The Minnesota Gopher gymnast, after helping lead the team in Four On The Floor at the NCAA 2026 in her debut season, is now focused on the 2028 Olympics. She shared her take on the next major hurdle of qualifying for the big event.

Emma Slevin, the 23-year-old Galway native from Ireland, has shifted to the United States to train at the Minnesota Gophers. Currently, as she hones her skills at Minnesota, a bigger challenge for her is to work on the qualifying process of the 2028 Olympic Games, balancing everything.

"(Olympic qualification) is definitely a difficult process," the Irish gymnast, Slevin, said in conversation with RTE Inside Sports. "But next year, 2027, in October we'll have world championships and that will be the qualifier for the all-around individual."

She is at the peak of her career with her recent capture of the FIG Senior All-Round National Champion title.

Emma mentioned how, from January to April, the continuous competitions provided her with the exact consistency she needed to build the momentum to qualify for the 2028 Olympics. This consistency was a gap she experienced at home due to sparsely scheduled competitions.

Right now, her primary goal is to build that momentum during the qualifying window, while acknowledging that she will have to push harder to accomplish her dreams.

“So that's the goal to get there and hopefully qualify out of there," Slevin said. "The standards are so high and I think to be at that level, it takes a lot of sacrifice. But you want to be top-24 all-around of the world, so difficult but nothing that's not achievable which is exciting to know."

The road to Los Angeles will be a demanding process for Slevin, but she has proven through her accolades how to reach the top, reminding us of her great caliber to win big titles.

Emma Slevin’s Gymnastics Milestones

Slevin has established herself as a pioneer in Irish women's artistic gymnastics long before her collegiate career started in the US.

In 2018, she was the flagbearer for her country at the Youth Olympic Games. Her breakthrough came in 2021 when she became the first Irish female gymnast to qualify for the All-Around finals in the European Championships.

In her NCAA collegiate career, she helped Minnesota reach the “Four on the Floor” final for the very first time in history, making her way in her debut season.

Competing against 109 gymnasts from 38 countries, Emma Slevin set a milestone for Ireland by qualifying for the Senior All-Around Top-24 Final with 50.432 points.

As she prepares for the European Championships scheduled for August and the 2027 qualifying championships, her past record stands as a benchmark for her that nothing is impossible.

Read more at Gymnastics Digest.

Written by

Sebi Mehta

Edited by

Soheli Tarafdar