Gay college gymnast brings a sense of artistry to promote inclusion in the sport
Ben Letvin has been a star for the University of Minnesota's gymnastics team as an out LGBTQ athlete. 'The ability to be yourself in your routines is the most important thing to me,' he says.
Mark
After years of having to hide his true self in the gym, Ben Letvin is using artistry to redefine what’s possible in men’s gymnastics.
“Artistry is a big thing that would help make [gymnastics] more inclusive,” said Letvin, a champion senior gymnast at the University of Minnesota.
Beyond self-expression, Letvin finds that inserting artistry into his floor routines has helped him perform better.
“It’s a lot more relaxing for me,” he said. “When I compete, I try to smile the whole time. I try to make it fun, and [artistry] definitely makes it so much more fun. It’s not stiff. I find that when I’m stiff, I do really bad. So when I’m relaxed and doing all these [artistic] things, it honestly makes me better.”
This feeling of competing while relaxed has paid off for Letvin, one of the out LGBTQ college athletes featured in Outsports’ Campus Courage section.
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In the spring, he won two individual titles and finished second in a third category at the GymACT National Championships in Oklahoma City. In August, he finished 18th out of a field of 42 at the U.S. Championships, a performance he called a lot of fun. A video of him at the nationals exulting after a vault shows an athlete who knows he nailed it.
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Keeping two lives separate
Despite the rewards of the sport, though, Letvin was not always able to be himself in the gym early in his career before college. Often, he kept his real self and the sport separate.
“When I was in the gym, I was there to do gymnastics. I was there to do my skills, my conditioning, and I was there to get out. And then when I went home or to school to see my friends, that’s when I was myself. In my head, it was just like two separate books.”
Letvin also notes that in those early days of his career, not having someone to look up to who was like him fed into the separation of his real self from his sport. Going to college was a game changer.
“When I went to college, Jude Norris [an openly queer gymnast] was on the team, and I saw who he was, and I saw how he was good and he was himself, and I really admired that, and he became my best friend. That was really important to me because he showed me what I could be.”
Letvin is part of group of male athletes challenging the rigidity of the sport through artistry, showing LGBTQ+ gymnasts that they can be themselves.
A less-rigid discipline
A primary form of this self-expression comes in the form of the men demonstrating artistry on floor exercise routines.
Floor exercise is an event in both women’s and men’s gymnastics, but historically, they are performed — and scored — much differently, especially around artistry.
In particular, in men’s gymnastics, the floor exercise is traditionally more rigid and less artistic than in women’s gymnastics.
Women’s floor routines allow the athletes to showcase a unique style and personality because they utilize a music soundtrack and artistic elements, such as expressive dance, leaps, graceful flourishes, musicality, and choreography that matches the soundtrack’s emotional feel and tempo. In contrast, traditionally, men’s floor routines are done in complete silence without music and focus more on acrobatic tumbling with strength, balance and flexibility components. The self-expressive artistry does not come through as much.
However, the tradition has been breaking the past few years.
An increasing number of male gymnasts have chosen to incorporate artistic expression into their floor routines, including Heath Thorpe of Australia, who notably adds dance elements, leaps and split-leg rolls into his routines; Jackson Harrison, who wears painted nails and makeup while doing graceful leaps; and Charlie Larson of Michigan, who utilizes smooth transitions and creative choreography. Thorpe and Larson are gay, while Harrison is nonbinary.
Letvin has also began incorporating these artistic elements into his floor routines. For example, he said that his coach at Minnesota supported his request to add an artistic leap pass into his floor routine this past season.
“I told my coach…I want to do a leap pass this year, and he’s like, ‘OK.’ He doesn’t really care. And then I did my first routine of the year…It’s fun to do something different too. It definitely makes you stand out a bit more. I don’t do it to stand out. I do it because it’s fun and cool.”
Though Letvin enjoys the physicality and challenge of doing the traditional acrobatic tumbling passes on floor, he loves combining it with the expressive artistry too. “Doing a really hard tumbling pass and then doing it well and then finishing and doing a [graceful hand flourish] can be very powerful and make you more confident in your routine and make you better.”
In an Instagram post for Pride Month celebrating “the growing artistic fluidity within men’s gymnastics and the icons who have helped pave the way for change,” Letvin challenged teammates to do one of Thorpe’s classic graceful, artistic leap passes with split-leg landings. With then-assistant coach Larson providing diva-esque commentary, the gymnasts gamely did their best, some quite stiffly.
Making gymnastics more inclusive
While the current wave of gymnasts is opening up the traditionally rigid sport into more expressive territory, Levin said that more could be done to increase inclusion for LGBTQ+ athletes.
Letvin believes one route for this inclusivity could be for the governing body of gymnastics – the FIG – to look into codifying an artistry score in men’s gymnastics. Today, women’s gymnasts are scored on artistry, but not the men.
“I mean, you look at women’s gymnastics,” Letvin said. “Artistry is quantified, so [the FIG] would have to find a way to bring it into men’s gymnastics.”
“If I can do my artistry and that’s allowed, that’s what’s important to me. Some people want artistry to be quantified. I somewhat agree with them. But just the ability to be yourself in your routines is the most important thing to me.”
Beyond codifying artistry, Letvin said that schools and gymnastics teams having a Pride Night could help with inclusion as well.
“Just like with teams and clubs in general, the University of Illinois does a Pride meet, which I think is really cool of them.”
Overall, the public visibility of his artistry and true self allows Letvin to not only serve as an example for up-and-coming LGBTQ+ gymnasts, but also for past gymnasts who couldn’t be themselves at the time.
“The most rewarding part is seeing these people comment on the [social media posts] and say, ‘I was a gymnast 20 or 30 years ago, and I’m so happy you guys are able to do this and be yourselves and stand up [for] other people.’”
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