Carly Patterson: What Makes A Champion?

By Author: Murray Hughes
Total Articles: 15
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If you have been following gymnastics for any length of
time, odds are you have heard of a particular gymnast by
the name of Carly Patterson. You probably also know that
she is one of the youngest female Olympic gymnasts ever -
and that she has stunned the world of late with her
astounding abilities. In 2004, she became the first
all-around Olympic champion for the United States in more
than two decades, and was also the first to win for the US
in the past two games, an amazing feat indeed, considering
these past Olympic games were fully attended! The last
female all-around gymnastics champion for the United States
won in 1984, when the Soviet Union had boycotted the
Olympics entirely.

Carly was born on February the fourth, 1988, in Baton Rouge,
Louisiana, to a pair of loving parents - her mother,
Natalie, and her father, Ricky. She is the first of a pair
of girls (her younger sister is Jordan). Currently, she
lives with her mother, her sister, and her pets in Allen,
Texas. A straight-A student, she is almost a normal
teenager ...
... when it comes to taste in music, boys, and
shopping. However, one thing sets her apart from the rest
of the crowd, even beyond her academics: she spends more
than thirty hours a week training in her Texas academy. Of
course, she could not have gotten to where she is currently
without help. This logically leads to the question -- what
makes a champion?

Carly started early on with her gymnastics career. In 1994,
she began taking classes after attending a friend's
birthday party at Gymnastics Elite, a gym facility in Baton
Rouge, and meeting the head coach there. After five years
of training, what began as a sport became a true career:
she won her first state title in 1999 for Louisiana.

Then, she and her family moved to Texas, which gave her the
chance to train at some of the best gymnastics gyms in the
United States. She worked with Evgeny Marchenko and his
team at the World Olympic Gymnastics Academy in Plano,
Texas, and within a year completed the Top Gym Tournament
in Belgium in second place, taking the bronze medal in the
beam event, and won the all-around gold at the American
Team Cup. Thus began her rise to super-stardom in the
world of gymnastics. She took dozens of titles, national
and international, competing across the globe. Then, of
course, she competed in the 2004 Olympicsand the rest, as
they say, is history.

Certainly, her coaches had a lot to do with her success.
They gave her the practical experience needed for proper
training and for the creativity she displays in her favored
events. Good gymnastics schools, dedication to her work,
and certainly the allure of championships kept her
motivated, and as she won title after title, she improved
with the help of internationally renowned teams of
gymnasts. And, too, love of the sport itself inspired by
her coaches and her mentors aided her to the point where
she is todaybut to attribute all of her success to the
work of these individuals would be erroneous without, of
course, mentioning her parents.

Her mother, Natalie, and her father, Ricky, played perhaps
the most important role in any young person's life. They
gave her encouragement; they were there when she needed
them. This goes doubly for Miss Patterson, for they also
showed confidence and interest in her gymnastics
endeavors--in fact, by enrolling her in Gymnastics Elite,
they gave her a good running start for motivation. It was
with their help, too, that she got through some of the most
difficult times of her career thus far. An injury to her
elbow kept her out of several national and international
championships; it was with her parents' support that she
was rehabilitated, and has now risen to become an Olympic
star.

You, as a parent of a gymnast, can certainly take this to
heart. You don't have to be particularly well off to give
your gymnast the confidence they need to become the best.
In fact, all you have to do is encourage your child; if
they show interest in the sport, let them participate. If
they do well, encourage them further.

They're already champions.

By Murray Hughes
Gymnastics Secrets Revealed
The book EVERY gymnastics parent should read

http://www.gymnasticssecretsrevealed.com/gymnastics-articles/carly-patterson.htm
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