International Gymnast - October 2009

have great admiration and respect for all of them, because I train with them, and each brings something new or different to the team,” Garcia said.

Among the seniors, Garcia complimented Regio Gymnastics club mates Marisela Cantu (the sole Mexican gymnast to compete at the Beijing 2008 Olympics) and Ericka Garcia, and ’09 national all-around champion Yessenia Estrada.

“Marisela had surgery on her left ankle earlier this year, so I don’t think she will be doing floor or vault (soon), but her bars are solid,” Garcia said. “Ericka has very clean lines on bars and a routine full of skills on floor. Yessenia is the only girl on the national team who doesn’t train with us, so I don’t really know what her new routines are packing!”

Garcia said Mexico’s strong juniors include 14- year-old Karla Salazar and 13-year-old Ana Cecilia Gonzales. “They have all the energy, skills and technique,” Garcia said. “They should really help the team in the Centroamerican Games next year and at the Pan Am Games in 2011. They are not able to go to worlds or World Cups this year because of their age.”

Although Garcia’s attempt to qualify for the 2008 Olympics was hampered by injury, she said she has high hopes for the 2012 Games.

“I’m taking it a day at a time, competition by competition, and using the experience I gained from the last seven years that I’ve been part of the national team and competing internationally,” Garcia told IG.

• Koen van Damme/BEL: 2008 Olympian Koen van Damme shot the starting gun for the annual four-day memorial walking tour of Ieper (Ypres) and the surrounding countryside that were key World War I battle settings. Approximately 4,500 people took part in the Aug. 19-22 walk to honor victims of the war.

Van Damme, an employee of the Belgian army, was the first Belgian male gymnast to compete in the Olympics since 1960. He said he could optimally prepare for the Games because of the support he received from the army. Now recovering from knee surgery, the 22-year-old van Damme wants to fulfill his army duty in the next few years and compete at the 2012 Olympics.

• Filip Ude/CRO: 2008 Olympic pommel horse silver medalist Filip Ude said he is not necessarily a favorite to win the event at this month’s world championships in London. “There are more than 10 gymnasts who have majestic exercises, and any one of them could take the ‘shiniest’ medal,” he said.

The 23-year-old Ude missed this spring’s Europeans because he was recovering from shoulder surgery, but placed second on floor at this summer’s Mediterranean Games. He said his goal for the London worlds is to make floor and pommel horse finals. “After that, all is possible,” said Ude, who is coached by Mario Vukoja.

A hero after winning Croatia’s first Olympic gymnast medal at the 2008 Beijing Games, Ude said he is as determined as ever to reach his potential. “After Beijing my life has changed in many ways, but I’m trying to stay the same person as I’ve been

All Around the World

before,” he told IG. “My hopes are that my career only started in Beijing and the rest is yet to come. My goal has always been to win the Olympic gold, and that goal still exists. I just hope to make it come true.”

• Tim McNeill/USA: Second all-around at the 2009 Visa (U.S.) championships, Tim McNeill told IG he enjoyed his dual role as gymnast and coach last year, but has gained time and focus since he stopped coaching. “I was an assistant coach for the Univ. of California-Berkeley team, and it was an incredible experience,” said the 23-year-old McNeill, who competed for Cal from 2005-08. “I think my gymnastics benefited from coaching because it forced me to really think about skills and routine construction for my athletes. In doing so I came up with a lot of new ideas and directions for myself. But for now I am solely concentrating on my own training.”

McNeil, whose World Cup competition experience includes Moscow 2007 and Montreal ’09, said his shift offers another perk. “While I certainly spend a lot of time in the gym, I also have a lot of free time to relax, which has been very nice!” he said. “I now consider myself to be a professional gymnast-sleeper-TV watcher.”

• Leszek Blanik/POL: 2008 Olympic vault champion Leszek Blanik received a star on the Sports Walk of Fame at the Olympic Training Center in Wladyslawowo. Blanik was one of five Polish ath-

Hindermann intent on redemption

BASED on her exceptional performance at the 2007 worlds, Germany’s Marie-Sophie Hindermann could have challenged for honors at the 2008 Olympics. An injury effectively crippled her efforts in Beijing, however, and damaged her confidence in the process.

Hindermann is coping well with the monumental frustration of her Olympic debut. Unhindered, she intends to redeem herself in future competitions. “I learned how to deal with a big defeat against myself and my nerves, like I never had to before,” said Hindermann, 18. “It was a new experience for me to deal with my own disappointment, but also the public’s and the media’s.”

THOMAS SCHREYER (2)

Coached by Tamara Khohkhlova at TSG Tübingen, Hindermann won four medals (including the all-around bronze) at the 2006 Junior Europeans. She placed fifth on bars at the ’07 worlds in Stuttgart, where she helped Germany qualify a full team for Beijing. Meniscus problems and an injured right Achilles’ tendon followed, the latter hampering her Olympic preparations and performances. “It was difficult for me to train with pain all the time,” Hindermann recalls. “I always had to listen to my body, and that was really exhausting.”

Post-Olympic recovery has limited Hindermann’s training time on vault and floor, but she hopes to compete at the London worlds. She wants to continue redeeming herself beyond 2009, too.

“A big motivation for me is my bad performances at the Olympics,” Hindermann says. “I want to show everyone that I can do better. But the most important point, why I go to the gym every day, is that I love gymnastics.” —J.C.