Fisk University’s history-making women’s gymnastics team has already broken down barriers for HBCU athletes. Now, the team is ready to share its inspiring story with the world.
According to Deadline, the program will be featured in a new docuseries. Tentatively titled Flipped, the project follows “college gymnastics’ only all BIPOC team as they navigate the pressures of their first season while challenging the stereotypes and norms in women’s athletics. With no university gym of their own, Coach Corrinne Tarver and her gymnastics team at Fisk University, consisting primarily of first-year college students, aim to take on the best in NCAA gymnastics without mitigating or changing who they are as women of color.”
As previously reported by The Root, the team recently competed at its first meet, where they finished in fourth place, a spectacular feat for such a new team. Morgan Price wowed the crowd with an amazing vault that scored a 9.9.
“This is the most aspirational coming-of-age sports story of the year. We have not seen this before and it’s happening in real time,” director Deborah Riley Draper said in a statement. “My work as a filmmaker has always and will always be about unpacking and centering stories of extraordinary Black women as they navigate the intersection of race, gender, and class. Watching this unfold in gymnastics will be a blueprint and a lesson for equity and access.”
It seems like the series will follow a traditional format featuring the coaches, student athletes, parents, and university administrators.
“I am so honored to see this story brought to light in a documentary series,” Coach Tarver said in a statement. “Following this team as it makes history and sharing the courage and fearless nature these student-athletes bring to the mat every day is inspiring to all.”
Featuring Division-I athletes who decommitted from larger programs, the Fisk University gymnastics team competes against high-profile institutions with updated facilities and much larger financial resources. These universities also attract Olympic level athletes. That’s absolutely not a knock against the talented competitors at Fisk, but if the other teams have Olympic gold medalists, that’s going to put you at a disadvantage. Hopefully, this docuseries will help raise the program’s profile and lead to more money and consideration from potential recruits.