Evan Manivong grew up in the Kansas City area where he attended Stanley High School and trained with Fuzion Gymnastics.  He was a three-time junior national qualifier, three-time Academic All-American and finished 15th overall at the 2019 USA Gymnastics Junior Nationals while in high school. 

 

After graduating from Stanley, Evan joined the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign Fighting Illini gymnastics team where he made an immediate impact.  He competed in seven meets for the Illini as a freshman achieving several personal bests.  As a sophomore, he competed in all nine meets winning five event titles and qualifying for the NCAA Division I Championships. Evan had an impressive 19th place finish in the floor exercise with a score of 14.233 at the 2021 NCAAs.    

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Evan garnered national attention on March 22, 2021, when he pulled out his Covid-19 vaccine card after a vault landing during a meet at the University of Minnesota which was nationally televised on the Big 10 network.  The viral video was picked up by media outlets including the Chicago Tribune, CNN, Fox News and the New York Post and had millions of views online. Evan was awarded the Big 10 conference sportsmanship award. 

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Evan is the son of Andrew and Elizabeth (Nguyen) Manivong.  He has a brother (Harrison) and a sister (Audrey).  Andrew Manivong is a Vice President at a bank in the Kansas City area. Evan is early in his college career so please check back for updates soon.