Gymnasts play hard, might be superheros in UCLA disguise

By Adam Karon
Daily Bruin Staff

Last year UCLA senior linebacker Tony White stopped by Yates
Gymnasium to check out a UCLA gymnastics practice. After several
minutes of watching, he turned to head coach Valorie Kondos Field
and said, “Wow, this sport is dangerous!”

Such a statement carries considerable weight coming from an
athlete competing in what many consider to be the most hazardous
collegiate sport.

Gymnastics is often overlooked as a treacherous sport because
the participants are in such fine shape that they recover from
injuries quicker than most athletes.

In addition, gymnasts are able to make potential crash landings
look slightly more graceful by compensating for their mistakes in
mid-air. They also make difficult maneuvers look easy.

Gymnasts’ are able to use their skills in life and death
situations.

Kondos Field relates a story of one of her athletes being hit by
a car while riding a moped. The athlete essentially vaulted off the
hood of the car and landed in a roll, avoiding injury where many
could have ended up in intensive care.

Despite their strength and air-awareness, gymnasts are still
subject to terrible falls and serious injury. This year the
Bruins have been especially hard hit. Just ask Kristin Parker and
Christie Tedmon.

Parker, a sophomore, recently suffered her second concussion of
the season when she smashed her head on the uneven bars during a
double layout dismount . She blacked out in mid-air. Luckily, she
was fortunate enough to be caught by assistant coach Milo Johnson,
who is always on hand to spot gymnasts during their dismounts. Her
first concussion occurred before the regular season when she
slammed her head into the mat during a floor exercise.

“It really doesn’t bother me,” Parker said of
the injuries. You get used to bouncing back.”

Tedmon, a freshman, saw her season come to a screeching halt
almost before it began when she fell off the balance beam in the
Bruins first meet of the year. She broke four toes. But after a
life of gymnastics, Tedmon has learned to take falling in
stride.

So far, Tedmon has suffered injuries requiring pins in her
ankle, eight stitches below her eyebrow, and six stitches in her
lip.

“People don’t really realize the risk,” Tedmon
said. “Even with skills that look really easy. Even a leap on
beam, if you’re off a centimeter, your foot can slip and you
can gouge your leg.”

Parker has a scar on the inside of her shin from a similar
incident. Like Tedmon, she knows that falls are part of the sport.
In fact, her nickname in the gym is “Crash,” given by
her teammates because of her propensity to land on her head.

In football, if a player suffers two concussions during the
course of the season he will most likely be prohibited from playing
pending observation. When Parker competes next week against
Stanford she will do so without missing a meet due to her
concussion.

Each apparatus has its dangers.

On the floor, the gymnasts can get too much momentum, propelling
themselves past the boundaries and into spectators and members of
the media.

The most damaging crashes occur on the uneven bars. The highest
bar stands more than eight feet from the ground and during releases
and dismounts gymnasts can get as high as three or four feet above
that. The slightest mistake can bring the athlete crashing to the
mat, or in the case of Parker, hitting the bar on the way down.

Most other accidents occur on the balance beam, which is four
feet high but just four inches wide.

According to Kondos Field, the vault is most dangerous,
especially when gymnasts perform a Yurchenko (round-off entry). To
prevent injury, the springboard is supplemented by a pad called a
doughnut.

“I think sometimes fans see gymnasts as superheros,”
Kondos Field said. “They take all these crashes, but
they come out of them.”

Most gymnasts compete with a bit of fear, always knowing that
they could be hurt or potentially killed. Coming back from an
injury, however, is part of the sport and if the Bruins hope to
have a successful season they must learn to do just that.

“We tell them to block it out, to move on, what’s in
the past is in the past,” Kondos Field said. “But after
a bad crash, nothing is worth taking a risk.”