LSU Gymnast Kailin Chio claims her 9th SEC Freshman of the Week Honor
Tina Howell • March 18, 2025
It's another week and another honor for LSU Gymnastics freshman Kailin Chio, who has just won her ninth career SEC Freshman of the Week honor. This breaks the previous single season record by any freshman in the conference since the award began in 2009.
Chio shares the Week 11 honor with Oklahoma’s Addison Fatta after both freshmen put up a 39.650 in the all-around last Friday. Chio now has the most SEC Freshman of the Week honors in SEC history, breaking the previous record of eight set by Florida’s Kayla DiCello’s in 2023. Chio also holds the LSU record for the most SEC awards by a gymnast in their first season. She surpassed Haleigh Bryant’s previous record of five in 2021.
Chio recorded her first career perfect 10 in the Tigers regular season finale against No. 14 Auburn last Friday. She became the first freshman in the country to earn a 10 this season after her flawless yurchenko one and a half on vault and her 10 on vault was only the third in the country so far this season.
She put up a strong performance to add to LSU’s season high road victory last Friday, recording scores of 9.900 on bars and 9.925 on floor on top of her perfect 10.0 on vault. She took home the vault title on the night, her 20th title this season and sixth on the event, winning at least one title in all but one competition so far this year.
In only her first year as a Tiger, Chio has earned a spot among the top five gymnasts in the nation for four straight weeks, currently ranking No. 5 in the all-around with her NQS of 39.670. She also sits in the top 10 nationally in the vault and beam rankings, including the No. 1 spot on vault with her NQS of 9.955 on the event.
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