Tumbling (36 page)

You count. You should count more than anyone
, Leigh thought.

“It's okay, Grace,” Leigh said. “Your friendship should be more important to me than some secret that shouldn't even be a secret.”

“And yours should be more important to me than gymnastics,” Grace said. “Camille, will you get my dad now?”

She was brave. So brave. Grace was brave and Leigh was brave and Camille was brave and in that hospital room their courage multiplied on itself.

Camille left and Grace said, “So we're doing this again? Four more years?”

Leigh nodded. “Four more years as gymnasts, but not only-and-everything gymnasts. Four more years as friends, too. Okay?”

And Grace said, “I'll try.”

And that was
enough.

GLOSSARY OF GYMNASTICS TERMS

AERIAL CA
RT
WHEEL: A move in which a gymnast turns her body over like a pinwheel (as in a standard cartwheel) without using her hands for support

ALL-AROUND:
A gymnast who competes in all events; for women this refers to vault, uneven bars, balance beam, and floor

ALTERNATE:
A gymnast selected to train and prepare for the Olympic games in case one of the Olympic gymnasts cannot perform due to illness, injury, or another reason. Olympic Alternates rarely get to compete, if ever, and they do not stay in the Olympic Village

AMANAR:
A gymnastics move on vault (named for Romanian gymnast Simona Amanar) in which a gymnast performs a Yurchenko with two and a half twists

APPARATUS:
The significant piece of gymnastics equipment for each event; i.e., the vault, the uneven bars, the balance beam, and the gym floor

ARABIAN:
A tumbling move that starts as a back flip and finishes as a front flip

BALANCE BEAM:
A piece of gymnastics apparatus and an event in which the gymnast performs tricks on a beam that is 4 feet high, 4 inches wide, and nearly 16.5 feet long

BARS:
A term commonly used to refer to the uneven bars

BEAM:
A term commonly used to refer to the balance beam

CLASSICS/US CLASSICS:
An annual national gymnastics meet held each summer and regarded as the start of the serious gymnastics season

DEGREE OF DIFFICULTY (DOD):
A rating that reflects the difficulty of a gymnastics move. DODs are added up, then added to the execution score to determine a gymnast's score on an event

DISMOUNT:
Term used for the last element in any routine, used to get off the apparatus in beam and bars

DOUBLE TWISTING YURCHENKO (DTY):
A gymnastics move on vault in which the gymnast performs a Yurchenko with two full twists

ELITE:
The top level of gymnastics as determined by the FIG; gymnasts must be an elite in order to qualify for the national team

EVENT:
Term used to refer to the four standard performances in women's gymnastics: vault, bars, beam, and floor

EXECUTION SCORE
:
A score based on the quality of a routine regardless of the difficulty of tricks; execution scores all start at 10 and deductions are made based on mistakes or imperfections during a routine

FIG (
Fédération Internationale de Gymnastique
):
The governing body that determines the rules and the code for international gymnastics, including the Olympics

FLOOR:
A shortened term for the floor exercise

FLOOR EXERCISE:
An event in women's gymnastics in which athletes compete a routine made of tumbling and dance moves set to music over a 40-foot square spring floor

FULL TURN:
A 360-degree turn performed on either floor or beam

GIANT:
A move on bars that involves a 360-degree swing around a bar from handstand to handstand with the body in full extension

GRIPS:
Equipment made of leather that gymnasts fasten around their hands and wrists to improve their handling of the uneven bars

HANDSPRING:
A tumbling move on floor or beam in which the gymnast moves from both feet to both hands and back to both feet; it can be performed forward or backward

HIGH BAR:
The top bar of the uneven bars

INTERNATIONAL GYMNAST
/
IG
:
The most popular magazine about national and international men's and women's gymnastics

JUNIOR OLYMPICS/JO:
The program of gymnastics for those too young (or not yet skilled enough) to compete on the elite level

KIP:
A basic gymnastics skill on bars in which the gymnast moves from a hanging position to a fully extended handstand

LAYOUT:
A move on floor or beam in which the gymnast flips with her body held straight or arched, but not tucked

LEO:
A shortened term for leotard

LEOTARD:
A one-piece fitted garment made for competition in gymnastics

LOW BAR:
The lower of the two uneven bars

MOUNT:
The first skill used in any routine; in beam and bars this refers to the move used to get onto the apparatus

MUSTAFINA:
A dismount on bars named after Russian gymnast Aliya Mustafina in which the gymnast does a double back tuck off the high bar while also twisting her body 180 degrees

NATIONAL CHAMPION:
The winner of the Nationals meet; regarded as the best American gymnast until the next Nationals meet, or the Olympics if it is an Olympic year

