This feature originally appeared in the 2024-25 Winter edition of the Cal Sports Quarterly. The Cal Athletics flagship magazine features long-form sports journalism at its finest and provides in-depth coverage of the scholar-athlete experience in Berkeley. Printed copies are mailed four times a year to Bear Backers who give annually at the Bear Club level (currently $600 or more). For more information on how you can receive a printed version of the Cal Sports Quarterly at home, send an email to CalAthleticsFund@berkeley.edu or call (510) 642-2427.
 

It is June 6, 2024, and Aidan Li is competing at the Canadian Championships as a senior gymnast for the first time.
 
A newly minted All-American – the California men's gymnastics team's first in three years – the Ottawa, Ontario, native knew he had a shot at a gold medal but refused to outright expect it. He was, after all, just one of 28 talented gymnasts set to appear on his lone event – the pommel horse, which would explode into the public consciousness less than two months later thanks to the United States' Stephen Nedoroscik and his medal-clinching final routine of the team competition at the 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris.
 
True single-event specialists like Nedoroscik and Li are rare. Li himself was one of only three competing for a Canadian title in 2024. Gymnastics lineups generally favor all-arounders or multi-eventers who have several chances to increase their team's point total while taking up just a single spot on the strictly limited competition roster. A coach granting a spot to a specialist is an incredibly strong indicator of trust, which Li earned from Cal head coach JT Okada practically the instant he set foot on campus. Over his collegiate career, Li has competed 40 times for the Golden Bears, each time on the pommel horse alone.
 
The competition in Quebec ended up being a microcosm of Li's collegiate season leading up to that meet -  after faltering in Session I to finish the first day of the event in seventh place, he delivered an outstanding routine in Session II two days later that outdid the rest of the field by just over one-third of a point – enough for a combined score that earned him the top spot on the podium to cement himself as the best in the nation.
 
It was a long time coming. Prior to the 2024 campaign, Li's preseason training drew raves from Okada, who called his newest routine "absolutely world-class." As the lineup's anchor man, Li was expected to set the standard in every meet, the presumed top scorer of Cal's five pommel horse competitors.
 
It didn't quite work out that way; not at first. Li's first few routines of the year were marred by deductions, triggered by breakdowns in technique.
 
"I may be pushed a little too hard in preseason," Li said. "I was peaking then and started the season on a downtrend."
 
Nearly a month went by before Li crossed the coveted 14-point barrier, posting the team's best score at a dual meet with Oklahoma. It took another two months for him to reach that mark again at the MPSF Championships, after the regular season had already concluded, and Li had experienced more than his fair share of frustration.
 
"I try to have a 'new week, new competition' approach in the next practice if I don't perform," he said. "What's big for me is numbers – putting in the work through repetitions in routines. They help me build confidence."
 
Those countless repetitions helped his scores trend upward at just the right time – Li finished second at the MPSF Championships to start off the Bears' postseason and shattered the 2019 modern program record set by teammate Darren Wong (a mark which he wasn't particularly trying to set, but he admits is nice to have). That was followed by an even better routine on the first day at the NCAA Championships that easily qualified him to the final for the second straight year.
 
To be named an All-American this time around, Li would need to improve by 18 spots or better from his 26th-place finish in 2023 – and unlike the Canadian Championships that would follow, he needed to do so based on his session II result alone.
 
On that day – April 20, 2024 – Li was the first man up in Rotation Five, the 29th gymnast of the day to tackle the pommel horse.  As the livestream announcer remarked favorably on his strength and stability, Li's hands paced back and forth across the horse to support the powerful circles formed by his swinging legs. His form broke briefly late in the routine, legs separating from their proper tightly pressed position, but Li drew on his experience to recover well and close out his performance with a decisive dismount.
 
To the side, Okada raised his fists in triumph. Never one for the chest-pounding and vocal roars of his teammates, Li allowed himself a small smile, a few claps and a shrug before turning his attention back to the floor to watch the next routine. Thirteen more gymnasts still had to compete before he found out if he had done what he came to do.
 
In the end, he had – Li finished the night in a tie for seventh place with Ohio State's Parker Thackston. As the two young men stood in their proper podium spot, one hand apiece on their shared trophy, Li looked more relieved than anything.
 
 "I'm glad I finally got one," he said before the ceremony.
 
Li's final collegiate season will be marked by change. He is now enrolled in a mechanical engineering graduate program, which brings a new schedule to juggle with his training. Li is also looking for career opportunities so he can be assured of his professional path after receiving his master's degree.
 
The men's gymnastics landscape has changed as well – new NCAA rules have shrunk the number of athletes per lineup and the number of gymnasts allowed to compete at a single meet, leaving even less room for specialists like Li.
 
"They'll have to be pretty high-level," Okada said. "There will be more pressure. They'll have to raise their game to justify their spot in the competition lineup."
 
Men's gymnastics at the collegiate level had been losing momentum in recent years - Cal is just one of 15 universities that field an NCAA squad, and only nine of the 96 men that competed at the Paris Olympics this past year had also competed in the NCAA. Still, with the elevated public interest after Nedoroscik's performance in Paris, Okada sees a path for its resurgence.
 
"Now, when you ask people to 'name one men's gymnast,' they'll say 'the pommel horse guy,'" Okada said. "There's a heightened awareness that there are successful men's gymnasts competing in the USA. It doesn't seem so obscure anymore."
 
For one more year, Li will be one of them. So where does he go from here?
 
There's plenty he can do, even after checking multiple items off his bucket list. It's important to Li that Cal remains a competitive squad on pommel horse, so he wants to pass on his knowledge to the younger members of the team to help them develop, taking up the mantle as a leader and mentor figure from former teammate Will Lavanakul (Cal's previous pommel horse anchor).
 
"Aidan has really grown in his communication," Okada said. "We always knew he had opinions about things, but he didn't always voice them. Now, he's found that voice."
 
On a personal level, Li naturally hopes to repeat as an All-American and claim an even higher spot on the podium. He's also thinking a little bigger: someday soon, Li hopes to appear on an international stage, wearing a uniform with "Canada" written across the chest – its team's own "pommel horse guy."
 
Now that he knows he can win at a high level, there's no reason for him to stop, even after college.
 
 "The goal," he says, "is to continue competing."