USA Gymnastics American Cup Returns as Team Competition

The USA Gymnastics American Cup will return to the competition calendar in 2026 featuring mixed team international competition. The event will be staged March 7 at Lee’s Family Forum in Henderson, Nevada, with the Nastia Liukin Cup Presented by Ozone held earlier that afternoon.

The mixed team event will be a prelude to competition at the 2028 Olympic Summer Games, when mixed team gymnastics will make its debut. At the competition in Nevada, teams from eight countries will be composed of men’s and women’s gymnasts with athletes from each gender performing on select apparatus. Combine scores will determining team winners.

“We are thrilled to bring back American Cup in a new format,” USA Gymnastics Chief Programs Officer Stefanie Korepin said. “Mixed team competition brings an added level of excitement, and with it now on the Olympic schedule, 2026 will be a great opportunity to generate interest and excitement for the new version of a classic event with the American Cup.”

The American Cup was first held in 1976 and was last contested in 2020 in Milwaukee, just days before the pandemic shutdown. Next year will mark 50 years since that launch. Over that time, legends of the sports have competed including Simone Biles, Bart Conner, Tim Daggett, Gabby Douglas, Paul Hamm, Jonathan Horton, Shawn Johnson, Nastia Liukin, Carly Patterson, Danell Leyva, Shannon Miller, Mary Lou Retton, Kurt Thomas, Peter Vidmar, Jordyn Wieber and Kim Zmeskal-Burdette.

The annual Nastia Liukin Cup is a national competition for Level 10 women’s artistic gymnasts. It has traditionally been staged alongside USA Gymnastics’ Winter Cup in late February but will now be paired with the American Cup, giving the top U.S. level 10 women’s gymnasts an opportunity to compete on the same stage as their international counterparts.

The American Cup competition will be broadcast live by NBC.