A Road to Barcelona: A Mother’S Account

By Terri Stober

This is a mothers story of her two daughters leaving home at young ages to pursue gymnastics dreams to be Olympians. The loneliness and longing to be with her daughters during their journey and the long separations were not easy to describe. Difficulties, indecisiveness, joy, pride, and sadnessthey all played a role in that journey. Maybe they didnt make it to the Olympics, but there were decisions, successes, and experiences that this mother wanted to share.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris US
• Release date: Feb 10, 2017
• ISBN: 9781524583347

Terri Stober

As a mother of two daughters and six grandchildren, Terri Stober is a blessed woman. She is a retired high school educator and Human Relations Specialist, and now lives in Ventura, CA, in walking distance of the beach, so live is good. Retirement has allowed her the time to write her first book, hike, bike, volunteer at the Ventura Botanical Gardens and the San Buenaventura Mission, play bridge, and travel. She and her husband reared their two daughters in Northern California, Grass Valley where they found their passion for gymnastics. After the girls’ college graduations, Ms. Strober worked and lived internationally for five years in Egypt and Paris, went to Seattle, WA, for 11 years, and finally returned to her home state, California in 2013. Her heart is rooted in family, faith, and love of life.

Book preview

PROLOGUE

W E BECAME A gymnastic family even before the girls went to kindergarten. Troi and Gina had been identified with great potential at a very young age. The girls had gymnastic books featuring Olga Korbut & Nadia Comaneci, but these gymnasts were not Americans. We went on vacation in August 1984. My two girls and our friend’s daughter, even though they weren’t gymnasts, watched gymnastics on TV nonstop. Everyone in our household, along with all the USA, was rooting for Mary Lou Retton. She was our favorite, but a long shot to win at the Olympics, but Mary Lou’s dream came true.

At the Olympic Games in Los Angeles in 1984, young American, Mary Lou Retton, executed breathtaking performances to claim the all-around gold by just 0.05 points. She became the first American woman to win this event. Retton went on to win four more medals at those Games, two silver (vault and all-around team) and two bronze medals (uneven bars and floor).

After the magnificent gymnastic performances that summer, the girls were hooked. They wanted to be Olympic gymnasts. We had no idea at that time how this dream would mature. We didn’t want to admit it, but we knew the girls were outgrowing their current gym. But what were our options?

What follows is an account of two very determined sisters and their parents, making a dream come true. A Mother’s Account was first drafted 25 years ago to fill a void and ease the loneliness that I felt with the absence of my daughters. I felt I had a story to tell that other parents and gymnasts would be able to identify with. The manuscript was written with emotion and an earnest belief in our daughters’ abilities, but it was not published. At that time I was focused on the sacrifices we were making to achieve an Olympic goal and did not focus on our own journey of love, joy, successes, and disappointments. My story is not whether they made it to the Olympics, but what a family did to encourage and nurture, and make tough decisions. I felt compelled to tell my story. I resurrected my manuscript after watching parents in the stands with great empathy and hearing testimonies from the gymnasts themselves of what they gave up to get to this moment. If our family had it to do again, I believe we would have made the very same choices.

CHAPTER ONE

1988 Olympic Trials

T HE 1988 OLYMPIC Trials were held in Salt Lake City on August 3-6. This was one of the most riveting and fabulous vacations experienced by the Stober family. Our daughters Troi and Gina, my husband Scott and I were from Grass Valley, California. The girls competed for Miyagi’s Gym in Auburn, California.

We stayed at Little America in the heart of Salt Lake City along with the competing men and women Olympian gymnasts plus their coaches and managers. We were in the lobby waiting for the girls’ dad to register us when who appeared but the one and only Bela Karolyi & his team. Karolyi & team had flown from Houston, Texas; we had driven for 11 hours from Northern California. All of us were tired that Wednesday afternoon, but nothing could slow the girls down.

Troi and Gina timidly walked over to greet Phoebe Mills and Kristie Phillips. I watched Karolyi with inquisitiveness and admiration. Were his girls going to continue to shine? He was such an awesome coach and had quite the reputation. Minutes later Don Peters and his team arrived. Don Peters, the National Olympic coach (1980-88) and SCATS head coach was from Los Angeles, California. The girls again went over to Coach Peters’ competitor, Don Yamashiro, to chat. Don introduced Troi & Gina to Sabrina Mar.

The entire Little America stay was magnificent. The hotel was beautiful and accommodating, the food was good, but the elevators were annoyingly slow. Of course, you meet a lot of noteworthy people – coaches, managers, gymnasts – while waiting and riding in the elevators. It wasn’t difficult to eavesdrop on conversations. There was a great amount of unrest and dissension between Bela Karolyi, Don Peters, and the Olympic Committee, but that is for another time. We were in Salt Lake City for the Olympic Trials and not the politics.

We ate at the hotel coffee shop several times. That seemed to be the preferred hangout for the gymnasts, such as Tim Dagget, Charles Lakes, Scott Johnson, Hope Spivey to mention a few. Oh yes, Mary Lou and Bart Conner came into the coffee shop together for breakfast on Friday. Everyone’s heads turned at the sight of these two famous gold medalists. They both were asked for autographs during their meal. Mary Lou seemed rather disinterested with the entire ordeal of autographs. I felt she was actually rude as she signed her name without making eye contact with these young hopefuls who admired her so much. Not the Mary Lou I had imagined. Bart was a little friendlier and signed his autograph more willingly.

