Back in 2019 a young American gymnast went viral for her absurd, brilliant UCLA routine. It’s awesome stuff if you haven’t seen it before, really jaw-dropping.

We caught up with it again five years on and its infectious youthful energy is a total joy to behold. So, we’re hurling this at you today in celebration of Katelyn Ohasi—an almighty force for good.

Katelyn Ohasi the Gymnastics Goddess

Despite sporting only a sprightly 4’10” in height, Ohashi is bloody rocket! What we like about her routine, and what caught the world’s attention, is her injecting a sense of fun into gymnastics.

She was also only 22 when she did the above at the Collegiate Challenge. She competed for the University of California (UCLA). The above video, on the uni’s YouTube channel, has some 250 million views now.

She can also do all that fancy pants beam dancing stuff that… well, still baffles us that anyone could have the precision to do this.

We don’t know too much about the sport, but when you do so athletes competing in the Olympics they always look so serious. The importance and pressure of the event seems to strip all fun out of it.

Ohasi, meanwhile, avoided the Olympics to focus on smaller events where she could show off her personality.

It’s a reminder for us how fantastic young people are. The energy and optimism of youth, something often forgotten by a certain sect of cantankerous older folks who like blaming the younger generations for the world’s problems (despite continuously voting for the world’s problems decades on end and lacking the self-reflective capacity to consider that).

Naturally, Ohashi ended up very popular with girls who could look up to her as an excellent role model. Hell, she’s a role model for everyone in more ways than her epic dance routine.

Positive Body Image Champion

As this is the internet, the usual batch of toxic troll tossers honed in on Ohashi to call her fat and ugly. This is the really sad side to the online world, as it’s quite absurd looking at the footage—she looks fabulous.

Ohashi has since combatted all of this by being vocal on body positivity, which her book has also tackled. The abuse she dealt with led to bouts of anxiety and depression. Therapy helped her deal with those.

It’s an ongoing issue with the online world, one which social media platforms have a very loose grasp on. In particular, Twitter is often a hellish online landscape for anyone to be on. Musk has ensured it’s become a cesspit of hatred and he’s leading the charge there.

But what we like about Ohashi is she’s risen above all that.

Her positivity hasn’t been dampened. If you follow her on Instagram, for example, she’s always beaming away and promoting fun activities to get involved in.

The Routine Lives On!

Not that we’d planned this, but ironically the above was posted yesterday on gymnast Ian Gunther’s Instagram account. He’s teamed up with Ohashi to try and “do” the iconic splits.

A gymnast’s career is usually very brief and, at 27, Ohashi has now officially retired from professional competition. During her career she bagged six time All-America winner and 2011 junior national champion. Plus, she won the 2013 American Cup.

Now she’s very active on social media, has just launched a book, and will no doubt be off being groovy in the months and years ahead. 👑