"Doctors weren’t sure NCAA gymnastics was even going to be possible"- Jordan Bowers opens up about health struggles after NCAA Championship win

Jordan Bowers shared that her doctors were unsure of her NCAA return after she faced a harrowing back injury in 2019, which led her to draw a line to her elite career prematurely. Bowers capped her collegiate career with the individual all-around and team titles at the 2025 NCAA Championships.

Jordan Bowers, who competed in the US women's gymnastics team previously, won junior all-around gold medals at the 2018 Junior Pan American Championships and Pacific Rim Championships. However, at the US Championships that year, the 22-year-old struggled on the apparatuses and withdrew from the second day of the competition, citing an injury.

In 2019, just before her National team camp, she re-injured her back, and it was later revealed that she suffered a spinal disc herniation and an edema on her vertebrae. Soon after, she announced her retirement from elite gymnastics, but before she shifted to the NCAA level, her health professionals expressed doubts.

Talking about it in a recent interview, Jordan Bowers said:

"My doctors weren’t sure NCAA gymnastics was even going to be possible,” Bowers recalls. “And, beyond the physical, I didn’t have a very good relationship with gymnastics at the time."

Bowers also shared how her shift to Oklahoma helped her regain her love for gymnastics.

"...I didn’t truly find my passion for the sport again until I came here. And it’s been the best feeling of my life….There were struggles, of course, but every single day felt worth it.”

Bowers scored 9.9500 in floor routine, 9.9375 on uneven bars, 9.8875 on vault, and 9.9375 on balance beam to clinch the all-around title on the 2025 National finals night. Her achievement made her OU's first all-around champion since Anastasia Webb in 2021.

Jordan Bowers expressed her feelings after earning three perfect scores at the 2025 NCAA Regional Championship finals

Bowers at the 2025 NCAA Women's Gymnastics Championships - (Source: Getty)

Bowers was a force to be reckoned with in the Seattle event, earning three perfect 10s in the vault, uneven bars, and floor exercise, totalling 39.900. She helped her team to the title at the 2025 NCAA Regional Championship, leaving Missouri, Arizona, and Auburn behind.

In an interview later, Jordan Bowers said that she felt the freedom and took the mat just for the love of gymnastics.

"I just felt a sense of like freeness coming into tonight and I really just especially from day one to today, just really wanted to feel the freeness and just give my full confidence and just do my gymnastics what I do every single day, and that's exactly what I did." (Oklahoma Women's Gym X)

Bowers and fellow OU gymnast, Raydel Gamboa, have been dating since 2021 and announced their engagement in 2024.