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Olympic Women's gymnast is homeschooled


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Most of the gymnasts who have the potential of becoming elite at my DD's gym are homeschooled, although some choose to focus on NCA cheer at various high schools that have competitive teams with the hopes of division I cheer scholarships at High level football schools, since cheer scholarships are often easier to get than gymnastics ones and high school cheer takes less time than high-level competitive gymnastics. Honestly, I can't see how kids do a sport at all seriously and go to a traditional school-my DD is up to 4hours of dance and three hours of tumbling and cheer this year, and is still considered recreational in both.

 

My DD loves it when an athlete is mentioned as being homeschooled.

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She's from my hometown. I will definitely be cheering her on!

 

It's so exciting to have one from your town isn't it?? We're cheering on Danell Leyva. The Cuban community is SO PROUD and excited to have him representing us. His parents were both on the Cuban national team. :) Danell is homeschooled too. :)

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She's from my hometown. I will definitely be cheering her on!

We are cheering her on too!

 

Cool!

 

I don't know if my dd could be in gymnastics if she weren't homeschooled. I can't imagine being in school all day and then having 3 or 4 hour practices. At 6, my daughter is already there 9 hours/week!

 

:iagree:

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I think this pretty common among several top level sports.

 

:iagree:I think many competitive sports families homeschool, just because of the time commitment. I know how much more we're able to do because DD isn't in school 8 hours a day. I imagine it would be nearly impossible to be at that sort of level and maintain a regular school schedule. (Perhaps the question should be- are there any school-age olympians who go to public school?)

 

It's so exciting to have one from your town isn't it?? We're cheering on Danell Leyva. The Cuban community is SO PROUD and excited to have him representing us. His parents were both on the Cuban national team. :) Danell is homeschooled too. :)

 

I am loving him. We were watching the qualifiers last night, he's so... beautiful out there. No other way to put it. But his dad... :001_wub: He's so serious, but so fun at the same time. It makes me smile everytime they flash to him.

 

(Another family I love- the family of Orozco. What a story. And his mom, that poor woman looks like she's going to have a panic attack every time he's out there! I just want to hug her! :lol:)

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I am loving him. We were watching the qualifiers last night, he's so... beautiful out there. No other way to put it. But his dad... :001_wub: He's so serious, but so fun at the same time. It makes me smile everytime they flash to him.

:iagree::iagree: He's amazing. :)

 

 

(Another family I love- the family of Orozco. What a story. And his mom, that poor woman looks like she's going to have a panic attack every time he's out there! I just want to hug her! :lol:)

Oh i have to look their story up. I didn't know it. :)

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I was watching an interview with one of the gymnast's moms and she mentioned keeping her daughter in public school as one way to provide some balance to her daughter's life because otherwise she would pretty much live in the gym. :)

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Gabby actually favors my dd a little. I'm definitely a fan. :001_smile:

 

My 12yo gymnast trains around 25 hours a week, and we have at least an hour travel time 6 days a week. She couldn't do it if she wasn't homeschooled. Pretty much all of the Levels 7 and up at our gym are homeschooled.

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Gabby actually favors my dd a little. I'm definitely a fan. :001_smile:

 

My 12yo gymnast trains around 25 hours a week, and we have at least an hour travel time 6 days a week. She couldn't do it if she wasn't homeschooled. Pretty much all of the Levels 7 and up at our gym are homeschooled.

 

Has your Dd been watching the Olympics and doing a little dreaming?

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I saw her for the first time tonight. Oh my. She is so cute. I always thought it would be fun to have a petite little gymnast type. I think my 9 yo is already as tall as Gabby and my 2 yo is on track to be taller than my 9 yo.

 

DH is very tall and DD is taking after him. She's only one or two inches shorter than most of the gymnasts already. We told her she probably won't ever be able to be an olympic gymnast because of her height ... oh and because we don't take gymnastics classes won't help either. :001_smile:

 

She and her cousin are going to be battered and bruised tomorrow from watching the olympics and trying to do front flips in our living room. Kids. Wish I could take a fall like that.

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I don't mean to come across as argumentative, but I got the impression from the videos of her family on tv that she doesn't live with them.

 

From what I heard tonight, her family moved from Virginia Beach, Virginia to Iowa in order for her to be close to her coach. But it sounded like the whole family moved. Sometimes, just the athlete moves and they live with their coach, but I didn't get the impression that was the case with Gabby.

