This HBCU gymnast has made history — twice. Here's how

A summer day in 2012 changed gymnast Naimah Muhammad’s life.

Like countless others across the country and world, she was tuned into the summer Olympics, captivated by the gymnasts as they traveled across the beam and the floor. And like countless others, a young Naimah was particularly taken by one gymnast: Gabrielle Douglas.

“I remember watching Gabby Douglas on floor,” Muhammad said. “She was twisting and dancing and doing all this crazy stuff and I was like: ‘I want to do that. I don’t know what that is, but I want to do that.’”

Douglas’ medal-winning performance sparked a flame in Muhmmad’s life. Now, 20-year-old Naimah Muhammad is keeping the fire blazing as she participates in Fisk University’s history-making intercollegiate women's gymnastics program. The Nashville liberal arts school is the first of any historically Black college and university to offer such a program.

But this isn’t the first time this Rochester-born athlete has made history in the gymnastics world. As a Muslim woman, she chooses to cover her legs with tights while competing — and helped pave the way for other gymnasts to do the same.

'I want to go fast!'

Before she knew what a high beam or vault was, Muhammad wanted to be an ice skater. Ever supportive, her parents, Kadara and Jason Muhammad, enrolled her in classes.

Her father says ice skating instruction consisted of two parts: learning new skills and practicing them. Instead of practicing the basics, Naimah would mimic what she saw the older students doing.

"She kept saying, 'I want to go fast, Dad! I want to go fast, but they don't want me to go fast,'" he said.

After discovering gymnastics, Muhammad, then only 9 years old, began training herself. She remembers running around her home, doing cartwheels and trying to convey her seriousness to her parents.

Her parents enrolled her at Bright Raven Gymnastics in Rochester, and the first practice felt like coming home.

“I felt like I’ve been there forever,” she said. “I just felt very comfortable, it felt very natural. It was fun to be in a place where I could do those things and not break something. I loved it immediately.”

And it showed. During a showcase for younger students, she wowed the crowd by doing a back bend with a walkover. The coaches stopped, her dad says, and marveled: "Did you just see that?"

Other parents couldn't believe this was Naimah's first gymnastics experience, her dad said.

"They were like no, that can't be," Jason Muhammad said. "But when a child loves what they’re doing, you don’t have to push them to excel, they push themselves."

A year later, she began competing. The pressure of individual success sapped some of the joy from the sport, she said. But once she got to the college level, where gymnastics teams are scored collectively, she rediscovered the fun that had first pulled her in.

“What the team scores, that’s what people remember. That’s what people care about. That’s what helps you regionally and nationally,” she said.

The first of its kind

Even though she was homeschooled, the COVID-19 pandemic threw a wrench in her senior year, including the gymnastics competition season. After graduation, she went to the University of Bridgeport for a month, but it wasn't a good fit. She transferred to SUNY Brockport.

Last February, in the middle of competition season, Muhammad and a friend and teammate learned Fisk was announcing its gymnastics program, the first at any HBCU in the country.

Founded in 1866, the Nashville-based liberal arts college is the oldest institution for higher learning in Tennessee's capital city and the first Black institution to be accredited by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools and to earn a Phi Beta Kappa chapter. The institution is the alma mater of hundreds of influential and historical figures from Ida B. Wells and W.E.B. Du Bois to Nikki Giovanni and Nella Larson to Jedidah Isler and Samuel A. McElwee.

Muhammad began to follow the program's progress. A self-proclaimed “gymnastics nerd,” before and after practices and during her downtime, she watches old gymnastics videos, so she was already familiar with Corrinne Tarver when she was named Fisk’s gymnastic coach. As Assistant Gymnastics Coach at the University of Pennsylvania, Tarver managed choreography, coordinating for balance beam, extensive exercise programs and recruitment efforts. A gymnast in her own right, Tarver was the first Black gymnast to win an NCAA all-around championship.

“I was familiar with Coach T,” Muhammad said. “So they announced that and I kind of freaked out a bit, like, 'OK —that’s a big name in gymnastics.'”

Other names on the roster, including that of a former teammate, impressed her. After mulling over the idea with family and friends, Muhammad sat in on a team meeting, during which she realized it was time for her to transfer schools again.

“It was hard,” she said. “I really did enjoy Brockport. I love the team and the girls there. We did really well and we were undefeated all season. But I just felt like this is something that I’ve always wanted and since it’s happening I should take this opportunity before it escaped me.”

A homecoming

Muhammad's two older siblings had attended HBCUs, but she was truly inspired by Beyoncê's iconic 2018 Coachella performance. Fondly known as "Beychella," the performance, now streaming on Netflix as “Homecoming,” paid tribute to HBCU culture by incorporating a marching band, step show and elements of Black Greek life.

Fisk's new gymnastics program finally made attending an HBCU possible for Muhammad. When Fisk's gymnastics team competed for the first time on Jan. 6 of this year, she had the honor of starting the meet on floor, becoming the first member of the first HBCU team to compete. Muhammad scored 9.600 in floor exercises at Super 16 from Las Vegas, her first competition as a Fisk Bulldog.

