From the moment she arrived on campus at the University of Utah, Grace McCallum has been under a proverbial magnifying glass.
A silver medalist with Team USA at the Tokyo Olympics in 2021, McCallum arrived at Utah with as much fanfare as any Red Rock before her, if not more.
Throughout her four years at Utah, hers has been the name most loudly cheered by fans whenever Utah gymnastics competes.
Even amidst Maile O’Keefe’s record-breaking run to perfection in 2023 and 2024, roars for McCallum echoed to the furthest reaches of the Huntsman Center when the Red Rocks were introduced.
This season, with Utah native Avery Neff — the highest rated recruit ever, by College Gym News — around, McCallum still is the gymnast fans can’t wait to see when Utah competes. Red Rocks fans or otherwise, really.
Her status as an American Olympian has had a lot to do with that.
She is one of only three gymnasts currently competing NCAA women’s gymnastics who’ve represented/competed for the United States at the Olympics, along with Jade Carey (Oregon State) and Jordan Chiles (UCLA). McCallum was a household name before she even got to Utah.
But her gymnastics in college has befitted the fanfare too. Over three and a half seasons competing for Utah, McCallum has made an argument that she should be considered one of the program’s all-time greats.
McCallum is currently tied with six other Red Rocks for the 15th most All-America honors in program history, with eight in total. As of Week 8 this season, she is on pace to be a regular season (WCGA) All-American in the all-around, on balance beam and on uneven bars, with a real chance at being an All-American on floor too.
Add just three additional All-America honors to her collection and McCallum would vault up near the top 10 all-time in program history and that is before postseason All-American honors are considered. At her current pace, McCallum should end up alongside the likes of O’Keefe, MyKayla Skinner, Ashley Postell, Georgia Dabritz, Kristen Kenoyer and Theresa Kulikowski in Utah’s record books.
She is also one of only three Red Rocks to earn four or more perfect 10s on uneven bars in their career, along with Dabritz and Kulikowski.
She is a natural on the event and currently is the top rated gymnast (on bars) in the entire country, with an average score of 9.939 this season and a national qualifying score (NQS) of 9.955, per Road to Nationals.
“I think she is just so dynamic and explosive in her elements, and she just has this kind of fluid movement throughout the whole routine,” Utah head coach Carly Dockendorf said after McCallum’s most recent perfect routine. “It’s so satisfying to watch, and, you know, that’s a big dismount and she just sticks it so consistently.”
McCallum is more than just a one-trick pony, though. As great as she is on bars.
She is one of only four Red Rocks ever to score a 39.800 or better in the all-around twice. The only other Utah gymnasts who’ve done it? Kenoyer, Kulikowski and Melissa Vituj.
McCallum has simply been a great gymnast throughout her Utah career, even with starting her freshman year (offseason training) late after participating in the post-Olympics Gold Over America Tour and despite missing half of her sophomore season with a knee injury.
Has Grace McCallum been better than ever this season?
As good as McCallum was during her first three seasons at Utah, her senior season has felt different.
Opinions may vary, but many believe McCallum has never been better than she has been so far this season.
Look no further than the public response to her most recent outing — against Denver — when she scored three 9.975s and finished with a 39.800 in the all-around.
McCallum was named Big 12 Gymnast of the Week as a result, which was not too much of a surprise. She has now been tabbed as the conference’s gymnast of the week three times this season, tied with Tori Wilson for the fourth most gymnast of the week honors in program history (interestingly, McCallum was never named Pac-12 Gymnast of the Week).
Has McCallum really been better this season than in previous years, though? Or is recency bias having an effect?
The truth might be somewhere in between.
Through nine meets this season, McCallum has scored a 9.90 or better 19 times. She did the exact same thing her freshman season in 2022. She was on pace to shatter that mark as a sophomore in 2023, though, having recorded 13 scores of 9.90 or better through the first five meets of the year, before incurring a knee injury while vaulting at the Metroplex Challenge.
Make things a little more strict by raising the “bar” to a 9.925, and McCallum was better in multiple previous seasons than she’s been this season.
So far in 2025, she has scored a 9.925 or better 10 times. Over the same amount of meets (nine) last year, McCallum had 13 scores of 9.925 or better, a feat she pulled off as a freshman too.
And through only five meets as a sophomore in 2023 McCallum had 10 routines score a 9.925 or better.
McCallum has scored more 9.975s than ever this season — she has five this year and the most she’d received in previous seasons was three — but on the surface, McCallum is doing what she’s always done, or close to it.
Except, per College Gym News' Jenna King, scores of 9.90 or better are down across the country this season. Per King, the data shows that judging has been harsher this year. In the Big 12 more than in any other Power conference even.
