Mizzou gymnastics gears up for season and former teammate’s return

COLUMBIA, Mo. (KMIZ)

Not only is Mizzou gymnastics getting ready to perform for the 2025 season, the team is also preparing to reunite with one of the former faces of its program. Helen Hu announced earlier this week that she will be using her final year of eligibility to return to the Tigers this season.

Hu is a two-time NCAA All-American and three-time All-SEC selection who instantly adds more talent to the Tigers for the upcoming season. She will be focusing on performing on beam during the upcoming campaign and will officially return to the team full-time, following the end of the fall semester on Dec. 14.

Hu stepped away from gymnastics last year to backpack through 14-15 European and Asian countries, spanning from Japan to Finland. Hu actually returned to the United States for her former teammate Adalayna Hufendiek's wedding and stopped by the Mizzou gymnastics facility for a visit. From there, the rest was history.

"It happened pretty quick honestly. Pretty much, the first day I visited the gym, I hopped up on the beam, and I went to see if I could still do a front aerial just to see. It actually went really well. I had a lot of fun. I ended up doing most of my skills on the beam that day," Hu said. "Shannon made the offer that day, kind of an offhand remark like you still have that year, you could come back. I thought he was joking. I didn't take it seriously, but then, he kept talking about it. By the end of the week, I was laying in bed at night unable to fall asleep thinking, 'wow, what if I did beam again'. I couldn't fall asleep because I was so excited at the idea that it was possible for me to re-enter this sport."

You can watch the full press conference with Hu and Mizzou gymnastics coach Shannon Welker in the video player below.

With the 2025 season on the horizon, the team is excited about its potential, returning multiple key athletes and adding several talented transfers and one of the best freshman classes in the nation.

"I do think it's reasonable for us to set goals like we want to be in the top half of the SEC. We feel like we can be in there in that mix. We're shooting for that evening session at the SEC Championships. We're shooting to go to Dallas. I think people definitely believe it, and they believe it because we know we've got the talent to do it, and we've built a really special team," Welker said. "Helen is obviously a great addition to that, but we had a great transfer class. We had a top 10 freshman recruiting class. Our current sophomore class is much better from freshman year, so we're excited about it."

"This team is really amazing. We're looking really strong. There's a lot of depth. There's a lot of really good energy, and I'm so excited to be a part of that," Hu said. "To see where it's come from my freshman year, showing up to meets with us and our moms pretty much that was it, to where it is now, seeing pictures of this entire place packed every row and the excitement people have for not just Mizzou gymnastics but gymnastics as a sport has been really amazing to see, and I'm so excited to be a part of that for just a little bit longer."

MU is working to build on last year's 13-6 season, which included a 5th place finish at the SEC Championships and a trip to an NCAA Regional Final.