What felt special on Friday night now feels significant.
LSU sophomore Kailin Chio was named SEC Gymnast of the Week on Tuesday, adding official recognition to a performance that already carried weight inside the PMAC. It was her second weekly SEC honor of the 2026 season and the 11th of her career, a number that continues to grow quickly but never seems to change the way she talks about her gymnastics.
The SEC honor was quickly celebrated by many of Chio’s current and former teammates, both inside the gym and across social media. Ashley Cowan summed it up simply, writing, “just a regular day in the office,” a nod to how routine Chio’s excellence has become for those closest to her. Olivia Dunne was even more concise, responding with a single word, “HER,” a familiar shorthand that carried plenty of weight. There were also messages and likes from Haleigh Bryant, Aleah Finnegan, Madison Ulrich, Kaliya Lincoln, and Emily Innes, and many more!
The weekly award came after LSU’s record-setting home opener, a 198.050 showing against Kentucky that pushed the Tigers to 3-1-1 on the season. Chio led the meet with a season-high all-around score of 39.775, now the second-highest all-around total in the country through four weeks.
Still, the night keeps circling back to balance beam.
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Chio’s perfect 10.00 was the first on beam by any gymnast in the nation this season and the second perfect score of her career. The building erupted. The score went up. History followed. And Chio stayed exactly the same.
“The beam lineup has been so rock solid from the beginning,” she said. “Lexi (Zeiss) going in and then Konnor (McClain) going in, they just rocked beam. I didn’t even feel nervous going up. They set me up so well and I just wanted to do my best routine for them and get the score we needed for this team, whether it was a 10 or not.”
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Her head coach saw the moment the same way.
“I think too she does that every day in practice so it’s not shocking for us to see,” Jay Clark said afterward. “It’s exciting to see the 10 but it’s nothing new for us.”
That perspective fits the rest of Chio’s night. She posted scores of 9.950 on vault, 9.900 on bars, the perfect 10 on beam, and a 9.925 on floor. She finished with the highest scores on vault and in the all-around while also claiming the beam title, giving her three event wins in one meet.
Those performances have already added up to seven titles this season and 30 for her career, remarkable numbers for a sophomore only three meets into year two. Yet nothing about her approach feels rushed or inflated.
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“I’m doing my gymnastics for this team,” Chio said. “At the end of the day, we want a national championship.”
LSU will look to carry that momentum on the road this week when the Tigers travel to Columbia for an SEC matchup against Missouri. But regardless of where the season goes next, Chio’s perfect ten already feels less like a peak and more like a snapshot of who she is becoming.
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