Karl Ziehn, a Cal alumnus and former team captain, is in his second year as an assistant coach for the Golden Bears in 2025.
In the 2025 season, Ziehn helped lead Cal to its top performance of the season with a score of 319.091 on Day 1 of the NCAA Championships, also qualifying seven men to the final. Pommel horse specialist Aidan Li, who had earlier won Regular Season All-America honors and placed third at the MPSF Championships, notched his second-straight All-America nod at the meet with a runner-up finish – highest by any Bear since 2015 and best by a pommel horse specialist since 2012. Both Li and freshman Matteo Bardana were named to the Canadian National Team that year, with Li earning a spot on the Senior squad and Bardana on the Senior Next Gen lineup; Li also picked up CGA and MPSF Specialist of the Week honors during the season, while Bardana received recognition as an MPSF Freshman of the Week. Ziehn also helped coach the Bears to three additional MPSF medals, in addition to Li’s: Jasper Smith-Gordon became Cal’s first MPSF champion since 2018 and its first vault champion since 1987, while Theodor Roald Gadderud took silver in the all-around and bronze on parallel bars.
In 2024, Ziehn helped coach the Bears to their best performance yet at the NCAA Championships, posting their best overall finish (seventh) and highest team score at the NCAA Qualifier in that scoring era (407.158) while qualifying 10 to the final – the program’s most since 2015. Aidan Li, who later went on to become the Canadian pommel horse champion, notched his first-career All-American nod to become Cal’s first in the event since 2014. Jasper Smith-Gordon also picked up his second-straight Regular-Season All-American award. The Bears’ MPSF weekly award-winners included Theodor Roald Gadderud (Gymnast of the Week), Chris Scales (Specialist of the Week) and the trio of Carter Kim, Brendan Strom and Jaxon Mitchell (Freshman of the Week). In total, Cal posted four scores over 400 and set team program records in three events, plus 13 additional top 10s; individuals posted 15 program top-10 scores, including Li’s school record on pommel horse.
Ziehn recently spent seven years (2012-19) as an assistant coach for Stanford's men's gymnastics program, helping lead the Cardinal to a national title in 2019 and assisting in the development of dozens of All-Americans and several National Team members. Throughout his coaching career, Ziehn has been heavily involved with USA Gymnastics, acting as a presenter at USA National Team camps and the USA Gymnastics Congress in addition to accompanying Team USA on multiple occasions as a coach. He has also found considerable success as a leader of youth gymnastics, spending four years as the head coach and program director of Stanford Boys Gymnastics as well as another six years coaching gymnastics, trampoline and tumbling at GymJam Academy - leading several young athletes to gold medals at their respective World Age Group Championships and U.S. Championships.
As a gymnast at Cal, Ziehn recorded the third-best parallel bars score in the program's history (9.85 – old scoring system). He graduated with a degree in environmental science.
