Illinois gymnast Sam Phillips has created an army.
As an openly queer student-athlete, the All-American gymnast often would look around in rooms and see no one else like him.
"Always being the only one in these spaces sometimes and having to fight these battles alone, (I remember thinking,) 'This is the army' — all the people past, present and future who are watching and hearing the message and are going to be that change and lead with inclusive love," he said.
The gymnast's ultimate goal: To use his platform as an elite student-athlete to be the representation he wishes he had growing up.
"I wish I grew up seeing out queer gymnasts own themselves, own who they are while doing all these amazing things," he said. "I think being SAAC president, an All-American, a team captain while being open and unconditionally myself is just being the role model I wish I had."
One member of his army was an Illinois alumnus who emailed Phillips.
"I graduated in the '80s, and I didn't come out until three years ago. I'm rooting for you, and I've gotta say, I'm proud of you for how you're leading with inclusion and being yourself. I wish I would have done that," the message said.
Another time, Phillips met a Nebraska student-athlete who told him that she came out to her parents after seeing his social media page. Other times, he will have young kids direct message him on Instagram to thank him for showing them the way.
"It just affirms that, yes, this is needed," Phillips reflected.
Yet long before Phillips leapt into using his student-athlete experience as a platform for activism, sport simply provided him with a place to be himself.
As he attended various practices for his older brothers, Connor and Ellis, he spent the time on the sidelines with the other siblings, doing cartwheels, flips and tumbles.
When his parents decided he needed a sport of his own, gymnastics became an obvious sport for the energetic and athletic kid. At 5 years old, Phillips began "Mommy and Me" gymnastics classes, which led him to compete in a local gym. Each year, he leveled up, moving from gym to gym until he ended up at a regional gym.
"I loved the variety in it. Every day, I got to do something fun and new," he said.
At the gym, competing and practicing with his friends, Phillips relished the family environment.
"It became a second home for me, a safe space that allowed me to get all of my energy out in a safe environment," he said. "It allowed me to be myself."
Phillips reflects on these early years as his foundation of his sense of self.
"Every queer person from a young age is like, 'OK, something's different about me.' Looking back on it, I just subconsciously knew that I could let my guard down more in the gym and just be a little bit more myself and express myself through gymnastics."
The physicality of the sport would center Phillips, and he often found himself drawn to the sport during emotional moments. The older and more skilled he became, the more he began to customize his routines.
As he began his collegiate career at Nebraska in 2020, the ability to use his creativity fueled his success.
"I'm a very expressive, sort of theatrical person," he said. "I've built a lot of my reputation in gymnastics on my creativity and my self-expression."
For Phillips, this might look like adding turns, leaps, jumps and rolls into his floor transitions. Skills uncommon for male gymnasts are some of his favorite moves.
Typically, there are three things that inspire Phillips' routines. One, his current media fixation. Right now, the journeys of Daenerys Targaryen from "Game of Thrones" and the Scarlet Witch, two power female icons with literal magic, have given him ideas for his routines. Second, his theme of the year, whether it's a word of affirmation or a yearlong goal. Third, his spirituality.
"What inspires me in creating a routine is how I'm feeling and what skills align with my spirit. I'm a spiritual gymnast," he said. "This is who I am as a person, and I'm going to show it to you within my gymnastics. I just love, love, love that about the sport."
"Watch a Sam Phillips high bar routine and you will see his personality," said Daniel Ribeiro, his head coach at Illinois, where Phillips transferred after the 2024 season. "He has high-flying, powerful release moves. Refined skills that need to hit perfect handstands. And a dismount with more flips and twists than you can count. Finishing off with the best celebrations in all of gymnastics."
For Phillips, the evolution of his routines symbolizes different eras in his life. His routines have paralleled coming into himself, too. Phillips has been out to his team since his freshman year at Nebraska, but throughout college, he has continued to evolve in his activism and involvement with the LGBTQ+ community.
At first, his activism began by having to have difficult discussions when a joke crossed a line or answering questions from people who had not met a queer black person before. Then, in the wake of the Black Lives Matter marches in 2020, he wrote a speech for a rally, marking his first experience with public advocacy.
After his speech, Phillips helped create a Black Student-Athlete Advocacy Group on Nebraska's campus. Around that time, he joined Nebraska's Student-Athlete Advisory Committee, eventually becoming president. That led to him attending the Athlete Ally Summit the following year, where he met three Nebraska female student-athletes in the LGBTQ+ community.
"That was my first sense of community within the queer community, and it felt so good because we talked about the struggles we face and the silent battles every day," he said.
The four created Nebraska's first-ever LGBTQ+ affinity group for student-athletes, and Phillips became president. They held meetings, hosted lunch and learns and created a student-athlete formal to give people a safe space to have fun.
"Sam has a natural ability to be a positive influence in any environment, and his advocacy work is no different," said former Nebraska teammate Jake Bonnay. "Whether he's mentoring younger athletes, advocating for better support systems or speaking out for issues that matter to him, Sam consistently demonstrates that he's not afraid to use his voice to make a difference. His advocacy work reflects the same qualities that made him a great teammate — his sincerity, focus and commitment to making a meaningful impact."
Phillips also began speaking at summits, including the NIL Summit and the Athlete Activism Summit. He has steadily increased his following on social media, too, garnering more than 13,000 followers on Instagram.
Phillips has used name, image and likeness to help him with his career goals: "It's helped me express my creativity. I want to be an entertainer, like an actor, director, producer, so it's helped me with that avenue of having a portfolio, modeling and expressing a vision for a campaign."
As a gymnast, he has thrived, earning All-America, All Big Ten and College Gymnastics Association All-America Scholar Athlete honors at Nebraska before transferring in his graduate year to Illinois.
"His transition from Nebraska to Illinois is just another chapter in his journey, and I have no doubt that he will continue to inspire and lead in every environment he enters," Bonnay said. "He's the kind of person you want on your team. He's humble, hardworking and deeply committed to both his personal development and the success of those around him."
Now, in his final year of collegiate gymnastics at Illinois, Phillips will look to raise the bar for himself one last time, as an athlete and an advocate.
"When you know who you are and you're being yourself, it's going to happen," Phillips said. "It's not a coincidence. You're not stressed, you're not thinking about anything else, you're not hiding anything."
"When you're watching me, if you're rooting for my gymnastics, you're rooting for queer gymnastics, full stop, period. Because that's who I am."
