Lydia Webb’s journey to becoming all-around record breaker

SEMO senior gymnast Lydia Webb is SEMO’s all-time leader in the All-Around event, scoring a 39.575 at the Tennessee Collegiate Classic in Lebanon, TN on Jan. 19.

Webb began her gymnastics career attending “Mommy and Me” classes at the young age of 2 as a way for her parents to get her out of the house. Even from an early age Webb said she has always had a passion and drive for the sport.

“When I was younger, I trained once a day for about 5 days a week, and when I got to be around 10 or 11, they wanted me to start practicing twice a week. I was so geared up for it,” Webb said.

This passion helped her in capturing the Texas State Level 10 All-Around title in 2016.

Webb began looking into colleges in her last two years of high school. She had not yet decided if she wanted to continue her athletics career throughout college but with the overwhelming support from her hometown coach, Webb began to see her future in the sport.

“I really wasn’t too sure about it, but my coach at the time, Zenna Stewart, really pushed me to explore it,” Webb said. “She is the reason why I am even doing college gymnastics today; she was such a support system for me back then.”

Lydia went on her official visit to SEMO shortly after Coach Ashley Lawson became the head coach in 2019. Coach Lawson had a deep connection to the program, as she was a gymnast at SEMO herself. She was very happy to be back to coach according to Webb.

“It was so different coming from the Dallas area to a small town in Southeast Missouri, but it was very homey, and I liked the change, it didn’t scare me,” Webb said. “I really just felt a lot of love from the team and the coaching staff.”

Since her freshman season right out of the gate Webb began to showcase her skills, determination and drive for her craft according to Lawson.

“She was a three-eventer up until the end of her sophomore season where she was like, ‘I think I can vault’, and we needed a vaulter, so she started doing a layout vault,” head coach Ashley Lawson said. “Then we went to a meet, and she looked me in the eye, and she’s like, ‘I can land this vault, let me go’.”

In the 2023 season, Lydia competed in 12 meets as an all-arounder. She recorded 13 scores of 9.800 or higher earning her the title of a 2023 1st team USA Gymnastics (USAG) All-American for the bars and was named a Midwest Independent Conference (MIC) Scholar-Athlete.

One person who’s been there to all of Lydia’s success and who has been with her the whole way is teammate Anna Speller. As a fellow all-around gymnast, she has gone through many ups and downs with Webb and has been proud seeing Webb develop within the program has madee.

“It’s been awesome watching her grow, and just seeing how far she’s come from freshman year. I am just so proud of the person and the gymnast that she has become,” Speller said.