Barcelona Olympic gold medalist will be bringing the Gilroy
gymnastics team to its first meet Sunday
Gilroy – Li Lu sits and watches her gymnastics team goes through its morning practice.
Many thoughts go through her head as she wonders how they’ll do at the upcoming meet in Moss Beach. But as much as she’s excited she’s also scared. It’s been about three years since she’s coached a team in competition and the nerves are starting to get to her.
“They have the potential,” Lu said as she watched the team do their morning activities. “They are good but they picked up bad habits. Here, we ask a lot. We expect a lot more.”
Lu expects a lot from her team because she has always expected a lot from herself.
Lu started gymnastics at the age of four and began competing when she was 7-years-old in China. She said she always had to do things the right way. Her coach would ask her to do something and she would do it without even thinking.
Her parents weren’t rich, she said, and taking her to the gym on an almost daily basis had started to become a burden for the family. So they told Lu she would have to stop doing gymnastics.
Lu was crushed.
One rainy day Lu ran out of the house and didn’t stop until she reached the gym. She was sobbing and told the coaches her parents told her she would have to quit. An arrangement was made that she would stay at the facility with her teammates.
Eight years later at Barcelona she helped China bring home a gold medal as she was awarded six perfect “10’s” from the judges. Lu was only 15.
At 28, Lu said she looks back fondly on her memories of gymnastics. Although she missed her parents she was completely enjoying herself with the sport she loved.
But not everything is perfect and tears come to her eyes as she thinks about her mother who died in 2002.
“I miss her a lot,” Lu said as she tried to hold back the tears that began swelling up in her eyes. “I really loved gymnastics. Too much. But I missed out on something else very important. Right now it’s kind of too late.”
She began talking about her 2-year-old son, J.D., and said she doesn’t know how her parents did it. Although she always loved her parents she understands more now that she is a parent herself.
” ‘Everything is OK. There’s just one thing missing,’ ” Lu recalls her mother saying to her before she died. “I knew she meant me.”
Now she looks out at the team she has assembled since moving to Gilroy just about a year ago and says they have it lucky. They have many more choices than he did back in China.
But since the girls have chosen gymnastics now they have to put the time and energy into being the best.
“We want these kids to have fun and have a good experience,” Lu said of the girls who range from 7 to 14-years-old. “We want them to have fun but it’s more than just having fun. We want them to be good. That’s a different kind of fun.”
Lu said the team members have learned a lot. Some have been with her for a year while others have been picked up just within the last few months. She said she doesn’t know how the team will do but does believe that just competing in the meet, no matter the outcome, will bring the girls confidence.
Lu, however, isn’t the only one with anxious feelings.
“I’m nervous,” said Sammi Laird. “I’ve done a lot of meets before but this is my first time at Level 6 (the highest at the competition). A lot of the skills are scary and I’m still learning.”
Laird’s teammates, Pooja Chirala and Jordan Fedalizo, felt the same but added that the meets are fun even if they are challenging and said, “There’s a lot of fear.”
Whether they fall and make mistakes Lu hopes the girls will take something good from the meet. She said she has already seen a difference in the girls during the last few practices.
“They want it more now,” Lu said. “They don’t want to embarrass themselves. They know the competition is coming up.”
Now, all she can hope is that they start building confidence.
