Landen Blixt was a member of the 2025 NCAA Championship-winning Michigan men’s gymnastics team, but he didn’t play the role he expected.
An ACL tear early in the season relegated him to the sidelines, where all he could do was cheer on his teammates as they won the title. Now recovered, the senior is beyond excited to compete with his team at the 2026 championship meet this weekend before vying for a spot on the 2028 United States Olympic team.
“My role changed last year, but the goal stayed the same,” Blixt told The Michigan Daily. “I like to say that a lot, but selfishly… I was done being a cheerleader.”
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Like many gymnasts, Blixt’s career started early. At home, he walked on deck rails and used his bunk bed to do tricks.
“You name it, he flipped on it,” Landen’s mother, Mollie Blixt, told The Daily. “He did a handstand on it, he stood on it, he balanced on it.”
It didn’t take long for Landen’s parents to put him in gymnastics. He took to it quickly, surprising his parents with his performance in his first meet. He started winning meets early and receiving trophies, even though he didn’t always understand why he was receiving them.
“When he won his first little trophy, he thought he won it because he did a handstand,” Landen’s father, Steven Blixt, told The Daily. “That’s how naive they were, how much he just was having fun with it, not knowing that he won the meet.”
Landen’s career took off, and it wasn’t too long before he found himself competing at the national level. In his first national meet — the 2016 Men’s Junior Olympic National Championships — at 11 years old, Landen finished seventh in the all-around competition. His current Wolverines teammate, senior Fred Richard, finished fifth.
Landen continued performing at a high level over the next several years. At the same meet in 2017, he finished fifth in his age group. In 2018, he finished second, and in 2019, third.
“He was always in practice when he was supposed to be, he’d come like 30 minutes early, and start working on the trampoline, getting skills, and before you start to actually work out,” Landen’s childhood coach, George Gagua, told The Daily. “He’d also always follow the rules. I didn’t have any problems, like at all, for more than 10 years. It’s every coach’s dream to have that kind of gymnast.”
Finishing in the top 10 at every national meet, Landen’s discipline and work ethic drove his early success and set up his future.
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After COVID-19, Landen’s path really began to take shape. At the 2021 Men’s Development Program National Championships, he took first in the all-around, winning floor exercise in the process. In 2022, he placed second in the all-around, this time winning rings and vault in addition to floor. And in that same year, Landen enrolled at Michigan.
“I’ve had my eyes on Michigan ever since I was 5 years old,” Landen said. “My room was painted blue and maize… Because I live in Michigan, it was nice to have nationals where you would see the Michigan coaches coming to recruit you and talk to them. It was a surreal experience because you’re begging to be on their team.”
During his first season with the Wolverines, Landen excelled. In his first conference meet, a win over Ohio State, Landen took home the floor title. He finished the season sixth in the all-around at the Big Ten championship meet — earning First-Team All-Conference honors — and 10th at the NCAA Championships.
Landen’s sophomore year got off to a similar start as he won the floor title in Michigan’s first dual meet. The next month at Winter Cup, he retained his spot on the National Development Team with a strong performance. While he didn’t compete in the all-around during the postseason, Landen won the Big Ten floor exercise title and finished fourth in the NCAA event final on the apparatus. Just two years into his career, he was already a Big Ten champion and two-time All-American.
After a successful first two seasons with the Wolverines, though, challenges arose. Two summers ago, Landen lost his spot on the Development Team, and at Michigan’s second meet of the 2025 season, he tore his ACL. While that meant missing the remainder of the season and a long recovery process, Landen didn’t let the time go to waste — he benefited from gymnastics in a new way.
“Even when Landen hurt himself and was on crutches, he took that time to do an internship in New York and crutch through New York,” Steven said. “Well, he got a hold of one of his old teammates, (former Wolverines gymnast Adam Wooten), and he said, ‘Come stay with me.’ So he stayed with Adam… He navigated him through New York and made it back.”
Landen’s teammates — past and present — kept him going throughout the recovery process. While injured, Landen cheered them on on their way to a national title. And they returned the favor, providing resources and support on his road back to competition.
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Entering the 2026 season fully recovered from his ACL tear, Landen had a new perspective on his future in gymnastics.
“If I hadn’t gotten injured how I did, I think I’d be missing something,” Landen said. “My performance would be off or I wouldn’t be able to find certain pieces of myself that would help me be successful in the future. The non-gymnastics is just as important… I think that gave me a lot of perspective into time that I like spending outside of gymnastics… And really, really making sure that I am doing it for the right reasons.”
With that new point of view, Landen hit the ground running. He put up top-three performances on an apparatus in each of Michigan’s first three meets, including a second-place 14.1 on high bar against No. 1 Oklahoma.
As the regular season reached its halfway point, Landen added floor exercise and vault to his competition rotation — but lost pommel horse and parallel bars.
“My shoulder has been an ongoing issue ever since November, and I’ve just been dealing with it,” Landen said. “Some of the events I can’t do for my team right now, like parallel bars and pommel (and) rings because of my shoulder.”
His role changed once again, but his performance didn’t take a step back. On March 7 against No. 6 Penn State, Landen landed on the podium on both floor and vault, including a Yurchenko 2.5 vault that placed him second with a 14.4. The next week against No. 5 Ohio State, he podiumed on both again.
In the final meet of the regular season, his Senior Day at Cliff Keen — though Landen will return for a final season in Ann Arbor next year — he put up his best performance yet. He opened his day sticking the dismount on floor for a 13.75, placing third. Next, he led off the Wolverines’ highest-scoring vault rotation of the season with a 14.2. And to cap the day, he posted a career-high 14.35 on high bar, the sixth-best score of the season, nationally.
At the Big Ten championship meet, Landen helped Michigan secure its sixth-straight conference title. A bigger goal still lies ahead, though: The team has the opportunity to defend its national title, and for Landen, the chance to be on the mat for it.
In his first year back, Landen’s 2026 season has been a resounding success. The discipline he’s shown in getting back to his pre-ACL-injury level has returned him as a critical piece of the Wolverines lineup. But his sights are set on something even greater: the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics.
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Landen got a taste of international competition in his time with the National Development Program, namely at the World University Games in Chengdu, China, in 2023. Immediately, he craved more.
“Even though it was a great experience, it was like I knew it wasn’t going to be the end,” Landen said. “I knew I wanted another assignment like it, and I knew I wanted something bigger like Worlds and the Olympics. So it just gave me so much motivation.”
The path to an Olympic team is riddled with adversity, but Landen has experience fighting through it. With the season of competition under his belt, he’ll spend the summer training with his current Michigan teammate and 2024 U.S. Olympic bronze medalist Richard, with an eye on durability and making the national team.
Following the summer, he’ll spend the 2027 season competing with the Wolverines and hoping to qualify for the World Championships.
“Making the Worlds team the year before the Olympic team is the most important thing,” Landen said. “That helps your chances a lot, because you competed at a major international competition, the selection committee has their eyes on you, and I think it also just gives me the experience I need for an Olympic Games.”
The Olympics are still well over two years away. But on Saturday, Landen hopes to take another step down that path, capping off a critical comeback season by competing with — not just cheering for — his team at the NCAA Championships.
