Published on Show Me Mizzou Dec. 17, 2025
Story by Joe Walljasper, BJ ’92
What does it take to achieve perfection? For Mizzou gymnast Kennedy Griffin, who scored a perfect 10 in the floor exercise this past Valentine’s Day, the journey begins by listening intently to her creative muse: Beyoncé.
“When I came in as a freshman, I decided I wanted to do Beyoncé all four years, to go through each of her eras and pick different songs from different albums and put them together to create a fun and engaging floor routine,” says Griffin, a junior from Strongsville, Ohio.
Each summer, the gymnast sends Jackie Terpak, the Mizzou assistant coach in charge of choreography, clips from songs that have caught her ear. Last season, the music was from Beyoncé’s early solo albums. Terpak experiments with different mashups of the music until they find the right mix.
Beginning in the fall, she works with Terpak to match the patterns and movements to the music, even incorporating some of Queen Bey’s own dance moves. As the season draws nearer, Griffin fine-tunes the routine down to the smallest details, such as eye contact and facial expressions. Meanwhile, she builds up the strength and endurance required to make a demanding 90 seconds of tumbling and dance look effortless.
A self-described “bubbly person,” she doesn’t have to remind herself to smile on the mat during her routine or after, especially on the night she earned that perfect 10.
“So much hard work had gone into it, getting super specific and nit-picky, whether it was form or pointing my toes or controlling my landing or how my feet looked on my jumps,” she says. “So when they flashed that score, I was in awe.”
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