Commonwealth Games

I was sitting at home tonight after training and I realized that so much has happened and I haven't written about it. I have had a great summer and I would like to share my thoughts.

My summer adventure began with a training camp in Halifax. This was great and it really brought us together as a team. We had very intense training and I felt more and more prepared for Commonwealth's every day. I came into this training camp prepared for the all-around competition. We had our first test competition right after we arrived and I did do the all-around. I had solid scores on floor, vault and highbar, but my scores on the other events were low and would not be able to contribute to the team score at Commonwealth Games.

The coaches decided that at the Games I would only compete on my best 3 events. I was fine with this decision because the goal for everyone on the team was a gold medal. We wanted it bad. We sacrificed a lot and we really believed we could do it. I think that this was a very important thing that we felt. I don't think that it is possible to win something unless you really believe deep down that you can. Everyone on that team believed and we pushed ourselves everyday to make this dream materialize.

We left Halifax after 10 days and we headed to the National training centre in England. This place is called Lilleshall. While we trained at Lilleshall our main focus was to heal injuries and to make our routines so consistent that we could do them anytime. By the end of this camp I was so ready to compete that it almost frustrated me that I had to wait for the real thing. We had 2 control competitions while at Lilleshall and they went well for me. I hit everything except during the second test I fell off of highbar on my Def. I was so mad at myself because I had only missed maybe 2 of them during the entire month of preparation.

I jumped back up on the bar right after my stupid mistake and hit my routine. I vowed there was no chance that I would miss this release move during the Commonwealth Games. It was almost like I had a realization. I figured that the reason I missed it was because I was afraid of missing. I doubted myself for a second and it turned out to bite me in the butt. I am glad that I missed that day though because it opened my eyes and made me realize that I had to trust myself in order to perform to my potential.

We left Lilleshall after a week and headed to the Games. We had almost another week of preparation before the competition, but it was good because we got to train on the podium a bit and get used to the equipment.

We had the team competition on Friday the 26th, 2002. The entire team had fire in the eyes and we were ready. We started the meet on Rings. Sash was up first and he did the best that he could do. We were thinking that he would score an 8.4 or so. His score came up as 8. Then Rich went and he scored even lower. Grant was up next and he had an awesome routine. Sasha said to me on the sidelines, "if he scores below a 9.0 I am going to be mad". 8.5! We didn't understand what was going on. Then Dave went and he scored something like an 8.8. We were a little down because we were expecting more. We were handicapped right from the beginning.

I tried not to focus too much on the scores because I knew that we had a whole meet to go through, but still in the back of my head I was worried. I just wanted the team to do our best and I knew that if we did then we would be successful in accomplishing our gold medal goal. I was last up on vault and I did the best that I could do. It was kind of funny because I don't get nervous before competing vault and here I could barely feel my legs! I just wanted to complete my role as good as possible and I wanted to hit in order to make finals.

My next event was highbar. I caught my Def and had a little hop on my dismount. I was so happy to hit this routine because it was the first time I had ever competed highbar in a big international meet. I was first up on this event and it felt great to lead the team off well.

Floor was my next event and we were neck and neck with England. Both Sasha and Grant had mistakes in their routines and I really wanted to get a good score to keep us in the lead. I scored a 9.5 and my score was low because the judges said that I hadn't held my handstand long enough. I thought that I had, but I guess they saw it differently.

The team ended on pommel horse and we were quite far behind the English team at this point. All of the guys went up and hit their routines and we waited for the final result. When we found out that England had won we were disappointed, but at the same time we were happy because we hit all of our routines and you can't control everything in gymnastics. We accepted our silver medals with smiles on our faces and we knew that we had done the best job that we could have.

I qualified for 3 finals. They were held on Monday the 29th.

I competed floor in the morning and I had a pretty good routine. I would have liked to have stuck all of my landings, but that is something that I am working hard to improve on for Worlds. I was pleased to win gold on floor because this was also one of my goals for this competition.

I had a long break between the morning session and the afternoon one where I would compete on vault and highbar so I went back to the village and relaxed and refocused.

During vault I was a bit nervous for my second vault. I kept slipping on the table while practicing my second vault during training and my biggest concern was sticking to the table when it was my turn to go. I nailed my first vault and then I had a decent second vault and I ended up winning this event too. Double gold felt good.

I was pumped for highbar now because I wanted to add a fourth medal to my collection. I went up after Sasha on highbar. I watched him perform his routine and I watched him ping off on his dismount. This scared me because he is one of the best highbar workers in the world and if this could happen to him then it could happen to anyone. When it was my turn to perform I had this thought in my head. I had seen almost everyone go up before me and almost everyone had fallen. I thought to myself, "this is your opportunity, take advantage".

I shouldn't have thought those things because I came off on my Def. I wasn't focused enough and I should have been thinking about just hitting my routine.

I learned many lessons while I was away. I think that this competition was good for my personal growth. I think that I had already been taught many of the things that I learned, but the difference here was that I experienced them. I feel like a more responsible and mature gymnast because of this great experience.

After the competition was over I stayed in Manchester for a few days and then came home. I took a little bit of a break, but I had to get back into training because another opportunity arose.

I was invited to compete in the USA vs the World competition in Anaheim. This was perfect because it got me back into the gym quick and it got me working hard. The competition was great! The world team (consisting of Nemov, Jordan Jovtchev, Yuri Chechi and I...pretty good team mates eh!) ended up beating the USA team. I loved this competition because it was relaxed and fun. It was awesome being back in California too because I got to see lots of my friends from GymJam and I even stayed for an extra couple of days to relax and hang out. It was the perfect way to end a successful summer!

So now I have my new goals set and I am back in the gym. I am very excited about this fall because it is going to be filled with travelling and good competitions. I will be busy, but it will be good because it keeps me motivated and focused.

I hope everyone had a good summer and I want to thank all of you for visiting the site. Your support means a lot to me. Keep signing the guestbook because I love seeing who visits!

All the best,

Kyle ;o)

Commonwealth Games 2002