In any sport, it’s always a kid’s improbable dream to get to meet an Olympic medalist.
That dream became a reality for a big group of young gymnasts on Wednesday night at Redmond’s Emerald City Gymnastics, as superstar gymnast Jonathan Horton, who earned two medals from the 2008 Beijing Olympics – a silver on the high bar and a bronze team medal – visited the club to speak to the more than 50 kids in attendance.
Horton, who resides in Houston, Texas, was making a tour of the Puget Sound area to promote the upcoming Pacific Rim Gymnastics Championships, an international competition that will be held at Comcast Arena in Everett next March.
After speaking briefly about that event, he went on to inspire the local youths, giving them advice on how to achieve their best in gymnastics, and in life.
“We’re really excited,” said club owner Sandy Flores on Horton’s visit. “These kids train hard every day, and just to meet somebody that fulfilled the dream that they have, it’s a big thing for them.”
Horton said that his gymnastics inspiration came from the 1996 Summer Olympics, as he watched, at age 10, Kerri Strug’s gutsy performance in the women’s final where she landed her last vault on a badly sprained ankle to secure the women’s gold medal.
“That’s the moment, watching the Olympics, that I told myself ‘that’s what I want to do,’” Horton recalled. “I was inspired. I wanted to commit myself to this sport. For a while I just enjoyed it, I played around, but after that I really started training hard.”
The University of Oklahoma graduate cited his success in the sport to his work ethic, often being the first to arrive at the gym and the last to leave.
He admitted that he was not “the most talented gymnast,” but more than made up for it with his passion and persistence.
“Gymnastics is not always easy,” Horton told the kids. “It’s fun … but you’re going to get rips, you’re going to get tired, you’re going to get sore. If it’s important to you, it’s worth training hard, it’s worth fighting for.”
In an intensely competitive individual sport like gymnastics, it’s common for self-doubt to creep in, something Horton had to deal with five years ago after one of the worst performances of his career.
At the 2006 World Championships, he fell five times in six events, bringing the team down to 13th place.
As the kids listened wide-eyed to his story, he made sure to let them know that all athletes experience failures at some time in their career, and it’s all about how you respond.
“I went home with my head down, I didn’t think I could handle the pressure of competing,” Horton recalled. “As much as I really cared about gymnastics, I had to figure out deep down inside, do I want to keep doing this? The answer was yes, and I changed everything about me – how I ate, how I slept. Since then, my gymnastics has been great.”
Before posing for photos and signing autographs, the five-time U.S. Nationals gold medalist encouraged the kids to stick with the sport, describing how the life lessons learned through gymnastics will serve them well in all areas of life.
“When you go to college, are in the business world, or a mom or a dad one day, it teaches you things that you can use forever,” Horton explained. “That’s why I think gymnastics is not only the hardest, but the best sport in the world.”
Photos by Tim Watanabe, Redmond Reporter
Quote of Note:
“When I was four, I went to a Target to go shopping with my mom… she knew she could never take her eyes off me. I was really rambunctious, I ran around all over the place. She turned back, and I was gone. Ten minutes later, she has the whole store searching for me, and finally the manager spots me – I had grabbed a pole in the middle of the store and climbed to the top. . . I slid down, my mom thought I was really weird, and (my parents) put me in gymnastics the next day.”
– Olympian Jonathan Horton on how he got started in gymnastics
