The selection procedures for Olympic gymnasts are slightly different depending on your gender, although both the men and women's teams rely heavily on the results of the U.S. Olympic Trials. There are six women and six men on the Olympic gymnastics squads, plus alternates. If you ever want to make this elite squad, here's what you need to know to get started.
Instructions
Beginning Steps for All Olympic Gymnasts
1. Begin training at a young age--like six or seven. Of course, you're not reading this article if you're 6--this advice is more for parents with kids who show real interest in the sport.
This is especially important for girls, since a woman's career in gymnastics is so short. Most female gymnasts retire from competition by their early 20s.
2. Find a place to train and a coach. If you are serious about making the U.S. Olympic team, you need a top-notch facility with state of the art equipment, and a personal coach with national and international experience. You are going to have to wake up before dawn, go to sleep when it's still light, miss all the junk food kids eat and forget about growing with a normal childhood. Becoming an Olympian is probably harder than getting into Yale or Harvard--only a select few get on an Olympic gymnast team.
3. Join a local gymnastics club and USA Gymnastics (the national governing body for gymnastics in the United States). You must be a member of USA Gymnastics to compete in their sanctioned events, including the U.S. Olympic Trials.
4. Place well at the U.S. Championships during an Olympic year. This will account for 40 percent of your score going into the U.S. Olympic Trials-Gymnastics (the other 60 percent of your score will be earned at the Trials).
Olympic Gymnast Selection - Women
5. Go to the U.S. Olympic Trials-Gymnastics, and place first or second. This will give you a tentative berth on the Olympic Gymnastics Team. Or at least do well enough to secure yourself an invitation to the Olympic Selection Camp.
6. Attend the Selection Camp. If you placed in the top two, at the Olympic Trials, you just need to prove that you are ready for competition. If you are one of the others, you are going to have to fight hard to snag one of the four remaining spots.
7. Work hard and keep a positive attitude. They will be looking for alternates as well as full members, so you never know when you could be called up.
8. Last tip: You're going to have to master the following gymnastic events...
Women
1. Vault
2. Uneven Bars
3. Balance Beam
4. Floor
Olympic Gymnast Selection - Men
9. Go to the U.S. Olympic Trials-Gymnastics, and place first or second. Like the women, this will give you an automatic berth on the Olympic Team.
10. Dazzle the Olympic Team Selection Committee, even if you can't do well enough for a first or second place. Two more nominations are named to the team at the end of the Trials, but not necessarily the men who placed third and fourth; it can be anyone present at Trials that the Selection Committee wants.
11. Attend the Olympic Selection Camp. If you are one of the four already chosen, then keep up the good work. If you were one of the others that were invited to the camp, you are going to have to work your tail off to get one of those last two spots.
12. Last tip: You're going to have to master the following gymnastic events...
Men
1. Floor Exercise
2. Pommel Horse
3. Still Rings
4. Vault
5. Parallel Bars
6. High Bar
Learn 'em, live 'em.
Tags: going have, first second, Olympic Trials, Olympic Trials-Gymnastics, Selection Camp, berth Olympic, following gymnastic