OU Gymnastics: Oklahoma Will Pay a Visit to the White House This Morning

By OU Media Relations

National champions go to the White House.

The Oklahoma women’s gymnastics national championship team left Sunday for Washington, D.C., to celebrate its sixth national championship Monday on the South Lawn of the White House.

The team will meet with President Joe Biden Monday morning at 10:30 a.m. CT as part of College Athlete Day.

The Sooners will be among the NCAA national championship teams being recognized for the presidential event. This marks the third time OU head coach K.J. Kindler and her national championship teams have been invited to the executive mansion in Washington, D.C. (also in 2017 and 2019).

“We are honored by the invitation and excited for this unique opportunity,” Kindler said. “It will be an unforgettable experience for our women and we are proud to represent OU at our nation’s capital.”

In her 17th season at Oklahoma, Kindler led the Sooners to their sixth NCAA team championship in 2023, which is tied for the most over a nine-year span in NCAA history (Utah won six of the first nine NCAA championships from 1982-90). OU’s 2023 title gave the Sooners back-to-back championships for the second time in program history (also in 2016 and 2017).

Oklahoma had an historic run to the 2023 NCAA championship. The Sooners matched a championship meet record of 198.3875 (previously set by OU in 2017) to beat No. 2 Florida (198.2375), then-No. 5 Utah (197.9375) and then-No. 6 LSU (197.525).

The NCAA Championships Final was the most-watched college gymnastics meet on any TV network since 2007 with 1.02 million viewers (up 10 percent from 2022) and the semifinal was the most-watched NCAA Women’s Gymnastics Semifinals since 2017 with 148,000 viewers (up 46 percent from 2022).

The Sooners held the top spot for the entire 2023 season, their third time to accomplish the feat in program history.

Their national title capped a 28-2 campaign that also featured a Big 12 Conference championship and the program's 13th consecutive NCAA regional crown. OU posted a nation-leading 10 scores of at least 198 in 2023, tied for the most in NCAA history. Kindler has led the team to the triple crown with Big 12, NCAA regional and NCAA championships all six times the team has won a national title.

Following softball's latest title last week, Oklahoma has now won 43 team national championships as an athletics department. Twenty-four of those (56 percent) have come under 25th-year athletics director Joe Castiglione.

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