 

I can't imagine that level of sacrifice. I remember during the 2008 Olympics and hearing from Shawn Johnson's parents. They had mortgaged their house 3 times just to pay for gymnastics. Wow.

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I loved it when she was asked about her nerves and how she is dealing with them, and her response was that she has been meditating on scripture and just giving it to God. :001_smile:

 

:iagree::iagree: That was so awesome! I elbowed my husband and was like, "yeah!!!" :D

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From what I heard tonight, her family moved from Virginia Beach, Virginia to Iowa in order for her to be close to her coach. But it sounded like the whole family moved. Sometimes, just the athlete moves and they live with their coach, but I didn't get the impression that was the case with Gabby.

 

 

Only Gabby moved and she lives with a host family in Iowa:

http://gabrielledouglas.com/

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Would you let her go that far? How much does it cost at that level, anyway??

 

My dh and I have struggled with this for a couple of years now. Is she missing out on other things she could be doing if she wasn't in the gym all the time?? What if we stop here and she really could have gone that far?? We finally decided that as long as she loves it, wants to go every day, and still has some time that she gets to just hang out with friends, we would stick it out with her. She gets up early to get her schoolwork done in time for gym. If she doesn't finish, she gets a shower and something to eat, and sits down to finish without me nagging at all. She has an incredible work ethic (I wish it would rub off on her brother!).

 

She is Level 10, training for Elite and is a Hopes gymnast. Her goal will be to make the US Junior National Team in the next year or two.

 

As far as cost, a lot. We have made many sacrifices to keep her in gym. Her siblings have their own interests, which we also support, but nothing comes close to the cost of gym. It cost around $10,000 last year, not including travel.

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My dh and I have struggled with this for a couple of years now. Is she missing out on other things she could be doing if she wasn't in the gym all the time?? What if we stop here and she really could have gone that far?? We finally decided that as long as she loves it, wants to go every day, and still has some time that she gets to just hang out with friends, we would stick it out with her. She gets up early to get her schoolwork done in time for gym. If she doesn't finish, she gets a shower and something to eat, and sits down to finish without me nagging at all. She has an incredible work ethic (I wish it would rub off on her brother!).

 

She is Level 10, training for Elite and is a Hopes gymnast. Her goal will be to make the US Junior National Team in the next year or two.

 

As far as cost, a lot. We have made many sacrifices to keep her in gym. Her siblings have their own interests, which we also support, but nothing comes close to the cost of gym. It cost around $10,000 last year, not including travel.

 

Is it because the coach is better, not just because of the amount of time spent in practice? How much more will it cost if she does get to try out for the Olympics? My niece did gymnastics, but didn't like the self discipline, so she stopped when it was more than once a week, and required actual work. We just went with community education, but we tried level after level, because nothing was actually challenging for her. Gabby kind of reminds me of her, because of the petite size, African-American, and huge toothy smile. I know you can't live vicariously through your kids, but it still must be so fun to see your child be both talented AND motivated! :001_smile: I guess I went off on a tangent there, but gymnastics is so interesting to me, and I think it's so neat that you dd is able to pursue her dream!

 

Oh gosh, I was going to ask, if you hadn't been able to afford it, would you have had any other options, or would gymnastics just not be an option? Would "someone" see the child's talent and finance their sport in hopes that they might be an asset someday? Or not? :tongue_smilie:

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Mine has!!! And it has totally gotten her in the groove! My little one is still only level 4, but she is SOOOOO motivated to go to practice tomorrow!!!!

 

I don't know much about the levels, but 4 sounds good for a 6yo. I thought I'd sign Ds5 up for a gymnastics class when we move back to the city this fall. We went to an open gym on a recent shopping trip and asked the moderator if everyone was excited about the Olympics. She said they always had a lot of new sign ups after the Olympics. I think I'll wait until spring now.

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She gets up early to get her schoolwork done in time for gym. If she doesn't finish, she gets a shower and something to eat, and sits down to finish without me nagging at all. She has an incredible work ethic (I wish it would rub off on her brother!).

 

She is Level 10, training for Elite and is a Hopes gymnast. Her goal will be to make the US Junior National Team in the next year or two.

 

 

Very cool!

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