Which makes the fact that McCallum is producing at or near the levels she had in prior seasons all the more impressive.
Writes King, “Overall, we do see clear trends of scores dropping in the 2025 season. The mean score dropped on every event but beam, and the majority of divisions and conferences had their mean score drop as well in 2025. The data revealed significant drops in the percentage of 9.900+ scores this season, especially compared to the 2024 season.
“Top coaches, such as Jay Clark and KJ Kindler, have publicly lamented the lower scoring this season, and the data proves them right— the SEC had a 6% drop in 9.900+ scores this season."
There is real reason to believe McCallum has been better than ever in this her final collegiate season. Even if the numbers don’t explicitly bear that out.
What has been the biggest challenge for Grace McCallum at Utah?
McCallum has credited her success this season to an increase in confidence. Confidence that has grown the more she has come to trust in her abilities and training.
“I feel like what’s really been working for me is just trusting my training and going out there with confidence,” she said. “It’s still something I’m working on and I feel like throughout season it’s gotten better, but it’s still something I’m tuning in on and just really focusing on.”
It can be difficult to believe that McCallum has struggled with confidence during her career, but that has been her reality.
She told the Deseret News that the expectations that come with competing at Utah have been daunting at times. Maybe even most of the time. And when McCallum hasn’t met those expectations — at least as she has perceived them — her confidence has taken a hit.
“Coming to Utah, I did feel a lot of pressure coming off the Olympics,” McCallum said. “I felt like people had all these expectations for me to be just this amazing college athlete right out of the gate, but I feel like (Elite gymnastics) is just so different from college that it’s just hard to transition over sometimes.
“Yes, the skills in Elite are so much harder. And coming to college you would assume it’d be easier, but the mindset is so different, going for perfection.”
McCallum noted that competing for Utah has brought with it a unique sort of expectation/pressure beyond her being an Olympian. Utah gymnastics is arguably the most storied women’s gymnastics program in history and McCallum has acutely felt the pressure to not disappoint or fall short of that legacy.
“There is this amazing legacy, and this program has just been so good for so long,” she said. “There is an added pressure that you put on yourself, that you feel (competing at Utah). Not necessarily from the fans, but from the amount of fans. There are 15,000 people in the Huntsman (Center) watching you. They all know you, so you want to perform and you want to do well. So you kind of add that pressure on yourself. And you want to do well for the team too.
“I’d say (managing pressure and expectations) has definitely been the hardest part. Not the gymnastics, but dealing with that while doing the gymnastics.”
McCallum admits that she hasn’t always been as good at that as she wishes. Managing the pressure that comes with expectations has been a struggle at times throughout her career.
“I’ve tried to give myself a little bit of grace and not put those expectations from other people on myself too,” she said. “I’ve seen comments and I did expect myself to be perfect. I’ve had those outside expectations on me to be perfect. So I’ve tried to cut myself some slack in that area, because it reflected in my performances.
“I’ve had more falls and bobbles and got taken out of lineups, and rightfully so, because I just wasn’t myself. Because I just put so much pressure in myself. I’m still working on it too.”
What does the future hold for Grace McCallum?
It is clear that McCallum has figured out, at least somewhat, how to manage the pressures of competing as Grace McCallum at Utah.
After falling off events multiple times early in her career, four times alone in her freshman season, McCallum has fallen just once this year — on beam at Arizona State, when the entire Utah team inexplicably collapsed.
She has been arguably Utah’s most consistent gymnast in 2025, while routinely being the high scorer on the team too.
She has anchored the bars and floor lineups to great effect, has competed beam about as well as she ever has and though vault remains a work in progress, she has shown real improvement there too.
McCallum has, as a senior, developed into the gymnast that so many expected her to be when she signed with Utah back in 2021.
She is, right now, ranked No. 7 in the all-around nationally and her season-high score of 39.800 is tied with Jade Carey for the single best all-around score by any gymnast this season. Put simply, McCallum is a genuine threat to win individual national titles on multiple events.
She is well aware that her gymnastics career is coming to a close, though she says it comes in fleeting moments more than anything.
“I’m really trying to enjoy every moment,” she said. “I feel like I get little glimpses of like Senior Night and what that will be like. But I don’t think it’s like fully hit me yet and I don’t think it will until I’m really done.”
When she reflects on her Utah career, McCallum can’t help but smile, even though it hasn’t been the easiest career in many ways.
“I feel like my time here has been so short,” she said. “But, I feel like I’ve been here forever, too. In a good way.”
McCallum has been great for Utah from the moment she arrived in Salt Lake City ahead of the 2022 season. And it really does seem that she has taken things to another level as she gets ready to leave.