Dominique Moceanu: An American Champion

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It’s been unnamed since the element entered the COP.

Would it be named after Karpenko(in theory)?

 

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Chapter 15: My Normal Life

• Started 9th grade in fall of 1995. Had a late start due to Worlds, which were in October. She spent September getting ready, so she did correspondence courses instead of regular high school
• The materials were provided via videotape. She likes being able to rewind and go over things again if something is hard to understand
• Each videotape contains a series of subject and classes for every day of the week. It's better than just reading the materials and doing homework. Feels she learns as well or better than she would in a regular classroom, and the tapes present homework assignments so her parents can work with her if she needs extra help
• But it requires more discipline than in-person school. Especially after hard days, the last thing she wants to do is put on a tape and learn math.
• Math is a hard subject for her. But she's a great speller, which helps with reading and writing
• The discipline of training gymnastics makes her a better student. When she did traditional school, she also often found that the serious athletes were also more involved in the classroom
• She is looking forward to going back to regular school, probably next year
• She misses seeing her nongymnast friends every day
• Her plans are to qualify for the 1996 Olympic team. Then there is a national tour for two or three months and additional competitions. So she probably won't be back in a classroom until 1997
• She wants to go to college and study sports medicine. She enjoys studying anatomy and science, and gymnastics has made her very familiar with how the body works
• Right now her focus is gymnastics and it's pretty much her whole world, but a gymnastics career doesn't last forever. She'll need to have another career planned

Chapter 16: Downtime

• Likes to relax quietly in her room listening to music. But it doesn't seem like she gets much time to do this!
• She and her parents make sure she gets time to decompress–being able to unwind is key to handling stress at other times
• Loves being in her room at home with all her souvenirs and collections. Her parents are even expanding her room so she'll have space for everything
• Has a collection of small stuffed animals, especially elephants, and souvenir spoons from cities she's visited. She's not that superstitious, but she also has a collection of guardian angel pins. Seven is her lucky number, so she has 7 angel pins on her gym bag
• She likes shopping for clothes and getting new music CDs. She likes country-and-western music: Garth Brooks, George Strait, and Reba McIntyre. Most of her fellow gymnasts are also into country music. Bela likes rock and roll
• Sometimes she just likes to sit in her room and think about all her happy memories
• She has most of her gymnastics medals hanging alone one wall in her room. The really special ones are in velvet cases on a shelf
• On another wall is a framed copy of the Sports Illustrated article after she became National Champion. And a Brad Pitt poster.
• In the living room, there's a bookcase where they keep mementos of her gymnastics career. Her parents also keep a scrapbook for her that she's looking forward to showing her children one day