Kentucky gymnasts to compete at USA Gymnastics in Louisville

Gymnasts will join more than 1,600 competitors vying for national titles

INDIANAPOLIS (July 16, 2014) — The USA Gymnastics Championships kicked off Tuesday at the KFC Yum! Center and Kentucky International Convention Center and several local competitors will be amongst the nation’s top gymnasts competing in acrobatic gymnastics, rhythmic gymnastics and trampoline/tumbling.

The five-day event is the national championships for these disciplines and the athlete roster includes seven defending champions, one Olympian, three Youth Olympic Games participants, two World team champions, and one World gold medalist.

The entire trampoline and tumbling field includes 819 athletes competing on the elite and the Junior Olympic levels.  They hail from 37 states across the country. For the field list, please go to trampoline and tumbling.

The rhythmic gymnastics field has 221 gymnasts from 17 states. For the field roster, please go to rhythmic gymnastics.

The athlete roster for acrobatic gymnastics includes 623 athletes from eight states. For the field list, please go to acrobatic gymnastics.

Event information

The senior elite sessions for acrobatic gymnastics, rhythmic gymnastics and trampoline are scheduled for 6 p.m. July 17-19, with the finals slated for Saturday night, at the KFC Yum! Center.  The junior elite sessions, also at the KFC Yum! Center, begin at 9 a.m. all three days.  The Junior Olympic sessions for all three disciplines will be held at the Kentucky International Convention Center, and the sessions begin at 9 a.m.  The elite competition for tumbling and double mini-trampoline will also be conducted at the Kentucky International Convention Center at 9 a.m., with the preliminary round on July 18 and the finals on July 19. For a more detailed schedule and other information, please go to USAGymChamps.com.

Evening session tickets at the KFC Yum! Center are: July 17, $20; July 18, $20; and July 19, $25. The all-session pass, which grants access to all sessions at both venues, is $75. A $25, single-day pass is available for the events at the Kentucky International Convention Center onsite on competition days. Tickets may be purchased at the KFC Yum! Center or Kentucky International Convention Center box offices, ticketmaster.com, all Ticketmaster outlets, or by phone at 1-800-745-3000.

Acrobatic gymnastics combines the beauty of dance with the strength and agility of acrobatics. Routines are choreographed to music and consist of dance, tumbling, and partner skills. At the elite level, each pair or group performs a balance, dynamic and combined routine. Pyramids and partner holds characterize the balance routine, while synchronized tumbling and intricate flight elements define the dynamic exercise. An acrobatic gymnastics pair consists of a base and a top. A women’s group is comprised of three athletes — a base, middle and top partner — while a men’s group has four athletes, a base, two middle partners and one top partner.

Rhythmic gymnastics is characterized by grace, beauty and elegance combined with dance and acrobatic elements, while working with ribbons, balls, hoops, ropes and clubs in a choreographed routine to music. The choreography must cover the entire floor and contain a balance of jumps, leaps, pivots and balances. Only four of the apparatus are competed each quad, and the four for 2016 are hoop, ball, clubs and ribbon. Each movement involves a high degree of athletic skill. Physical abilities needed by a rhythmic gymnast include strength, power, flexibility, agility, dexterity, endurance and hand-eye coordination.

Trampoline events involve athletes using trampolines that can propel them up to 30 feet in the air, during which they can perform double and triple twisting somersaults. Tumbling utilizes elevated rod-floor runways that enable athletes to jump at heights more than 10 feet and execute a variety of acrobatic maneuvers. For the double-mini competition, the athlete makes a short run, leaps onto a small two-level trampoline, performs an aerial maneuver and dismounts onto a landing mat. Trampoline was added to the Olympic Games in 2000, and at the 2012 Olympic Games in London, the USA had its first athlete in history advance to the finals.