Mizzou's Kaia Tanskanen has been groomed for gymnastics greatness

“As soon as I missed Paris, I was like, I'm going to L.A.,” she said. "I have to go.”

Now a junior at Mizzou, Tanskanen is heading to her fourth World Championships in Rotterdam, Netherlands, which kick off this weekend. She is attempting to get one step closer to the 2028 Olympics. 

A family affair

Gymnastics runs in her blood. She was born in Howell, Michigan, to an American mother and a Finnish father, both gymnastics coaches. She first entered a gym four days after she was born. As soon as she could crawl, she was enrolled in gymnastics classes. Her father, Juha Tanskanen, was a Finnish national team member in the 1990s before becoming a coach for his younger brother, Jani, who won gold medal in the high bar at the 1997 World Championships.

Her mother, Kim, was a gymnast for the University of Iowa in 1985. Juha was invited to coach the U.S. junior men’s national team at a gym in Michigan, where he met Kim in 2003. The two began coaching together in Michigan before opening their own gym in 2010. MEGA Gymnastics is located in Novi, Michigan. Her mother also helps run a second location in Grand Blanc.

Kaia’s gymnastics journey is a family affair. Every leap, flip and turn was done with her parents by her side, and her Olympic fire burned bright from the day she first hit a vault table.

“Why don't we compete for Finland,” Juha asked his 14 year-old daughter.

"No, not doing that at all,” she replied.

When Juha suggested representing Finland, Kaia had reservations. She grew up competing in the USA Gymnastics system, dreaming of representing the U.S. at the Olympic Games. However, an ankle injury in her fifth metatarsal set her back, allowing her parents to think about what was best for their daughter’s career.

“What if I can’t communicate with my teammates? I will have to learn to compete with different people in a different country,” Kaia thought to herself.

Kaia’s parents decided to enter her in the 2019 Junior Finnish Championships when she was a freshman in high school at age 14. She finished third. Kaia was ready to begin representing her father’s home country, where she has held citizenship since she was 10 years old. While Kaia grew up visiting family in Finland about once a year, she began spending more time in the country after representing it on the international stage.

The country quickly went from her father’s home to hers in the span of that year.

“It has meant a big deal for me to see her on the Finnish National Team,” Juha said. “Not only has she represented the country and our family beautifully on the competition floor, but she also has embraced and adopted the Finnish culture as well.”

Mother-daughter connection

It was always Kaia and her mother, from the day she began her gymnastics career. No matter the moment, her mom stood by her side, taking charge of competitions, routines and the daily structure in the gym. Kaia has learned to cherish each adventure with her mother.

“As I'm getting older and I realize all she's done for me, I learned I just need to take in the moments as they come and let them sink in,” Kaia said. “I get to do this with the person I love so much and who's always supported me, taken care of me, and gotten me to the spot I am now.”

Gymnastics is a Tanskanen passion. Her younger brother, Ari, also grew up as a gymnast. Many athletes who are coached by their parents keep the gymnastics talk in the gym, but the Tanskanens’ love for the sport makes it difficult not to discuss Kaia’s skills, how she could change her routines, and the sport in general.

A typical evening in their household is filled with gymnastic conversations, with one after the other vocalizing what Kaia should try in the gym the next day. The exchanges are woven into the family’s nightly routine. While the family is sitting around the dinner table, an idea for Kaia’s routine may pop up, and immediately Kaia is rushing to the nearest pen and grabbing a paper towel to calculate how these new skills could change the difficulty of her routine.

“If we have an idea, I'll be like, ‘What if I try this skill?’ And then my mom will say, ‘I think you could do this.’ And even my dad sometimes adds, ‘Can you send me some videos from practice, or do you have any videos you can show me?’ We're just always talking about gymnastics,” Kaia said.

Kaia hopes to turn that passion into a career by following in her parents’ footsteps as a future gymnastics coach for elite or college gymnastics. Her father is currently an assistant coach for the University of Michigan men’s gymnastic team, while her mother continues coaching at MEGA.

