By Dave Johnson
W&M Athletics

On the parallel bars routine, the dismount is crucial. You can take the safe approach, but there's not as much reward. Or you can go for it, and accept the risk.

Sam Lee, a graduate student at William & Mary, went for it last weekend in the NCAA Men's Gymnastics Championships. And he stuck the dismount, twice in fact, and came away with a 20th-place finish on the ultimate stage in college gymnastics.

"It was an incredible feeling," Lee said. "It was relief but also excitement that I was able to do what I did."

The dismount is tough enough under the simplest of circumstances. But leading into the championships, Lee was working on a more challenging finish to rack up more points. In practice, he nailed it. But in meets, he didn't.

So with guidance from Mike Powell, director of gymnastics at W&M, Lee went with an easier (comparatively speaking) dismount in the final weeks of the season. Until …

"A week or two before the NCAA Championships, I started to work through that mental block," Lee said. "So we decided to try it in a routine for the first time in at least a month, and it worked out really well for me (last week). So I was really excited I was able to do it."

Gymnastics scoring can be complicated for most of us, but judges award points based on difficulty. For the dismount, a G difficulty rating (0.7 points) is considered excellent. Lee was one of three gymnasts who earned that score last weekend.

"I believe he beat both of them," Powell said of the other two. "The dismount is so highly valued that it's worth taking the risk. He could have done an easier dismount that he could land every time, but we were trying to develop this dismount for championships.

"He stuck the dismount on day one. Then, on day two, he made the finals in the vault and parallel and stuck both."



Lee, who also tied for 22nd on the vault, was one of a school-record five Tribe gymnasts who competed in the finals. He was joined by Evan Wilkins (T-19th floor, 27th P-bars), Luke Tully (20th high bar), Connor Barrow (20th vault) and Niko Greenly (25th P-bars).

It was the first time W&M qualified for the NCAA Championships as a team since 2021, Lee's freshman year. That was especially meaningful to him.

"Going as a team has been a big goal for us every year," Lee said. "Every year, we sent individuals to the NCAA championship but very rarely do we go as a team. It's a very nice touch to the end of my collegiate career going as a team."

Lee got started in gymnastics at 5 years old and took to it quickly. He ended up competing with the Boulder Flyers and won the all-around title at the Colorado Open at the U.S. Olympic Training Center in 2019.

Always a gifted student, Lee wanted to take his gymnastics skills to the collegiate level. He found the right setting.

"Growing up, I valued education just as much as I did athletics, so I wanted to find a place that had a good balance of both," he said. "William & Mary has a very high degree of education but also a high degree of athleticism."

It was a sweet reward.

"I grew up in a gym that allowed only 12 hours of practice a week whereas most guys would train 20-plus hours a week," Lee said. "So I had to learn how to work hard and stay dedicated. That's also carried me through college."

Lee graduated William & Mary last spring with a degree in kinesiology. Next month, he will pick up his Master of Science in Business Analytics. Then, things could get very interesting.

Lee, the middle child of two South Korean immigrants, is a first-generation American. This summer, he plans to leave for South Korea to begin what he hopes will be a journey to the 2028 Olympics in Los Angeles.

"It will be more of an exploration kind of trip," he said. "I want to see what the opportunities are and if there's a possibility to join a professional league or the national team and take steps from there.

"This has been a dream of mine ever since I was young. It's not an opportunity that presents itself to people very often, so if I'm able to do it, I would walk into it with a lot of pride in that I'm able to carry my family name and country with me."