Ian Gunther

Gunther was born in Houston, Texas, on September 10, 1999.^[2][5] He attended Westside High School in Houston, class of 2018.^[6] At Stanford, he majored in product design, graduating in 2022, and completed an M.S. in sustainability science & practice.^[7]

Gunther has suffered from osteochondritis dissecans of the knee from his intense gymnastics training. He had surgery to correct it in 2015.^[8]

Gunther began gymnastics at the age of 4 and a half.^[9] During his career, he has been an NCAA All-American 10 times.^[7] In 2017, he won gold on rings and parallel bars at the Junior Olympic national meet.^[9]

Gunther began competing for the Stanford Cardinal in the 2018–2019 season. During the 2019 NCAA National Championships, Gunther helped Stanford win as a team; individually, he placed fourth on rings. Gunther would go on and help Stanford win the team title again in 2021, 2022, and 2023.^[10]

In 2021 Gunther qualified to compete at the 2020 Olympic Trials.^[11] He finished twelfth overall.^[12] In 2022, he received media attention for breaking a horizontal bar in half.^[13]

In the fall of 2024, Gunther participated in the Gold Over America Tour.^[14] He later competed at the 2024 Sokol Grand Prix and placed second with teammate Vanesa Masova.^[15] In a YouTube short, Gunther announced it was his last competitive routine.^[16] He followed that with an Instagram post on December 8, 2024, confirming his retirement from competitive gymnastics.^[17][18]

Gunther received media recognition for his work on Collyge, an app rivaling TikTok in the short-form video market.^[19][20] The app launched in March 2023.^[21]

Gunther has gained attention from the national media for his efforts to promote gymnastics via social media.^[22] He started creating content during the COVID-19 pandemic in the United States when the NCAA gymnastics season was shut down.^[23] His activity on social media allowed Gunther to pay for his Stanford student tuition.^[24]