UCLA gymnast Nia Dennis opens up about being a young Black athlete: ‘I was always told that I didn’t have the look’

Nia Dennis has gained viral attention for two of her floor performances as a collegiate gymnast for University of California Los Angeles. But it was her most recent routine — done to a medley of songs by influential Black artists from Kendrick Lamar to Megan Thee Stallion and quickly dubbed "#BlackExcellence" on social media — that had so many blown away by the 22-year-old. It's a concept, Dennis tells Yahoo Life, that was born out of her own need to validate her identity as a Black woman.

"For a long time, I wanted my skin color to be different. For a long time, I wanted my hair to fall down and I didn't want it to stick up straight. For a long time, I wished the chalk didn't show up on my legs," she shares. "I wasn't even accepting who I was, so it was so important for me to figure out who I was as a woman, so that not only I could see myself but also so others could see me."

This journey to self-love and acceptance had a pivotal start for Dennis back in 2016, when she tore her achilles and had to let go of her dreams of becoming an Olympic gymnast. "I did not want to do gymnastics ever again," she recalls. "I never wanted to come back to the sport." But with her eyes set on another life goal — to attend UCLA — Dennis ultimately started working to build her confidence back up and, more importantly, explore who she really was.

"I honestly struggled to figure out who I was outside of gymnastics and I just felt like gymnastics defined me. That's all I've done my entire life, and I've dedicated so much time to it," she says. "Then my team at UCLA allowed me the space to grow as a woman and figure out who I am and what I have to offer and bring to the table. [And] further allowed me to express myself, express my personality, let it shine, let it show and remain authentically true to myself, because that's what's most important."

As a junior performing a floor routine to the sounds of Beyoncé's Homecoming documentary, about her historic 2018 Coachella performance, Dennis quickly rose to internet fame, garnering recognition from celebrities like Ellen DeGeneres and Gabrielle Union. Still, she had a tumultuous break before her final season on the team as she recovered from a shoulder surgery and faced the reckoning of the Black Lives Matter movement over the summer.

"That was probably the biggest experience within the progression of me becoming a woman," Dennis says of the country's response to racial injustice. "I just felt like this was everything kind of falling into place."

After the recognition from that Feb. 2020 routine, the gymnast set out to make an even bigger impact with a performance that she titled, "The Culture." And across the internet, the routine became associated with the hashtag #BlackExcellence.

"Black excellence, to me, is a celebration and a highlight of all things excellent that Black people have done, in all categories — in sports and academics, in sciences and medicine, everything," Dennis explains. "It's not that we just bring great things to the community. We excel in the things that we do, so it's just a celebration of all of that."

Even more so, it's become a celebration for Dennis and all that she's overcome to be a successful Black gymnast.

"The gymnastics community as a whole needs to nurture young Black gymnasts because growing up, I was always told that I didn't have the look. I was powerful, I had more muscles, my muscles were more defined," she explains of growing up in the sport. "So then that translated into me not being skinny enough and spilling out of my leotard, like always being fat, or whatever. I was called 'fat' a lot growing up because of my muscles, because I didn't have the classic look or whatever it is that the gymnastics community is so used to seeing."

Although criticism of the sport isn't new — as former Olympians Shawn Johnson, Aly Raisman and Simone Biles have all spoken out about the body image issues that they developed from gymnastics — Dennis hopes that her out-of-the-box performances will positively impact other limitations within the sport.

"We need to honestly nurture, embrace, uplift all gymnasts of all kinds, of all types, all backgrounds, all cultures, because we all have something different to bring to the table. Not all gymnasts have the same style," Dennis says. "Gymnastics is fun and it should be fun and we should be allowed to express ourselves in different ways and let our personality shine through without feeling like if we do we're in the wrong, or we're pushing boundaries."

Luckily, Dennis now has the support of former first lady Michelle Obama.

"Now that's what I call fierce!" Obama tweeted of Dennis's routine. "You're a star."

Dennis calls her viral fame a "dream come true," while admitting that she does feel some pressure to continue to make a difference in her community and beyond.

"It literally just fills me up with so much love and joy to know that I am making that impact for younger girls and younger gymnasts and younger Black gymnasts," she says. "I definitely want to have an impact outside of gymnastics, as well."

Read more from Yahoo Life:

• Aly Raisman talks fighting self-doubt and working out for 'peace between the ears'

• Addison Rae reveals mental toll of having 70 million TikTok followers: 'A lot of it has to do with body image'

• Michael B. Jordan reflects on the pandemic and loss of friend Chadwick Boseman: 'Time is not promised'

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