Fisk is a small campus, with just over 1,050 students. Everyone, Muhammad says, knows everyone.

“It’s a closer bond and I really like that small community atmosphere,” Muhammad said. “I know the people that work in the cafeteria personally. I can talk to my dean personally, my professors personally. I can talk to the campus escorts and security guards personally.”

Muhammad is also getting all the trimmings of HBCU culture that Beyoncê's performance showcased.

“At Fisk I go to basketball games and I see the majorettes, the Ladies of R.A.G.E.,” she said. “Then on Wednesdays, it’s fried chicken Wednesday. If it’s a really nice day outside, the DJ will be on the yard and everyone will just start line dancing and hanging out. That type of community environment is something that I didn’t really get at Brockport at all, especially with a bunch of people that look like me.”

Fighting for her beliefs

Muhammad is Muslim, so she has always worn leggings while practicing, training and competing. At Bright Raven, her leggings were never an issue, but when competing regionally and nationally, her tights became a problem.

Officials told her she would not be allowed to continue competing if she planned to do so while wearing leggings.

“I feel like if it was any other place, they would have told me to take them off and follow the rules, but my gym really did fight for me and stand by me,” she said. “They wanted me to practice what I believe in without feeling persecuted.”

Coach Bill Costner, known as Coach Cos, was the first Black gymnastics coach Naimah had. He said Bright Raven understood that Muhammad wore leggings as part of her religious beliefs, and that she should not suffer point deductions because of them. He says that the "gym as a whole stood behind her with her beliefs and didn't falter."

The gym debated with USA Gymnastics, making it clear that Muhammad was not going to waver in her beliefs, and the gym would not waver in its support of her.

Jill Greer is chief communications and marketing officer of USA Gymnastics. In a statement, she said, "The topic of tights and unitards has been a topic of discussion within the USA Gymnastics Women’s Technical Committee for more than a decade. Unitards with long legs have been allowed in gymnastics for many years – dating to at least October, 2007, as reflected in the minutes of the Women’s Technical Committee.  Tights and leggings were further specified in 2019-2020."

She also added that shorts were approved as being allowed in 2021-2022.

Jody Micoli was one of Muhammad's coaches at Bright Raven. She clarifies the situation, saying that in 2017 USA Gymnastics came out with a new rule saying that tights could not longer be worn under leotards, but that unitards were acceptable. Unitards, Micoli notes, were significantly more expensive than normal leotards.

By that time, Muhammad had been wearing tights since 2013.

Bright Raven went back and forth with the region about what would be acceptable, and they came to the decision that sewn in or tacked-in tights would be allowed for competition. For the whole season, Muhammad's mother sewed her tights into her leotards.

Now, due in no small part to Muhammad and Bright Raven's efforts, girls are able to compete while wearing tights.

While traveling to different meets, Muhammad's father says they met parents who shared how appreciative they were that Naimah had fought to wear her tights. Now their children would be able to do the same.

"They didn't know it was an option," he said. "That's been the biggest impact. Now her inbox gets flooded by folks who are seeing this and now not only know it’s an option, but know that it’s not an abnormality, if you will. There’s nothing wrong with her because she’s being herself."

Muhammad says she forgot there had ever even been an issue about her wearing tights by the time she got to college. But after her first college meet at Brockport, an NCAA official approached Muhammad’s coach about her tights.

Once again, her coach was supportive of Muhammad’s beliefs and advocated for her. To this day, Muhammad says she is not sure what her coach said, but she ultimately received a waiver allowing her to participate in NCAA competitions while wearing leggings. Muhammad became the first athlete to wear tights at the collegiate level.

Both because of her participation in the first HBCU team and because she has fought for her beliefs to become the first NCAA gymnasts in tights, Muhammad has received an outpouring of support on social media since vaulting onto a national scale on January 6.

A trailblazer

Naimah Muhammad knows firsthand the importance of representation and of having someone to look up to. Now she's an inspiration for other young girls.

This past February, a girl messaged Naimah to tell her that she was doing her Black History Month project about her — just as Muhammad had once done about Gabby Douglas.

"That made me cry," she said. "She sent me pictures of her project, and I was like, 'Wow, that's amazing. I'm part of history now.'"

Coach Cos is always delighted when Muhammad comes home to Rochester because she always makes a point to train and practice at her club gym. While there, instead of just focusing on herself, she also works with younger students. Muhammad says they are excited to show her their new skills. And every time she sees them, they've improved.

"I just want them to know they're my inspiration," she said. "As much as I'm an inspiration to them, they're an inspiration to me ... All of them are like my little sisters, and I'm really honored and happy that I get to have a platform like this to show them that they can do gymnastics on a high level."

This article originally appeared on New York State Team: This HBCU gymnast has made history — twice. Here's how