Lily Smith is a five-star recruit and part of The University of Georgia's recruiting class ranked No. 1 by collegegymnews.com. Lily finished her rookie season at UGA Gymnastics with four All-American honors at the NCAA Gymnastics National Championships in April 2024. Additionally, she earned All-SEC recognition for her scores on vault, bars, beam, floor and all-around at the SEC Championships in March 2024 which cliched her the title of SEC Gymnastics Freshman of the Year. She was five-time SEC Freshman of the Week throughout the season, named Gymnast of the Week by Inside Gymnastics, and claimed 17 event titles- six on bars, two on beam, five on floor and four in the all-around. Most recently, Lily was awarded Freshman of the Year by College Gym News.
Prior to joining UGA Gymnastics, Lily trained at Silvia's gymnastics in Limerick, PA. She credits a lot of her Women's Development Program success due to her training with her club coaches, Maia Mitova (competed at 1972 Olympic Games for Bulgaria), Zarko Mitov (Bulgarian National Team coach), Silvia Mitova (competed at the 1992 Olympic Games for Bulgaria) and Iva Ivanova (1996 Olympic Silver medalist and Choreographer for the Bulgaria National Team). Lily was the Pennsylvania all-around State Champion six years in a row. She is a three-time Women's Development Program National Qualifier and two-time Development National Team Member which is awarded to the top Development Program gymnast in the country.
In 2023, Lily was both the Regional and PA State all-around, vault, bars, beam and floor Champion. She is a 2023 Nastia Liukin Qualifier and placed third on bars, second on floor and fifth all-around at the Nastia Liukin Cup. In 2022, Lily once again was named the PA State Champion in bars, floor, and all-around. At the 2022 Regionals she claimed the Champion title on bars, floor, vault, and all-around, finishing second on beam, then moving on to become the National Champion on bars, floor and all-around. In 2021, her first full year of level 10, she placed first at Regionals in bars, beam, floor and all-around and finished the year at Nationals with a second-place title in bars, beam and floor.
Lily has scored multiple perfect 10s on both bars and floor in the Women's Development Program and scored her first NCAA perfect 10 on January 20, 2024 in Stegeman Coliseum against Missouri.
In her free time, Lily loves spending time with family and friends. She has a passion for shopping and enjoys attending UGA football and baseball games. Her favorite events to compete are bars and floor. Although she absolutely enjoys competing, what she loves most about gymnastics is the team support aspect and the true friendships that will last forever. She is absolutely honored to be coached by the amazing UGA coaching staff and is looking forward to her sophomore year!
Lily comes from a competitive family. Which is one of the reasons that she has the strength, determination and support to keep up with a rigorous training program. Her Dad, Adam, is a golfer and played Division II soccer. Her mother, Tara, grew up doing competitive cheerleading and running track and has even run the Boston Marathon. Lily has two older siblings, Zach and Emily, who inspired her to take her gymnastics to the collegiate level. Zach ran for St Joesph's University and Emily ran for The University of South Carolina. Family time at the dinner table has always been special to Lily; it's where they share many laughs and dreams. However, some of her favorite times with her family are the competitive corn-hole tournaments, family bowling nights and card games.
Lily holds herself to high standards within the gym and academically; therefore, she knows that focus and dedication to practice for both is critical in order for true success.
