Gymnast still has plenty to be proud of

As a dad who had two kids who played sports, I can vividly recall some memorable car rides after big games.
The rides home after a win were incredible. We’d play a Neil Young or 311 CD, crank it up so loud our ears bled and talk about all the plays that made the game so memorable.
The rides home after a loss weren’t quite as noisy – and were a lot easier on the eardrums.
I’ll never forget the uneasy silence of a two-hour drive home from Springfield, Mo., following my oldest son Zach’s senior year at Grain Valley High School.
He had been the first golfer in Eagles history to earn an all-state medal as a junior and he wanted to go out with a bang his senior year.
It didn’t happen – and he didn’t say a word from the moment he left the course to the time he stepped onto our driveway.
This past weekend, I was wondering if Michelle and Ivana Hong experienced that same type of quiet, heart-breaking journey back from the Olympics gymnastics selection camp near Houston.
Ivana, a 15-year-old gymnast from coach Al Fong’s Great American Gymnastic Express (GAGE), had been one of the favorites to make the U.S. women’s gymnastics team following a solid all-around performance that the U.S. Olympic Trials in Philadelphia, where she finished fifth in the all-around.
The top six women and three alternates were named at the selection camp and Hong was named an alternate.
The news must have been devastating.
Unless you are a gymnast or a coach, you can’t even imagine the number of hours that go into becoming a world class gymnast.
Michelle Hong, Ivana’s mother, lives with Ivana and her two sisters, Isadora and Isabelle, and her younger brother, Preston, in Blue Springs while her husband, Mike, maintains the family home back in California.
The Hong family has made a great commitment to the sport and to Ivana and her dream of making the Olympic team was trampled in the dust at the Karolyi’s selection camp outside of Houston.
The memories of the camp are still too fresh, too searing, to ask Ivana to relive them for this column.
I’ve seen my kids win – and lose – their share of big games. But none of them came close to the international stage that Ivana hoped to showcase her talent.
To an outsider, it’s easy to say, “Hey, you’re one of the top nine gymnasts in the country. You should be proud.”
And she should be proud.
I know I’m certainly proud of her accomplishments, and I have marveled at her development over the past few years under the watchful eye of Fong and his wife, Armine Barutyan-Fong.
But the fairy-tale ending we all enjoyed in 2004, when GAGE graduates Terin Humphrey and Courtney McCool were members of the silver-medal-winning women’s team, will not repeat itself in 2008.
Ivana Hong is one of the toughest, most talented and determined young women I have ever met. She will always have the love and support of her family, and all we can do is hope that this most recent setback is nothing more than a blip on the radar screen of a career that will overcome this setback as it prepares for a golden future.