After delaying retirement, Mizzou Gymnast Helen Hu gives honest opinion on not scoring a perfect 10 at NCAA Championships

Helen Hu got real about her opinion on not scoring a perfect 10 at the semi-finals of the NCAA Gymnastics Championships 2025. The Mizzou gymnast was on a temporary break and announced her comeback to the University of Missouri gymnastics in October 2024.

Hu spent the last year on a backpacking trip across the globe with her sister, Elaine, and visited 15 countries across three continents. However, her gymnastics journey wasn't over yet, as she is currently competing at the NCAA Gymnastics Championships 2025.

She made a perfect comeback to the sport as she won the balance beam event at the semifinal on Thursday, April 17, at Dickies Arena. She earned the score of 9.9875 points in the event and toppled the Florida Gators to clinch the title and secure her university's berth in the finals. However, although Hu delivered a perfect routine, she did not get a perfect 10 from the judges.

In the post-event interview, Helen Hu opened up about the same, stating that it was ok that she did not score the perfect 10, as she was not 'entitled to a 10' from every judge. She reflected on her performance and said:

"Gymnastics is subjective, subjective. So I mean, my dismount was really close. I think my toes might have scraped the edge of the beam before I landed. My split 3/4 sometimes doesn't hit a full 180 long enough. You could even argue my turn that when I put my foot down is a little bit to the side today, Stuff like that. I'm proud of it. But like you could, you could take off any of those things. And those are all things that I work on and I focus on and I feel it when I do it. And so, you know, it's I don't, I'm not entitled to a 10 from every judge. So I'm OK with that."

Hu has now advanced to the NCAA Championship Final, where she will be squaring off against Oklahoma, Utah, and UCLA on Saturday, April 19. The finals will also be broadcast on ABC.

Helen Hu made her feelings known about her return to gymnastics

In an interview with ESPN, Helen Hu opened up about returning to gymnastics, saying that she had no plans of coming back on the team and she was happy with her life. Hu said that she had accomplished enough and closed her chapter of gymnastics. However, she is back this season and also revealed the motto behind it.

"If someone had told me last year I would be back on the team, I probably would have laughed in their face," Helen Hu said. "I was done, I was happy with my life. I had accomplished enough and closed that chapter. I missed it, but not in a 'I wish I could go back' kind of way. I had moved on... But now, I'm here and my motto all season has just been to have fun."

"I'm just in such a better place [than I was] to just have the most amount of fun with it now and actually enjoy my senior season in a way I couldn't the first time around," She added.

Helen Hu notched the first perfect 10 of the 2025 gymnastics season at the SEC Championships.