where I needed to.

But, yeah, it was frustrating, and I have struggled with my hand, especially on parallel bars, with under grip, but I’m starting to gain back what I’ve lost. It’s starting to feel normal again.

Are you 100%, or is it still a work in a progress?

I wouldn’t say 100%, because I still feel pain when I grip. Originally it was misaligned, so we were all worried they’d have to go back in and do surgery, but they were able to manually push the bone back into the right place. Then we had to wait a few weeks to see if it would stay aligned and start healing, and that was nerve-wracking.

But it did, and it’s healing well, and now it’s just what I can tolerate, as I build back strength.

Some of your teammates have called you the Gymnast Whisperer, saying you’re the one who talks them through, calms them down before a routine. How did you earn that role?

I just want them to be as confident as possible and believe in what they can do and sometimes when you’re in that moment, about to compete, you forget all of that. I try to make them aware of where they are, what they know they can do.

Zach always says, ‘Stay where your feet are.’ Which means, like, be in the moment. So, I’m trying to snap them out of their head and calm them down, and I feel like it usually works.

I think it’s important to give them that last burst of belief and remind them how capable they are.

Who is that person for you? Who gives you the pre-routine pep talk?

I got that from my seniors, when I was a freshman, and once they graduated, I realized I was now that guy. The one giving the talks, instead of getting them. But I also realized I can be that person for myself, which is why you might see me talking to myself before a routine.

That really started at Worlds and Europeans, where I didn’t have my Oklahoma teammates, so I had to convince myself. And once I had those meets under my belt, I knew I could compete under pressure. It hit me that I’d done a lot in a short amount of time—what I was capable of—and I can fall back on that knowledge and experience.

Now, when I see guys looking towards me, I know they have belief in me, so I should believe in myself. And that calms me. It lets me do my job and be in the moment.

Have you thought about what comes next, after NCAAs and graduation?

It’s going to be about balancing athletics and academics, because I do have academic goals. I’m hoping to get into the PA, Physician’s Assistant, program here at the University of Oklahoma, and it would be difficult to do that and train, because it’s very rigorous, but I’m not ruling out trying to balance it.

For this summer and the upcoming fall term—because I wouldn’t start PA school until the summer of 2026—I want to focus on gymnastics. I still have one semester, a couple of undergrad classes, to finish in the fall. I’ll go to Turkey before competitions, maybe a training camp, but my plan is to train here as much as possible, because that’s what I’m used to, and I think it’s good for me and my gymnastics. Turkey has been great about trusting me and my training.

Even before I broke my hand, my plan was to focus exclusively on NCAA competition through April, just so I could enjoy my senior season, and Turkey has been very understanding of that, too.

Is there a particular moment that stands out in your NCAA career?

Sticking my vault at 2022 NCAAs at home. We were performing so well as a team, having a great night, and we’d just had our first mistake. I did not care one bit about my individual score, but I know I needed to hit for the team.

I wasn’t even a little bit nervous and what was weird is that I knew I was going to stick even before I went. I knew when I was running that this was the one, and it was this awesome feeling. My hand hit the vault table and, I swear, I have never felt so good. I don’t think I’ve ever celebrated that hard.

Hearing my teammates roar, seeing my coaches jump up and down. Just watching their faces as I walked back down the runway—I couldn’t stop smiling.

How do you hope you’re remembered as an athlete?

I hope that people remember me as someone who enjoys what they do and tries to make his teammates smile. I feel like I was pretty quiet until, like, the end of sophomore year, and then I started cracking jokes. testing the waters, because I have a dry, goofy sense of humor.

It would be nice to make a mark with what I’ve done in gymnastics, but I’d rather be remembered for who I am, and how I’ve represented myself, my school, and my country.

You’re not a big social media guy, so fans might not know you as well as other athletes. What’s something about you that might surprise people?

Hmm, well, I love Matcha. Like, all Matcha, but the Matcha from Starbucks is amazing.

I also love anime. My teammate, Leo (Koike), has really got me into his Japanese shows. They’re awesome. Almost the whole team watches them now. Solo Leveling is our favorite, and we get together, like, weekly, to watch it, which is awesome.

What else? Well, I really like school. I thought about med school, but I did a lot of research and it’s easier to jump fields as a Physician’s Assistant, and I like the idea of learning from different doctors and different perspectives. In general, I really enjoy helping people, and being a PA is very hands on. I’d love to be able to work with athletes, use my experience to help them recover from injuries and come back. I think it’s amazing the progress we’ve made, and continue to make, in that field.

Lastly, how do you prefer to have your first name pronounced? We’ve heard it quite a few ways.

Well, there are three ways to say it. In English, there are two: Either em-RAY, which is mostly what my teammates call me, or EM-ree, which is what most people in Canada used. But in Turkish it’s more em-RA and you roll the R, which is hard for most English speakers. Only Ignacio (Yockers) pronounces it that way, because it’s the same as in Spanish. So, he’s the one that reminds me of how my family talks to me.

I have heard some crazy pronunciations though, like E-meyer, which is insane. So, if you get at all close, I’m happy.

Photo Credit to Oklahoma Athletics; candids courtesy Emre Dodanli

Look for Nate’s NCAA Notes and Della’s Inside the MatchUp each week and stay tuned to InsideGym.com and Inside Gymnastics magazine for spotlight features and interviews throughout the 2025 season!

Nate Salsman, Della Fowler, Megan Roth and Christy Sandmaier provide NCAA coverage for Inside Gymnastics.

Photos by Lloyd Smith for Inside Gymnastics magazine.