When sophomore Bo McCrea traveled to Paraguay this summer, he did not return with a t-shirt, snowglobe, or even a sunburn—he brought home gold and silver medals.
This past August, Bo competed for the 14 and 15-year-old Level 9 U.S. Men's National Gymnastics Team in the Junior Pan American Games in Asunción, Paraguay, where Team USA won the All-Around gold medal, and Bo secured the individual silver medal for the Vault.
Bo’s steps toward these milestones began when he was only 3 years old, as his older sister, Mimi McCrea ‘25, started taking gymnastics classes. “Like any excited kid, I would rush home to show off my newest tricks to my family,” Mimi said. “Bo was always watching, always imitating. At just 3 years old, he’d sit through my practices, then dart off to do cartwheels and handstands of his own.”
Mimi’s example inspired her brother immensely. “She came home, taught me some skills, and the next day I was in the gym,” Bo explained. “I liked it so much.
This early enthusiasm for the sport fueled Bo’s prodigious talent. “Even then, it was obvious—he wasn’t just copying me, he had a natural gift,” Mimi said. “By the time Bo turned 5, he was already flipping, tumbling, and transforming our basement into his personal training ground. He built a makeshift gym out of pillows, mats, trampolines, and even tables—anything he could use to practice one more skill [or] land one more flip.”
Journeying beyond his basement gym, Bo began to train at Lakeshore Academy Gymnastics and joined their competitive team earlier than typical, at 6. “I train 20 to 24 hours a week,” Bo said. “That’s what makes me like the work, though—pushing through the limits.”
Bo’s determination inspires his friends, family, and gymnastics community. Cyrus Parke, Bo’s teammate and training partner at Lakeshore Academy, said, “With my time at Lakeshore with Bo, I have only seen a kind, resilient, and disciplined young man. He has grown into an incredible gymnast and is somebody who the little kids at Lakeshore look up to.”
Mimi witnessed his drive, too. “He has taken that boundless childhood energy and turned it into discipline, determination, and artistry,” she said.
Bo’s perseverance has propelled him to great heights. He made the U.S. National Team for the first time at 11, qualified for regionals and nationals multiple years in a row, and became a nationally recognized member of the Junior Elite program. This past May, Bo brought a showstopping, career-defining performance to the USA Gymnastics Developmental Nationals, where he scored second out of all the 15 year olds in the United States, securing a coveted spot with Team USA at the Junior Pan American Games.
A multi-sport event held every four years, the Junior Pan American Games hosts elite athletes under 21 years old from nations in North America and South America, allowing them to showcase their skills and compete for their countries.
“To see him now, competing at the Pan American championships for Team USA, is surreal,” Mimi said. “It feels like watching the same little boy who could never stop moving—only now, his cartwheels and flips are part of routines that inspire audiences around the globe.”
Even in the wake of his massive success, Bo didn’t take an invitation to slack off. “I spent the whole summer just training for [the games],” he said. “I did not go on any vacations, I did not take any breaks. I wanted to come to the point that, when I got there, I [could] do everything and hit the routine I needed to. I had to put my full energy and my full mindset [into] this.”
The pressure built as August approached, and Bo traveled to Asunción. “I was selected to be team captain [for Team USA],” Bo said. “I told [my teammates], ‘We just need to have fun, go out there and not think about the result, and just think about how hard we worked for this.’”
His positivity carried his team through fierce anxieties. “When we competed on the first day, we were really nervous because we were the youngest team there,” Bo said. “We were all 15, and we were competing against 17 to 18-year-olds. We didn’t even expect ourselves to be on the podium.”
However, despite the odds, Team USA outscored all other national teams in the team competition, with a combined score of 225.000, and came out with the gold medal. “It’s crazy that we made it there,” Bo said. “We all hit our routines, which was amazing, and we somehow pulled it off, and we won.”
Bo made strides individually, too. “I also got sixth in the All-Around,” he said, “which is a step in the right direction for me.” Additionally, Bo’s routines qualified him for event finals on the Floor, Rings, Parallel Bars, and Vault.
The first day of finals consisted of Floor and Rings, causing plenty of highs and lows for Bo. “I had an unfortunate Floor final,” he said. “I had a couple of errors, so I finished seventh out of [the] eight people in that final. It definitely wasn’t the Floor final I wanted.”
However, Bo’s perseverance shone as he entered the Rings final. “At Rings, I probably hit one of the best routines I have ever hit,” Bo said. “Unfortunately, I got fifth place. I missed out on the podium by a tenth [of a point] or two. It was pretty sad, but I was just happy to be there.”
Bo’s positive attitude propelled him into the following day’s Vault final. “[In the] Vault final, I qualified [for] third place, from qualifications day. So I was going to upgrade my second vault.”
To secure his spot on the podium, Bo needed a higher difficulty score than both his competitors’ vaults and his one from qualifications. He decided to attempt a Yurchenko 2.5, a vault in the same category as Simone Biles’ iconic Yurchenko Double Pike. All Yurchenko vaults consist of a gymnast performing a roundoff onto the springboard and a back handspring onto the vault, and Bo’s required him to make two-and-a-half aerial rotations before landing on two feet.
Bo said, “I was honestly pretty scared to do [the Yurchenko 2.5]—it was hard to do this vault.”
Nevertheless, Bo took the challenge, and he stepped up to complete the two vaults he required to make the podium. “I just went out there, and it was probably the best vault I have ever done. I was super proud of that moment,” Bo said.
“I won second place with a combined score of 13.8,” he said. “And that was the sixth-highest Vault score in the world, for juniors.”
This victory not only came from Bo’s persistence and hard work, but also from those who lifted Bo along the journey. “My parents are probably my biggest supporters,” he said. “My teammates, too, because they pushed me to be a better gymnast and want it more.”
Cyrus mirrored the praise. “It has been an honor to call him my teammate and friend, and I know he will go on to do so many great things in his life,” he said.
But for now, Bo just wants to take it one step at a time. “I definitely want to go to college for gymnastics,” he said. “Hopefully, [I’ll] get more international assignments, some more opportunities to represent Team USA. I am definitely looking at the Youth Olympic Games next year.”
His positive, disciplined, and determined mindset is what drives Bo from schoolwork to scoreboards to success. “That relentless passion has carried him from our basement to the world stage,” Mimi said. “Watching him walk out under the bright lights, hearing his name called for Team USA, and seeing him perform on live television—it’s more than just pride. It’s the joy of witnessing a dream realized, and the certainty that this is only the beginning of his journey.”
