Defying Gravity and Reaching Perfection: An Interview with Lily Smith

Courtesy of Red Bull

Lily Smith must have wings, because she can fly!

A junior at Georgia, Smith is one of the best and most consistent collegiate gymnasts in the nation. She's a five-time All-American, has reached perfection, has competed at nationals, and has done beam on a skyscraper!

Thanks to Red Bull, I had the opportunity to sit down with Smith and discuss her gymnastics career, goals, NIL (name, image, and likeness), and the advice she'd give to younger gymnasts.

Smith started gymnastics when she was seven years old, and it was something she just did for fun: "My sister's best friend did gymnastics, and I always looked up to her. I was like, 'Mom, I really want to try gymnastics!' So, I ended up going to the same gym as her, and I've loved it ever since then!"

When she got to high school, her gymnastics career grew more serious, and she knew she wanted to pursue it further:

The summer going into your junior year is when you're allowed to reach out to colleges and coaches. Georgia was actually the first call that I had. The whole recruiting process was a lot to handle, but it was also so much fun. When I visited Georgia, it stood out to me: walking on campus, seeing how the team interacted with the coaches, and just their environment during practice, I loved everything about it. People always say you'll know your college when you step on campus, and I didn't believe that, but when I was on Georgia's campus, I just knew it was where I wanted to go, and I'm so happy with my decision. I love it!

Gymnastics is a very individual sport at the club level, but it becomes a team sport in college. "It really matters how your team does overall, and I love how we all support each other, we have each other's backs, and we all have the same goal in mind."

Meet day routines are simple, with treatment, team lunch, and a team meeting before warmups, but Smith shared her musts on meet days: she and her roommate, Holly Snyder, braid each other's hair, a tradition they've had every meet since their freshman year. She also, of course, has to have a Red Bull on meet days.

The success Smith found in college was instant. In only the third meet of her collegiate career, she scored a perfect 10 on bars! "Coming out of the gates and getting a 10 was such an amazing feeling, especially seeing all my coaches and teammates so happy," Smith said.

Smith also recently scored her first perfect 10 on floor: "I think that was the loudest the Steg (Stegeman Coliseum) has ever been, people were cheering before I even finished! It really just makes me realize all my hard work paid off, and it's such a good feeling to see all of my teammates getting emotional when I got the 10 on floor. It made me emotional, it was such an exciting way to end the meet."

At the time of this article, Smith has the highest average floor score in the nation with a 9.964 and is second in national qualifying score (NQS) with a 9.960 behind only Jordan Chiles. She has scored a 9.925 or better on floor in every meet this season, including that perfect 10.

Courtesy of Red Bull

Smith competes on bars, beam, and floor. Her favorite event to train is bars, but her favorite to compete in is floor because of the ability it gives her to show off her personality and interact with the crowd. Her beautiful lines and grace on her three events have often led to comparisons to Nastia Liukin, which she embraces.

"Nastia Liukin was my favorite gymnast growing up. Everyone said I'm her twin. I just love her gymnastics, she's a gorgeous gymnast, so I feel honored to be [compared to her]."

In addition to Liukin, Smith has also been inspired by Simone Biles, especially for her openness regarding mental health in gymnastics.

"She's an amazing gymnast, she's the GOAT, and with all the things she dealt with in the Olympics, the mental aspect of it is just something that really stands out and something I can relate to her with. It shows a lot of her character that she was able to come forward about it and realize that she had to take a step back."

With the mental aspect involved in gymnastics, many gymnasts strive for perfection, but they can become lost in that quest. Smith said she's learned from the sport that "you don't have to be perfect! A lot of gymnasts have that perfection mindset, and you need to learn that setbacks are ways to help you improve."

Courtesy of Red Bull

Smith also shared the lessons that gymnastics has taught her and how the sport has helped her grow as a person: "You need to be very disciplined. There's going to be times when you don't want to do something, but you have to show up, you have to do it. And sometimes, [you have to learn to] be comfortable in the uncomfortable."

While college brings a lot of new opportunities to gymnasts and brings a shift in mindset and perspective, NIL deals have brought about new opportunities that gymnasts never had before.

"NIL has made a huge impact for me because before, gymnasts couldn't profit off their name, image, and likeness, and it makes such a huge difference. I'm able to do what I love, but also make money from it, and create these amazing relationships with amazing brands that I know will support me throughout my whole career," Smith said.

Smith signed with Red Bull in 2025, the first NIL gymnast to do so. She said her experience with them has been amazing, and it's one of the coolest brands she's ever signed with. "They're always supporting me and checking in on me. The things I've been able to do, I wouldn't have been able to do them without Red Bull."

Courtesy of Red Bull

One of the things Red Bull gave Smith the chance to do was a unique challenge: a beam routine on top of a skyscraper! Smith did her routine, to its full difficulty, on a nine-and-a-half-foot high beam (twice the normal height), 52 stories up, in the natural elements of Manhattan:

Red Bull reached out to me, and we all came up with the idea. It was about a year in the making, with so many calls talking about all the little details, and we would build on each call. It took a while for it to actually come to life. Doing a beam routine on top of a building was absolutely insane. It was something that I never thought I would have the opportunity to do, but thanks to Red Bull, I was able to [make it happen]. It was such a unique thing, and I was able to show gymnastics differently: usually, you're just seeing the sport inside an arena, but I was able to do it outside and on top of a building. It was really cool to show a different side of gymnastics and promote the gymnastics world in a different way.

This experience let Smith focus on what she could control and trust her mind, body, and skills. And even with the challenge, she still enjoyed it. "I had a little nerves, obviously that was anticipated, but I was able to have a practice day the week prior to get a visual of my surroundings and know what it was going to end up feeling like, so that helped a lot. And honestly, once I was up there doing my beam routine, I just kind of blocked out everything, and it was just me and the beam. It ended up feeling the same as doing it inside an arena; the height didn't really make a huge impact. It was a lot of fun, and I'll never forget it," Smith said.

Courtesy of Red Bull

I asked Smith what advice she would give to younger gymnasts.

"Just keep working hard every single day in the gym. The process can be stressful, but learn to enjoy it and be present in the moment," Smith said. "I feel like a lot of gymnasts doubt themselves a lot, so just know that you deserve this and you've worked hard and put in the time. You deserve all these opportunities."

Smith shared her and the GymDogs' goals for this season: "I definitely want to get more 10s. That's the big one, but also just staying consistent. I feel like on floor, I've been super consistent, but I really want to lock in on bars and beam, and continue to just build every meet and build my confidence up. And as a team, we just keep improving each competition. [We want to] make it to Nationals, that's our goal."

Edited by Mithzi Silva