Gymnast of the Day: Carly Patterson

  So,  I got this idea from Letstalkaboutgymnastics which is a great article, you guys should check it out by following the blue link. Anyway, I thought it was a great idea, But Letstalkaboutgymnastics only did it once a week. Since I am a HUGE gym fan, I'll do it everyday. But if I can't get to it........ Guess what? My gym fans get Gymnast of the Day twice to make up for the day I missed. So, for the first Gymnast of the Day Article, I would love to chat about Carly Patterson, 2004 Olympic All-Around Champion. I will tell you about Carly's career back to when she started gymnastics. Here we go with the story of 2004 Olympic Champion, Carly Rae Patterson.




    Young Carly was at her cousin's birthday party at Baton Rouge's Elite Gymnastics Club. She had a lot of raw talent, so the head coach there, Johnny Moyal, who was a 3-Time Israeli Champion, suggested lessons for the young Carly. Her mother, who was a former gymnast herself, was hesitant because of the demands of the sport. But when little Carly started to tumble around the house,  Carly's mom signed her up so she didn't get injured tumbling in their small home. In 2000, Carly competed in the Top Gym Tournament and captured a silver medal in the all-around as well as a bronze on the balance beam, her upmost favorite event.

   
        At the 2001 Goodwill Games, Carly was in the silver medal position, but she missed 3 tumbling passes on floor, and she ended up going all the way down to 7th all around. Carly didn't let this ruin her dream "I am not going to quit, even after my disappointing floor, sure, I wasnt sure what happened, but I am going to fix it. I am going to go through and follow my dreams of Olympic Glory. I was happy with my first three rotations, especially beam".  Carly had a better year in 2002, when she was named the Junior National Champion. Carly then opened out her senior career by winning the 2003 Nationals, Carly was forced to sit out of her first Nationals as a senior gymnast, she suffered from a broken elbow. But Carly petitioned to go to the Worlds Team despite not being at Nationals, but because of Carly's raw potential, Marta Karolyi decided that she would put her on the team. Carly competed in the all around competition, where she got the silver medal. Which was a record because no USA gymnast had gotten the Worlds medal since 1994.


      Once again, Patterson won the prestigious 2004 all around title. At the 2004 Nationals, she tied with Courtney Kupets for the National Title. Carly also won the floor title, and placed second on her best event, the balance beam. At the 2004 Trials, Carly had uncharacteristic falls off the balance beam, two over the course of two days, dropping her to 3rd place, but Carly earned a trip to the camps, and had solid performances, thusly getting her onto the team.


   In 2004, during preliminaries, Carly finished first place overall, and qualified to the beam final as well. During the team final, the whole team struggled, but Carly also had her own slew of mishaps. She under-rotated her vault, she hit her feet on the high bar,  and her balance beam routine was marred by balance checks, which is so uncharacteristic for this young athlete, she only lived up to her full potential on floor exercise. She admitted that she was stressed because her vault was rushed. They had to settle for the silver medal. It was a great battle in the all around between 3-time World Champion Svetlana Khorkina and our home girl, Carly Patterson. Carly next competed at the beam finals where she received the silver medal behind Romania's Catalina Ponor.



   Carly Patterson was one of the most successful gymnasts ever and she was one of my favorite gymnasts when the 10.00 system was still in gymnastics. She always managed a stellar  beam routine, here it is.

Carly Patterson (USA) - 2004 Olympic Games - All Around ...

WOGA's Greats: Carly Patterson, Nastia Liukin, and Rebecca Bross(?)

  So, in 2004, and 2008, we had back to back Olympic All-Around champion. But, I don't know that you have noticed, both Carly Patterson and Nastia Liukin came from the prestige WOGA club. they were both trained by gymnastics legend Valeri Liukin (Yes, Valeri Liukin is Nastia's father. Anyway, those two were amazing. Valeri was pretty much the most prestigious coach in the World. But, Valeri had another little prodigè, Rebecca Bross. But, she was not as successful as Nastia or Carly. She won no gold medals besides a Nationals. Just like Viktoria Komova of Russia, silver was Bross's story. Valeri only deemed her hug worthy when she won the Visa Nationals in 2010. Not when she medaled silver in nearly every event there was. But, in 2012, when neither Nastia Liukin or Rebecca Bross made it due to mistakes. Valeri still loves Nastia, and will still think of her as his prized all-around gymnast, same with Carly Patterson. And will think of Nastia as her daughter, but having no relation to Rebecca, and Rebecca having only one huge success in her gymnastics life, Valeri does not put Rebecca on his prized pupil podium (PPP) Rebecca wanted so badly to be on that podium, Nastia in first, Carly in the silver medal position so to speak. But Rebecca was replaced by little Katelyn Ohashi, who at the moment is the bronze medalist on the PPP.  Katelyn winning the 2013 American Cup, beating the World Champion Simone Biles.

Going Back In Time: Carly Patterson

Carly Patterson: She was only the second girl to win All-Around gold at the Olympic Games. She first wowed the World when she won her first American cup in 2003. She was so amazing there, and I was so excited to see her ace her routines. She injured herself, missing her first Senior Nationals, but was back for Worlds and helped the USA win a Worlds Gold Medal for the first time, also, she got the double arabian dismount named after her. I have been watching gymnastics for 13 years, and Carly is the only one who can do that dismount perfectly. The second best, of course being Alexandra Raisman, beam bronze medalist. I was so happy when Patterson stuck her final tumbling pass and beat Svetlana Khorkina of Russia for the gold. Carly wowed the gymnastics world, and made all of her family, friends, and her coach, very proud.