Kaia has been training with her mother in Michigan to prepare for the upcoming World Championships. Kaia remembers the gym always being a place to excel in her sport and a supportive environment from the athletes surrounding her. Kaia returned to the gym after her sophomore year of college earlier this summer, and found many of the younger gymnasts were discouraged and unmotivated, constantly comparing themselves to gymnasts around the country. Kaia realized she needed to bring the same determination she had in her career to these young athletes as she began helping her mom's clients.

“I think this year I've seen a shift in them,” Kaia said about the gymnasts. “I think they're just starting to believe in themselves more, so they're more motivated to do the skills. It helps that I'm there because I have the elite mindset.”

Kaia is getting the opportunity to launch her coaching abilities while also achieving her goals. MEGA gymnastics is filled with athletes from all age groups. From 6-year olds to high school athletes pursuing college dreams, Kaia takes time out of her own training to help her teammates achieve bigger and better skills.

Her calm demeanor translates into a supportive coaching style. Kim has seen her daughter apply her experiences into her coaching, recalling times that Kaia struggled with her own mental blocks, disappointments and setbacks. Through her career, Kaia has learned to accept that struggles are what comes with being an athlete.

“I am especially proud when she is willing to share those experiences with younger athletes or someone going through something similar,” Kim said. “There is strength in being able to say, ‘I've struggled with this, too,’ rather than pretending the journey has always been easy.”

Putting Missouri and Finland on the map

Prior to beginning her NCAA career at Missouri in fall 2024, Kaia represented Finland at two World Championships, in 2022 and 2023. This event is the most prestigious gymnastics competition outside of the Olympics. Kaia has competed with the best gymnasts in the world. NCAA gymnastics is known for being a more relaxed environment than elite gymnastics due to the team atmosphere. The laidback atmosphere allows athletes to compete with more freedom and with teammates alongside.

The 2025 Tigers made history, qualifying to their first-ever Four on the Floor at the NCAA Championships. Kaia was a key contributor on vault and floor throughout the season.

A small foot injury kept Kaia off the floor at the start of the year. In March 2025, Mizzou hosted Georgia. Entering the meet against the Bulldogs, she was slated to compete only on vault. Missouri had been dealing with multiple illnesses, causing a last-minute lineup change mid-meet. It was up to the then-freshman to make her floor debut, and she did so with ease. Kaia demonstrated immense power throughout the routine, executing a difficult full twisting-double back, soaring to a score of 9.900.

She became the third Tiger to earn a 9.900 in an event debut since 2020, and Missouri immediately found its next floor star. Kaia kept her momentum going through the rest of 2025, earning two 9.875s at the Regional Championships, and a 9.8875 to contribute to Missouri’s third place finish at the NCAA Championships, the best finish in program history.

Kaia keeps a rigorous training schedule, often staying at her practices longer than her collegiate teammates to work on her more difficult skills. Just two weeks after the NCAA Championships in April 2025, Kaia flew to Finland to begin her elite gymnastics season. Elite gymnasts are required to perform double the number of skills in their routines compared to the NCAA, while also increasing their difficulty. College scoring is capped at a 10.0, while elite gymnastics is open-ended, meaning there is no limit on the level of difficulty athletes can include.

Typically, gymnasts pursue their Olympic dreams and then attend college. Few have attempted to excel in both categories simultaneously. There has been a slow shift in gymnasts juggling both, initiated by U.S. Olympic gymnasts Jordan Chiles and Jade Carey following the 2021 Olympics. Kaia has also been a part of this shift, but the pool of gymnasts finding success in both is still extremely rare. Roughly 3,500 athletes competed in college gymnastics, while just five gymnasts who qualified for the 2024 Olympics also participated in the NCAA season that same year, including Carey. At the 2026 World Championships, less than 10 competitors are also active NCAA gymnasts among the nearly 200 gymnasts slated to compete. Kaia is a part of that exclusive list.

