Triple Threat: Kameron Nelson

Triple Threat: Kameron Nelson

By the Team at Inside Gymnastics

Ohio State senior Kameron Nelson trains and competes the all-around but will be the first to admit he’s better known as “The Triple Back Guy,” a tagline he uses in his social media bios.

“I started learning triple backs when I was 14, because it seemed like a skill that wasn’t that hard,” Nelson says, adding with a laugh. “I mean, you just tuck and keep flipping, right?”

From tumbling tricks to career paths, Nelson is daring, yet methodical. He chronicles his life in and out of the gym in carefully crafted YouTube and Instagram videos he hopes will lead to future opportunities in sports media and marketing.

“I’m focused on storytelling, and doing that in a cinematic way,” Nelson says. “Making it look good is my big thing. I used to think I wanted to be a cinematographer, but I really like the more personal aspects of social media. How you can inspire and engage. The whole process, from filming to editing—bringing it all together to tell a story—is very rewarding to me, and I’m trying to push gymnastics engagement for people who aren’t familiar with the sport.”

Inside sat down with Kam, as he’s known to friends, to talk about the Buckeye Captain’s aspirations in the NCAA, and beyond.

Inside Gym: Nearly 40 years after it was first competed, the triple back is still considered the toughest tumbling pass in men’s gymnastics. How did you take that on?

Kameron Nelson: I don’t really know why, but it just felt to me like a skill I would be able to do. So, when I was 14, I tried a bunch on the Tumbl Trak one day when my coach wasn’t there. I over-rotated every single one, but they were all pretty good. When I showed my coach the video, he was kind of mad at me, but he was also a little bit impressed. He told me I needed to do 500 on the Tumbl Trak, then 500 on the rod floor, before I ever attempted even a drill on the real floor. I did do all those numbers, but then never got past drills on the hard floor before I went to college. 

The summer before my sophomore year is when I tried the triple back again, just showing (Ohio State coaches) Rustam (Sharipov) and Cas (Casimiro Suarez) that it was possible. I did it off the regular floor into the pit with a mat over the top and not only landed it but was surprised that it was better than it was previously. Cas immediately said, ‘OK, that needs to go in your routine.’ I competed it the first time at Classics that same year (2022).

I’m 22 now, and it’s definitely harder on my body than it was when I was 14. It’s not necessarily a difficult skill to do for me, but it does hurt my ankles a bit to land. And it does drain my energy quite a bit, so we kind of pick and choose where I’m performing it.

Inside: For most gymnasts, the triple back would be the dream skill, but is there anything else you’d like to add to your repertoire?

Nelson: In the future, I’m hoping to compete a triple pike, and it would be a dream if I could be the first to do both a triple tuck and triple pike in one routine. That would be crazy. 

In my head I’ve got a floor routine that starts at about a 6.5, with my triple back, and a tucked double-double with a half as my third pass. I’ve landed everything successfully on the real floor many times—including the triple pike—but not quite yet all together in one routine. Hopefully, that’s coming.

I’m working hard to get the reps in I need to do some upgrades at Winter Cup, which will hopefully help me to make National Team, because I think that’s the milestone for the season.

Inside: You made the senior National Team for the first time in 2023. Did that change your perspective on what was possible for your gymnastics? 

Nelson: As a junior, making National Team wasn’t something I thought I could do, but after (2023) Winter Cup first day, seeing how close I was, then after making it on second day, it was like a totally different reality for me. It’s pushed me to want to work for bigger things that I didn’t think I was going to be capable of. Now, I’m trying to make a push for Olympic Trials, maybe an individual Worlds spot. It’s been a huge belief thing for me.

This year my focus is on, first, making National Team, then hopefully Olympic Trials, and maybe get an international assignment—compete more outside the U.S., which would be exciting. And, of course, that all starts by doing well the rest of the NCAA season.

NCAA and USA are both equally important to me. I try to focus my mindset completely on NCAA and the team when we’re in season, but then I need to start shifting my focus for individual competition.

Inside: You train, and have competed, the all-around for Ohio State. Does it bother you when people see you as a floor or vault specialist when you’re doing all six?

Nelson: I originally saw myself as a floor specialist. I didn’t think I was very good at vault, but that’s kind of changed now. 