NATIONALS:
An annual gymnastics meet among the best American gymnasts, held to crown a yearly national champion; many countries also host their own national championships

NATIONAL TEAM:
A select group of elite gymnasts required to train together several times a year; all the international teams such as Worlds and Olympic teams are selected from this group

NCAA:
National Collegiate Athletic Association, also used to refer to college athletics in general

OLYMPIAD:
The period of four years between Olympic games

OLYMPIC ROTATION:
The preferred and standard order for a gymnast to compete on the events; this order is always used unless there are multiple groups of gymnasts, in which case the order remains the same but may start on a different apparatus; the order is vault, bars, beam, floor

OLYMPIC SELECTION COMMITTEE:
A small committee of people who are committed to gymnastics who work together to determine the makeup of the Olympic team, often including past Olympic athletes, past coaches, etc.

OLYMPIC TEAM COORDINATOR:
The member of the Olympic Selection Committee who establishes the training and preparation required for all Olympic hopeful gymnasts, advises gymnasts and coaches, and makes many decisions about US Olympic gymnastics

PAK SALTO:
A move on bars, named after North Korean gymnast Gyong Sil Pak, in which the gymnast releases the high bar, does a backward flip, and catches the low bar

PIKE:
A body position used in moves on floor, beam, and bars in which the legs are kept straight and the body is bent at the hips, preferably in an angle over 90 degrees

PLATFORM:
The raised surface upon which the apparatus is placed in big events

RELEASE MOVE:
Refers to any move on bars in which the gymnast lets go of the bar and does a trick in the air before grasping the bar again

ROUNDOFF:
A move on floor or beam that starts similar to a cartwheel, but both feet land on the floor at once; often used to begin a tumbling series

ROUTINE:
A combination of skills and tricks that one gymnast performs in a certain order on one apparatus

RUNWAY:
The line of mat that a gymnast runs down when approaching the vault

SENIOR:
A gymnast who is over sixteen years old, or is fifteen but will turn sixteen within the calendar year, and is therefore eligible to compete in the Olympics and other international and national meets

SPECIALIST:
A gymnast who competes in only certain events and does not do the all-around

SPLIT LEAP:
A move on beam and floor in which a gymnast starts on one foot, completes a split in midair, and lands on the other foot; ideally the split will be more than 180 degrees to showcase flexibility

TUCK:
A position used during flips in which the body is bent at the hips and knees or curled into a
ball

TUMBLING PASS:
A series of connected tumbling tricks that gets the gymnast from one side of the floor or beam to the other

UNEVEN BARS:
An apparatus and event consisting of two fiberglass bars, one 148 centimeters high, the other 228 centimeters high

USAG:
The governing body for US-specific gymnastics

VAULT:
An apparatus consisting of a runway, springboard, and vaulting platform; an event in which a gymnast sprints down the runway, punches off the springboard, performs flips and tricks, and ends up on her feet on the other side of the vaulting table

WALKOVER:
A move on floor and vault in which a gymnast moves from a standing position into a handstand and back to standing by “walking” on the air with her feet

WOLF JUMP:
A jump performed on floor and beam in which a gymnast has one leg fully extended in front of her and one bent sharply at the knee with her body in a pike position

YURCHENKO:
A move on vault, named for Soviet gymnast Natalia Yurchenko, in which the gymnast hits the springboard with her hands and performs a back-handspringlike movement over the vault, then twists before landing

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

This book taught me a whole new meaning of the word “revise,” and both the book and myself are so much better for it! An immense thank you to my editor, Leila Sales, for the brilliant insights, the endless patience, and the consistent belief that I could make this work. I am a better writer because of you. Thank you also to everyone at Viking, especially Janet Pascal, Tricia Callahan, everyone in publicity and marketing. And thank you to Nancy Brennan for the cover!

Kate McKean, thank you for believing in this project when it was just a tiny idea and thank you for believing in it every step of the way! I'm blessed to have you as my agent.

This book had many early readers whose insights were priceless to making sure I had a story, and one with five distinct voices. Thank you to Jessica Verdi, Allary Montague, Corey Ann Haydu, Dhonielle Clayton, Mary G. Thompson, and Sona Charaipotra for your thoughts on my first pages and on early drafts. A special shout-out to Alyson Gerber and Amy Ewing for sticking with me through many revisions and for letting me lose my mind and then helping me find it again.

I'm also blessed to have many communities who
support me. Thank you to The New School, The Lucky 13s, The Class of 2K13, and the Binders. Thank you to my friends in writing, in life, and in both: I count on you in so many ways.

Thank you to my family: Beth and Bill Carter, Dan Carter, each of the Larssons, and all my aunts, uncles, and cousins.

Thank you to my Buddy.

And, always and forever, thank you to Greg.

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