GREEN BAY, Wis. (WFRV) – Millions of eyes were on the Team USA gymnasts as the women earned gold and the men bronze in the team final at the Olympics earlier this week.
Among those watching were young gymnasts throughout Northeast Wisconsin including the girls at Fly Gymnastics in Kimberly.
“It’s like watching your idols up there and knowing someday you could be that for someone else,” said Emma Rivers from Appleton. “It was so inspirational to see them be together as a team and compete at such a high level.”
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Emma and her younger sister Elly are both budding gymnasts at Fly Gymnastics who say that Simone Bile and Sunisa Lee are the gymnasts they look up to the most.
Not only do the young gymnasts get to see Team USA’s breathtaking skills on the beam, vault, and floor, but they also get to learn life lessons by watching how the women carry themselves when they compete.
“If you fall you can get right back up,” said Elly Rivers when asked what she learns when she watches the Olympic gymnasts. “And how they encourage each other and help each other learn.”
“All things that are outside the actual skills we do in the gym really matter, we see that with our role models how they act in public how they support their teammates,” said Destinee Ramos who is one of the coaches at Fly Gymnastics.
Over at Air Force Gymnastics in Green Bay, the owner Jen Beyer said both the boys and the girls were watching the Olympic gymnastic team finals during breaks in the practice the last few days.
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For one of her high school-aged gymnasts Ava Kasprzycki, it’s Simone Biles’s redemption story that has resonated the most with her. Biles withdrew from the Olympics in Tokyo to take care of her mental health, but the legendary gymnast was back competing in Paris and helped her team win gold.
“Being able to overcome something like that is just so big for everyone in the world even just seeing how someone can overcome something that big and that tough,” said Kasprzycki.
Team USA’s golden moment for the women’s gymnastics team and breakthrough bronze for the men’s side has inspired local gymnasts at every level.
“We definitely get a bump in enrollment every Olympic year it’s just so inspiring,” said Beyer.