Kaia’s success has helped put Mizzou gymnastics on the world stage. Her experience at the 2025 World Championships in Jakarta, Indonesia, was simply magical. Kaia’s goal in Jakarta was to qualify for her first World Championships all-around final.

After a major mistake on beam during the qualification round, Kaia knew she needed a strong floor routine to qualify for the final. The arena went silent as her energetic music began. In the distance, her boyfriend, Robert, and her father were audible cheering loudly from the stands as she completed. Her mother stood close to the apparatus, analyzing each moment. The music amplified as the routine continued and the audience clapped to every beat. The routine showcased one of the hardest exercises of the championships with a difficult double twisting double back tumbling pass.

She said finishing 11th on floor in qualifications as one of the highlights of her career thus far. The routine was more than enough to secure her spot in the all-around final where she took the stage as the only active NCAA gymnast. She exuded joy throughout the entire competition, soaring to a 15th place finish.

“Being out here with the best of the best gives me a lot of confidence to keep building and keep growing,” Kaia said following the competition.

Her success in 2025 has set her up well on the road to the LA 2028 Olympic Games.

Should Tanskanen qualify in 2028, she would become the first Finnish female gymnast to compete at an Olympics since 2012. Tanskanen would also become the first member of her family to compete on gymnastics' biggest stage.

Home in COMO

Kaia would be the first Mizzou gymnast to ever compete at the Olympics should she qualify in 2028. Her Mizzou teammates are in awe of the work she puts in every day in the gym.

“It’s a very special experience to be able to watch her compete around the world and to compete with her in college,” said teammate Ayla Acevedo. “She puts her heart and soul into gymnastics, so to see her work so hard in training and to watch it pay off in competition is very fun to watch.”

Acevedo is one of Kaia’s roommates alongside Olivia Kelly. Their house is filled with laughter. You can find them watching “Love Island” together, making endless TikTok videos and enjoying their college experience. The trio forms a tight support system. While Kaia competes all over the world, the three orchestrate a Facetime call three times a month to keep in touch.

Her Mizzou coaches are steadfastly in her corner. They help her achieve her goals, adjust her schedule to best fit her plan, and are always sending encouraging messages, even when she is on the opposite side of the world.

“It just takes somebody really locked in, and somebody really driven, and somebody that just really loves it too,” Missouri head coach Shannon Welker said about Kaia. “I think there's a lot of things working in her favor, but the biggest thing is her drive and her perseverance. She's never lost sight of her goals. Not only going to World Championships but wanting to go to the Olympics. I think it's very admirable because I think it would be easy just to say, ‘You know what, I'm finished with that.’ But at no point has she ever doubted that.”

Not only is Kaia excelling in her athletic career, but Welker also mentions that she has one of the highest GPAs on the roster, proving that she gives her all academically as well.

The Olympic dream fuels her. While she is focused on LA, the 2032 Olympics in Brisbane is something she is considering, but admits she is taking everything one day at a time. Tanskanen’s entire gymnastics career has been built on family values. Her mom reminds her of that every day in the gym.

“Whether I am standing beside her as her coach or simply as her mom, I want her to know that I am here for Kaia, the person, first,” Kim said. “The gymnastics journey is something we get to share, but being her mom will always be the most important role I have.”

Kaia’s father has immensely enjoyed this journey. As he watches his daughter grow, he realizes these moments do not last forever and wants to soak in each competition.

“We know one day the journey will end, but we will enjoy every day until that day arrives,” Juha said. “Whatever life brings after that, she is prepared for.”

As the Los Angeles Olympics approach, Kaia is looking for one thing.

“If I make it, I'm just going to be happy that I accomplished my goal that I missed in 2024,” Kaia said. “I'm just going to be excited that I had my redemption.”

Catch Tanskanen competing at the World Gymnastic Championships starting Sunday 18 at 9 a.m.