Gymnastics
- Title:
- Associate Head Coach
- Email:
- kcomforte@athletics.ucla.edu
Former UCLA All-American and U.S. National Team member Kristina Comforte begins her third season as associate head coach.
The Bruins’ balance beam coach, Comforte guided Grace Glenn to a historic feat on Feb. 23, 2020, as Glenn became the first gymnast in NCAA history to score a perfect 10 on beam from the leadoff position. Glenn, along with Kyla Ross, earned first-team All-America honors on the event during the shortened 2020 season, and UCLA finished the regular season ranked No. 3 overall and No. 5 on beam. In 2021, Comforte guided Chae Campbell to a fifth-place finish at the NCAA Championships and first-team All-America honors on beam.
Comforte, a five-time All-American and a 2008 Pac-12 All-Academic selection, competed at UCLA from 2006-08. As a freshman, she scored a perfect 10 on vault and was runner-up on vault at the NCAA Championships. In 2008, she won the balance beam title at the NCAA Southeast Regionals and was second on uneven bars at the NCAA Championships. Injuries forced her to retire from competition at the start of her senior year in 2009, and Comforte moved into an undergraduate assistant coach role. In 2010, she helped guide the Bruins to a NCAA title.
Following her graduation in 2010, Comforte worked at CAA Sports in Chicago for three years and then returned to gymnastics as the head coach at TAG USA Gymnastics in Fort Lauderdale, Fla. She was an assistant coach at the University of Illinois in 2017, serving as the team’s main vault and floor coach and primary choreographer. That season, Comforte helped coach the Illini to the second-highest floor score in school history (49.450). She coached Level 7-10s on floor and vault at Illinois Gymnastics Institute from 2018-19.
Comforte holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Sociology and completed her Master’s Degree in Organizational Leadership from The Chicago School of Professional Psychology in 2018.
