American pride
By Daily Bruin Staff
Feb. 7, 2001 9:00 p.m.
 CHRIS BACKLEY/Daily Bruin Though only a freshman,
Alyssa Beckerman of the UCLA gymnastics team has
been to the Olympics as an alternate.
By Eli Karon
Daily Bruin Contributor
Anyone who sits and talks at length with UCLA gymnast Alyssa
Beckerman will immediately recognize one of her prominent
traits.
The girl has got attitude. About the best you’ve ever
seen.
Beckerman gave other sports a try, but nothing caught her
attention like gymnastics.
“I tried other sports. But I kept doing cartwheels on the
softball field and handstands on the tennis courts, and I was just
bored with everything else,” she said with a laugh.
While other positive traits include being tough, talented, and
competitive, nothing compares to her positive attitude. Having
an attitude like Beckerman’s makes life and gymnastics much
more enjoyable.
This is not to say that gymnastics has always been easy for her.
After competing throughout high school, Beckerman was selected as
an alternate for the 2000 USA gymnastics team. While this role may
appear easy, Beckerman lived the side of the Olympic experience
most spectators don’t see.
“Sydney was a great city, after I was done with the
training,” Beckerman said. “Once I was released to
go with my family I had a great time.”
If this sounds something like incarceration, you aren’t
far off. Though her family traveled with her to Sydney, Beckerman
was not allowed to see them until training concluded. She and the
rest of the Olympic team trained extensively at a gym 30 minutes
outside Sydney. Beckerman was not accustomed to such intense
coaching and training. In fact, Beckerman’s time in Sydney
ranks among her worst gymnastics experiences.
“Basically for me, being the alternate, each day was like
another Olympic trials all over again,” Beckerman said.
The demanding coaching style of renowned gymnastics coach Bela
Karolyi caused her to lose some of her love for the sport. However,
Beckerman was not alone in her dislike of his coaching
style. Many of the other gymnasts felt they never received the
respect and acknowledgement they had all worked hard to
achieve.
“They just really did not treat us very nicely,”
Beckerman said.
While her family paid to watch the opening ceremony from the
stands, Alyssa and her Olympic teammates were forced to watch the
spectacle on TV.
However, as the opening ceremonies came to a close, so too did
Beckerman’s stay at the training complex. She packed up
and arrived at the hotel with her family the next day.
“From there I had a great time,” Beckerman said.
Yet demanding coaches couldn’t stop Beckerman from
displaying her American pride. She turned her negative energy into
pride, knowing she was in Sydney representing her country. During
the gymnastics competition, she was in the stands waving the
American flag and supporting her teammates, the same girls who
stood by her, motivating her to train day after day.
“If it wasn’t for my teammates, I would have
left,” Beckerman said.
Instead, Beckerman endured the physical and emotional pain of
her Olympic ordeal and turned it into something positive. While the
whole experience set her motivation back a few steps, coming to
UCLA has helped rekindle the flame. Beckerman’s new
teammates and coaches have helped to make the adjustment to
UCLA’s different style of gymnastics extremely enjoyable.
“There’s not just one person,” she said.
“I know they’re there for me, but I’m also there
for them. It’s a mutual thing, we all help each other
out.”
At UCLA, the balance of gymnastics and academics has helped her
transition to Division I athletics and the passion for her sport is
slowly coming back.
“I really love this sport, and that’s why I stuck
with it,” Beckerman said.
And she continues to stick with it. She has been practicing and
competing with a broken wrist for more than a year. The
non-union open fracture of her left wrist will eventually need
surgery, another hurdle Beckerman must overcome.
Additionally, a knee injury has hampered her
progression. While other gymnasts may allow injuries like
these to dampen their spirit, Beckerman’s attitude enables
her to laugh about the injuries. Despite these setbacks, she will
continue to see how far she can go.
“I can’t wait to do floor,” Beckerman
said. “I love getting the crowd involved, it’s so
much fun. You gotta love it, that’s what it really is all
about.”
Beckerman is always the first to laugh at herself when she makes
mistakes, and keeps the atmosphere light-hearted in the gym.
Olympic teammate Kristen Maloney can attest to that.
“Her attitude is always upbeat. Out of everyone, I think
she had the hardest time, but that didn’t get her
down,” Maloney said. “She’s really fun to have
around, and she always tries to make us laugh or motivate
us.”
Coach Valorie Kondos Field agreed, though she puts a slightly
different spin on things.
“She’s just a quirky kid, but that’s why we
love her,” Kondos Field said.
For Beckerman, the next year will be interesting, with the
inevitable surgery and knee problems hindering her progress.
However, where many athletes would falter, she has the great
equalizer: a great attitude.
