After strong Olympic showing, Gophers gymnast Ava Stewart ready for the Big Ten

At Saturday's upset of No. 16 Penn State, two gymnasts had the highest event score of the night. One was predictably Mya Hooten, a fifth-year star for the Gophers and Big Ten champion many times over. The other was a true freshman in her fourth NCAA meet.

That freshman was Ava Stewart, a new Gopher and two-time Canadian Olympian bursting onto the University of Minnesota gymnastics scene. Already having been named a Big Ten freshman of the week and starting to collect event titles in the first few weeks of her college career, Stewart is getting straight to work.

That score against Penn State was an exceptional 9.925 on vault, enough for her to walk away with the meet's vault title.

Stewart will most likely come to be known for many things in Minnesota, but she wants to be known for "first of all, being good at gymnastics, and for being a good person."

But this story started somewhere. Long before she was flipping through Dinkytown, Stewart was an 18-month-old in a gymnastics class that started it all.

The American-born gymnast moved to her father's native Canada when she was 4 years old, taking to the competition floor two years later. She said those early years were "never anything other than having fun."

But her eventual burst into senior competition — the highest level of elite gymnastics — came to a quiet, empty gym. It was 2021, and COVID had made many gymnastics competitions virtual.

"The weird thing that I found about online competition was like yeah, you were nervous and there was adrenaline, but there was nothing to really mask the adrenaline," she said. "I attribute my ability to just focus on the 'me,' in competition, to that."

That focus paved a path studded with Olympic rings for Stewart. She made Canada's Tokyo team in 2021, but for her, Paris was always what she was reaching for — the Olympics that she "had my heart set on since I was a child." After taking a gap year to train, Stewart landed on her second Olympic team in 2024.

"I think about [Paris] now and it doesn't even feel real," Stewart said. "I'm really proud of the team, I'm really proud of myself. It was a really exciting time."

In Paris, she helped Canada's gymnastics squad tie a best-ever finish of fifth in the team competition, and she snagged 19th in the individual all-around. After having a move called "The Stewart" named after her in the uneven bars a couple of years prior, she got a tattoo to represent it next to the Olympic rings.

She'd completed her rise in elite gymnastics — now enter college.

It's already been quite a start.

In her words, "Another day, another challenge, and I'm ready for it."

Out of the gate, Stewart caught eyes by winning an event title on beam during the second meet of her college career. Her Big Ten freshman of the week accolade came Jan. 7, just days after that meet — but it did take some explaining for the Canadian gymnast.

"I never watched a lot of NCAA growing up, so I actually had to ask somebody what that meant," she said with a laugh. "But I'm really happy about that. It kind of solidified that I was doing OK."

By all reports, Stewart is right about that.

"She is just a ball of energy, she's always so kind and so smiley every day," said Hooten about her new teammate. "She just brings a positive aura to this team."

"The beginning of the year, you're trying to figure out how your athletes are going to do in competition, and do they enjoy it? Do they like all of the fans?" added head coach Jenny Hansen. "And I think she's really enjoyed it."

Outside of the gym, Stewart has maintained a strong focus on her academics, which she said was her "number one selling point" when deciding where to commit. She's thrown in a few favorite hobbies — baking and reading, namely, along with a passion for crocheting. She admits she's not great at it, but that's alright. The greatness seems to be elsewhere.

Moving into her next four years with the Gophers, she's excited for what's next.

"I am very determined in where I want to be," Stewart said. "I like to focus on my goals … just doing my best, and usually doing my best gets me where I need to be."