PARIS – Former University of Denver gymnast and alumna
Lynnzee Brown is in Paris and ready for competition at the 2024 Olympic Games.
Brown, who represents Haiti, will compete in Subdivision 4 of 5 in the artistic gymnastics women's qualification on Sunday, July 28. Subdivision 4 is set to begin at 10 a.m. MT/6 p.m. local time. Coverage of all five qualification subdivisions will be available to stream live on Peacock or watch live on the E! Network.
During Sunday's qualifying meet, Brown will rotate with Mixed Group 3, which also features gymnasts from Czechia (Sona Artamonova), Austria (Charlize Moerz) and Slovenia (Lucija Hribar). The group will begin competition on floor exercise. Also competing in Subdivision 4 are the teams from host France, Canada and South Korea.
Brown is the fourth Denver gymnast to qualify for the Olympics, joining
Jessica Lopez (representing Venezuela in 2008, 2012 and 2016),
Simona Castro (representing Chile in 2012, 2016 and 2020) and
Annamari Maaranen (representing Finland in 2008; did not compete due to injury).
With Brown's appearance in Paris, DU will have had at least one gymnast at each of the last five Olympics.
Before competition gets underway, Brown will attend the Opening Ceremony on Friday, July 26, and has been
selected as flag bearer for Haiti. She will be the first gymnast – male or female – to represent Haiti at an Olympic Games, and she is one of seven Haitian athletes at this year's Games.
Joining Brown in Paris is fellow Denver Gymnastics alumna
Kristina Coccia (2008-11), who is serving as Brown's coach for the Games. The duo previously teamed up at international competitions during Brown's qualification process for the 2024 Games.
Brown received the
universality spot for women's artistic gymnastics, which is awarded to athletes in select sports (including gymnastics) from countries that have averaged eight or fewer athletes over the last two Olympic Games with the intent of diversifying countries represented at the Olympics. Recipients of the gymnastics universality spots must meet additional criteria including attempting to qualify through other routes (such as the World Championships) and achieving internationally-competitive scores.
The Raytown, Missouri, native concluded her six-year career at the University of Denver with a program-record fourth-place finish in the all-around at the 2023 NCAA National Championships. She left DU as one of the most decorated gymnasts in program history, winning an NCAA national title on floor in 2019 and four Big 12 Conference championships including in the all-around in 2021. In total, she accumulated 20 WCGA All-American honors during her collegiate career and set Denver records for all-around score (39.825) and most career perfect 10.0s (five).
Twice, Brown returned from season-ending injuries during her collegiate career. After a first Achilles injury sustained in February 2020, she had one of the most successful single seasons by a Denver gymnast during the 2021 campaign, ending the year ranked as the No. 2 all-arounder in the country and adding top-three national rankings on bars and floor.
In January 2022, she again sustained a season-ending Achilles injury before returning for a sixth year of NCAA eligibility in 2023. In her final collegiate season, she earned three podium finishes at the 2023 NCAA National Collegiate Gymnastics Championships including as the vault co-runner up.
Brown helped lead Denver to some of the program's biggest moments during her career. In 2019, she was a member of the DU team that advanced as one of the four teams in the NCAA Championship Final meet, becoming the first Denver team to compete for the NCAA title and placing fourth overall. Two years later, she helped lead Denver to an upset of then-No. 1 Oklahoma to win the program's first Big 12 Conference Championship in 2021.
In what would be her penultimate collegiate competition, she again helped Denver pull an upset to win the program's second-ever NCAA Regional Championship, defeating a field of three higher-ranked teams in then-No. 3 Michigan, then-No. 6 LSU and then-No. 11 Oregon State to book Denver's sixth team trip to the NCAA National Championships.
She graduated from the University of Denver with a bachelor's degree in media studies in June 2021 and a master's degree in communication management in June 2023. She is currently an assistant coach at Penn State University.
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