You could not help but wonder what went on in Mary Lou’s head. Just four years ago she was sitting in a similar Jacksonville coffee shop with possible butterflies and doubts, yet feelings of confidence – the dream of being an Olympian. She did not look around the coffee shop, but merely chatted with Bart. She was here in Salt Lake City to commentate the trials – not compete. She had already won the All-around Gold and had a perfect vault. What more could one accomplish in the sport of gymnastics?

Salt Lake City was a beautiful city, relatively flat with very large, long city blocks, not like the blocks found in our little home town. It was an easy city to navigate, and there was definitely a great deal to see in four short days. We took walking tours by day and enjoyed gymnastic competitions by night.

It was difficult to decide what to do first. We walked, we rode the trolley and bus, and we thoroughly enjoyed ourselves. We visited Temple Square and toured through that entire block of gorgeous buildings, temples, and wonderful landscape. We toured the Beehive House, the Capital, Salt Palace, Trolley Square, and the malls. These were some of the largest indoor malls in the world. Of course, each mall was a full city block. I guess we were just country bumpkins.

The girls went to Water World on Friday, their dad went golfing and contacted an old school buddy, and I went shopping again, this time for myself.

We watched the women’s final gymnastic competition Saturday afternoon. That evening we attended Ms. Natalie Cole’s dynamite performance at the Symphony Hall before leaving for home early Sunday morning.

The afternoon’s women’s final gymnastic competition at the Salt Palace and the closing ceremony are difficult to describe. Perhaps when Kenny Rogers sang: When You Put Your Heart Into It you were given a glimpse into what was being felt. There was not a dry eye in the house. The realization that only six men and six women would comprise the USA team was here and now. Pride filled the room as history was once again being made. I believe each one of those athletes, as well as their parents, forgot all those long hours of training, oh so many hours, the injuries they had endured and overcome, the sacrifices they made to be (alternate way of saying it) among the chosen few)who were going to represent our country at the Olympic games of 1988.

We, the Stober family, sitting there in that audience, had our hopes and dreams, but little did we realize how these trials would affect our lives.

We returned to Grass Valley the following day and to gymnastics on Monday. All the gymnasts at our gym were firing off questions about the Olympic trials. Everyone wanted our girls’ first-hand commentary, but it was time for warmups, and no chatting. I was so dissatisfied and restless with our shortage of coaching staff. We had hoped two new coaches would be hired but not even one was added. Miyagi himself, an Olympian, wanted a good team. He had a fabulous new facility which he owned, but he didn’t want to coach full time. He had a great many other things on his mind – enrollment, a second baby, and finances in general, to mention a few.

As we had watched the trials in Salt Lake, I couldn’t help but compare my girls to the Olympic hopefuls. My girls could achieve so many of the same tricks, mounts, dismounts, vaults, tumbling passes, etc. The understaffed facility here at our gym forced us to review our options. It was time to see if it would be a better match at a different gym. The girls had outgrown their Grass Valley gym, so we moved them to Miyagi’s gym in Auburn. This was a 65-mile commute four or five days a week as well as two evenings many days, and I was a full-time working parent. We made sacrifices to attend a gym in Auburn, such as petitioning for a shorter school day for the girls. Permission was granted to waive PE, which was placed at the end of the day so the girls could leave Lyman Gilmore School early to get to gymnastic practice in Auburn on time. I taught high school so my schedule would allow me time to drive the girls to practice.

Yes, Miyagi’s under-staffed gym forced us to review our options. The girls had left their Grass Valley gym under the direction of Coach Ed Connelly after six years, expecting higher achievements. It had been four summers and three years since starting at Miyagi’s gym. Their progress wasn’t advancing as we had expected. What would it take to have an opportunity to make the 1992 trials?

CHAPTER TWO

Living and Gymnastic Options

I T WAS THE latter part of August, two and a half weeks after trials and less than two weeks before the start of a new school year. The girls and I left after gymnastics to go to my mom’s in Dos Palos, a three-hour drive. It was 100˚ plus that day. We stopped for yogurt before heading south. We would barely be at Mom’s before dark.

We had an 8:00 a.m. appointment/tryout for Troi at Clovis Academy; Gina had an afternoon workout. Clovis gym was one and one half hours further south from my mom’s. Head Coach Mark Cook was out of town, but he had given permission to Coach Jeanne to allow the girls to come to their gym for tryouts.

The girls were anxious, excited, and scared all at the same time about tryouts at the Clovis Academy. I was immediately encouraged with the Clovis gym’s workout and so were the girls. The gymnasts were warm and friendly toward Troi and very accepting. They knew Troi from the previous years’ competitions. Troi had always competed solo from Miyagi’s since she was his only Class 1 gymnast. She stood out. Gina’s group was a little shy; however, they were very nice to her.

Tryouts consisted of the girls working out with the other gymnasts. Troi’s tumbling and bars were weak for a Class I gymnast, but we knew that. Gina seemed to hold her own.

After two days of workouts, the girls were accepted and invited to join the Clovis Academy. The second step was to find a foster family. The girls were somewhat prepared for the possibility that they may need to be separated, but it was not something they were excited about. Gymnastics was their first priority.

I met a great deal of opposition from parents to place a Class I gymnast at their gym. Red flags were raised, yet I chose to ignore them. I was on the search for families and schools for both girls. Gina would be in middle school and Troi would begin high school. My mother was with us and was really helpful. I