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Former HBCU gymnastics star’s career, once interrupted, soars again

instagram.com/kyrstin_johnson

In this conversation originally aired Dec. 17, 2024, student-athlete Kyrstin Johnson reflects on her all-too-brief experience as a gymnast at Talladega College, only the second Historically Black College and University to have a gymnastics team.

Johnson won a college national championship in vault for Talladega in April 2024 and three months later, the program at Talladega was forced to end, due to lack of funding.

She’s now competing for the women’s gymnastics team at Temple University, where Kyrstin's hip hop floor routine featuring Kendrick Lamar's "Not Like Us" recently caught the attention of the internet.

Guest

Kyrstin Johnson, student-athlete and college national champion in vault

Leoneda Inge is the co-host of WUNC's "Due South." Leoneda has been a radio journalist for more than 30 years, spending most of her career at WUNC as the Race and Southern Culture reporter. Leoneda’s work includes stories of race, slavery, memory and monuments. She has won "Gracie" awards, an Alfred I. duPont Award and several awards from the Radio, Television, Digital News Association (RTDNA). In 2017, Leoneda was named "Journalist of Distinction" by the National Association of Black Journalists.
Rachel McCarthy is a producer for "Due South." She previously worked at WUNC as a producer for "The Story with Dick Gordon." More recently, Rachel was podcast managing editor at Capitol Broadcasting Company where she developed narrative series and edited a daily podcast. She also worked at "The Double Shift" podcast as supervising producer. Rachel learned about audio storytelling at the Salt Institute for Documentary Studies. Prior to working in audio journalism, she was a research assistant at the Aspen Institute in Washington, DC.