I’m starting to see myself more as floor, vault, rings and p-bars is in there sometimes. The other events are coming along, but I admit I sometimes feel like I’m just getting those out of the way.

I’m glad that people know me for something, so I don’t really care too much that the events I’m good at are what people know me for. It just makes me want to work harder to show them what else I have to offer.

Inside: You won the vault title at both U.S. Championships and Winter Cup in 2023, which seems like the opposite of ‘not very good.’

Nelson: Well, I was the only one who did two vaults, but, yeah, once I switched my vault to handspring that event was a different story.

I twist two different ways. I learned round-off one way and twisting the other way. So, I can’t do a Kas entry, like most people do on vault. I do a full round-off and then switch directions to twist off the table. I’ve always done it like that. It doesn’t bother me, but it does mean it’s not as easy for me to get as many twists in.

I tried to address it my freshman year. Cas really wanted me to switch my cartwheel direction, but I could never get a good block that way. I tried switching my twisting direction, and keeping the same round-off, but just never felt confident doing that. So, moving to the handspring just made sense for me.

Inside: How did you first get started in the sport?

Nelson: I started when I was six and we were living in Louisiana. It’s the same story of every other gymnast: I was bouncing on the couch, turning upside down, just running around crazy. My mom was a Level 10 gymnast and she’s been a coach, so she’s the one who put me in the sport.

I did gymnastics for about a year and a half, competing levels 4 and 5, before we moved. My family was in the military, so we’ve moved around so many times—I’ve lived in, like, 17 different houses—so it was another 2-3 years before I got back in the gym. I started again when I was 10-11 and living in Georgia. That’s when I started being coached by Dan Hayden. I tried other sports—hockey, football, akido—but none of them were as interesting to me as gymnastics. 

Inside: What made you choose Ohio State?

Nelson: I’ve known Cas since I was seven years old, when he was working in Florida. I went to a camp there and I’ve always liked him as a coach. When he and Sean Melton went to Ohio State, that was what I wanted to do, too. 

As a senior in high school, I didn’t have a lot of options. Not many colleges were interested in me, including Ohio State. I came here as a walk-on, without any scholarship, with the feeling that I needed to prove myself. I had that little chip on my shoulder—like, maybe not enough people believed in me, but I’d show them. Looking back now, as a junior gymnast, I think you do sort of tend to over-value yourself a little bit, but it worked out, as I earned a scholarship by my sophomore year.

And, I am planning to take my fifth year, so I’m not done yet.

Inside: How do you feel about taking on the role of captain for the first time this season?

Nelson: It’s been a learning curve, having to think about someone besides yourself when you’re working out in the gym. In past years, doing what’s best for myself, and my gymnastics, could be my sole mindset, but now I’m much more focused on the team, what I can do for them, what I can say to motivate them. How I can help the whole team, and not just myself. 

Tyler (Rockwood), one of our captains from last year, came to me and told me I needed to be a captain, and Cas said the same thing at USAs. Rustam at same point told me as well, but I wasn’t too excited about the idea, because I know it’s a very hard, very important role, so I was reluctant to take that on.

I’m glad now that I pushed myself out of that comfort zone. It has its ups and downs, for sure, but when it’s good, being a captain is very rewarding and I’ve loved it.

Inside: What are your goals this season for your Ohio State team?

Nelson: As a captain this year, we’ve been pushing team culture and bonds. To get this team together and unite under one, shared goal. I feel like that’s something we’ve struggled with in the recent past, where maybe there have been cliques or groups within the team, so this year it’s ‘One team, one dream.’ That’s our main goal.

I think what’s special about this team is that we are so much closer. We understand each other’s problems, and what’s going on outside the gym, so when it comes to inside the gym, we know how to approach each other in a more positive and understanding way. Not even big things, just when it comes to corrections and little stuff like that. 

The other goal is just to prove that we’re more than what we’ve shown. To prove out our talent till the very end of the season. I’m just going to say it, we’ve choked a bit in the post-season, and our goal is to go all the way this year. 

I feel like we have a lot of guys that feel like they have something to prove. No one is slacking off. We are all pushing to be something this year.

Photos by Lloyd Smith for Inside Gymnastics and Ohio State Men’s Gymnastics

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