COLUMBUS, Ohio – It’s Saturday night at 8:38 p.m. on April 19, 2025. Chants of ‘Go Blue’ echo through the Crisler Center in Ann Arbor, Mich. at the NCAA men’s gymnastics championships as the host team trails Stanford by 0.537 heading into the sixth and final rotation.
Fifth year Buckeye
Kameron Nelson steps onto the vault runway to lead off the rotation with his last collegiate event as an individual – an event that took his entire career to perfect but will be over in about six seconds. Manifestation. He salutes the judges and takes a breath, feeling the energy of the Block O and the captain’s patch on his chest while calming his heart and his mind. Present. Practice. He takes off down the runway, getting as much power as he can before doing a front handspring onto the vault. Time slows and Buckeye Nation holds its breath as Nelson twists through the air. He opens up and sticks the dismount as the crowd roars with approval – but will it be enough?
“I stuck my vault and I knew [the score] was going to be good but wasn’t sure until it came up. Once it did, I went crazy,” Nelson said. “I went up to all my teammates. I ran up into the stands to my girlfriend and I was super happy. We still had to wait for Michigan to vault and they went and stuck two vaults, which was probably the most nerve-wracking part of the whole meet for me. Even though their starts are a little bit harder, a perfect vault could still potentially get up to that score.”
Five vaults stood between Nelson’s 14.633 and Ohio State’s first NCAA vault champion since Pejman Ebrahimi took the crown in 2007. It had been six years since the Buckeyes’ most recent NCAA champion when Alec Yoder won pommel horse in 2019. Two of the five vaults following Nelson’s were also stuck as the stars shined the brightest on the biggest stage. Was he meant to be an NCAA champion?
“My theme in college has been manifestation,” Nelson explained. “I’m going to get it tattooed and it’s also going to be engraved into one of my rings. It’s about believing something so much that it becomes more of a reality – even before it is one, that’s your reality. I believed so many things coming into college that I really enjoy something that I’m passionate about. I manifested it so much that it became easier to me than if I were to just go along with it just because. Obsession and manifestation for me are two big things I like to focus on because it makes the entire process more fun. It makes the reality easier.”
The manifestation worked as Nelson’s 14.633 held for the highest score in the competition and brought a gold trophy back to Columbus. He beat the runner-up, Asher Hong, by 0.067 – the same margin by which Hong had bested Nelson in the floor competition earlier in the evening. Nelson is known for his strength on floor, making history this season as the first gymnast in the world to compete two triple backs in a single floor routine in January. He made floor his main focus this year and got it down to a science, but after falling just short in the NCAA Championships, he had to immediately move on – and he did, sticking his vault approximately one hour after finishing his floor routine.
“Coming to Ohio State, that was my main goal,” Nelson stated. “I wanted to be one of the national champions. I wanted to be put up on the wall. That’s what I thought being an Ohio State Buckeye was – to leave your mark. It speaks to what I’ve done and those people before. They were my inspiration and the people I always followed and looked up to. I’m glad I could join them.”
In a tightly knit men’s gymnastics community, gymnastics means the world to Nelson. This sport has made him who he is. He’s an extremely hard worker – determined to improve and disciplined enough to make that happen. He’s someone who learned every different style of vault to pick the one that fits him best. He’s someone who looks up to the freshmen as a fifth year and team captain because they helped keep him in a mindset to push harder and continue to get better.
“This was the only sport that really stuck with me,” Nelson said. “I tried other sports, but I really needed this one. If I didn’t have Ohio State and I didn’t have this sport here, I don’t know what kind of person I would be. I’d be completely different but hopefully showing the hard work and the success that can come out of it – hopefully that turns an eye and shows the importance of this sport.”
While the Buckeyes didn’t qualify as a team for this year’s team finals, Nelson qualified as an individual on all three of the events he competed in during the qualifying session – floor, rings and vault. From arriving at Ohio State as a freshman and changing his vault from style to style to find his fit, the coaches and community at Ohio State helped Nelson stay the course and manifest an NCAA title to his name, cementing his legacy as one of the all-time greats in Ohio State men’s gymnastics history.
“It’s something I always felt I was capable of and I never really doubted that I’d be able to do something like this,” Nelson said. “It was more of the outside perspective thought that going to Ohio State wouldn’t allow me to do something like this. People thought other schools were better and while we didn’t make the team finals this year, I feel like this school was the only option for me that could really get me to where I wanted to go. The bond with my coaches is what set me up the most so that when the time came to do it, I felt the most confident to go out there and do what I was meant to do. I said before I even went into the vault that this was meant to be. Before even coming to Ohio State, I wanted to be put up on the wall, which is what happens if you’re a national champion. I felt that this is what was meant to be and so it wasn’t really a surprise to me. I just went out and did my best and that’s how it happened.”
As Nelson’s collegiate career comes to a close and another door opens, hopefully his story of manifestation and determination can help inspire the next generation of gymnasts that they can accomplish what they set out to achieve and leave a legacy that is uniquely their own.
“It’s hit me that my dreams came true.” – Ohio State alumnus and 2025 NCAA vault champion, Kameron Nelson
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