Interview with Rita Wieber

A week before Trials, Jordyn Wieber's church held a lovely fundraiser to help raise money to send her family to Trials and London. It was so nice to see how her town really supports her journey to the Olympics. I happened to be near DeWitt, her hometown where it was held, so I just had to go! Jordyn was there to sign autographs and meet fans. I also met Rita Wieber, Jordyn's mom, and she was kind enough to let me interview her about the whole process! 

At these major competitions, do you get to see Jordyn before and after she competes?

I’ll just be like every other spectator, like, I’ll see her down on the floor and I won’t get to touch her, hug her; we might talk on the phone a couple times.  It’s so intense.

At what point will you be able to see her?

Not until she comes home.

I read Shawn Johnson’s book, she talks about that a lot.

Yeah. In Tokyo, when she won the all around at Worlds, we were flying out that night, and I hadn’t seen her and I was like, I just wish I could give her a hug! So I just got to see her for a second after, so I could be like, ‘So proud of you, good bye, love you!’ and then we left.

That’s so sad though, not to be able to see her.

I know. It’s horrible, but she’d probably rather have it that way anyway. She just wants to be in her gymnastics world.

Do you think they like it that way?

I think so. I mean the reason they do it is so that they can focus, and their whole focus is just gymnastics. It’s not the mom; some moms could probably put psycho things in their head or freak them out or put pressure on them. I mean I think I just bug Jordyn by breathing--she’s a teenager.  And you know, she’s rooming with Aly Raisman who’s like her best best friend in the world.

What’s been the process from Nationals until now?

Well, her coach handles her whole training process and I have no idea what that involves. All I know is that school’s done, so she basically would train twice a day and it was nice that she could come home in between and just get to chill rather than having to do homework or go to school, so that’s good. But in terms of what her training has been, I don’t know, John’s got some whole big plan, I don’t know how it works. I’ve always had kind of a rule where I don’t ask Jordyn any specifics about what she's doing in the gym, because for one thing I wouln’t even understand it, and another thing, it doesn’t matter because I don’t have a say in all that. But she’s just been trying to balance out hanging out by the pool a little bit, having some friends over and trying to stay not completely in a tunnel, but keeping a relaxed balance. That’s what she’s been doing, and I’m glad we’ve made it through this point. Tomorrow she leaves.

Do you have any plans as a family tonight before she leaves?

Yeah, we’re going to go out to dinner. Which is huge, because we have four kids, and one of them lives out of town, and she’s home. We hardly ever get to go out to dinner all of us together. I know it sounds weird, but Jordyn practices every night. Jordyn loves sushi, so we’re going to go out for sushi. We’ll have a little send off.

Driving through the town I saw all of the posters in the windows, it was so nice.

I know! The story behind that is that Mitt Romney came to town on Tuesday for a little stop and they wanted to be sure that Mitt Romney knew that Jordyn lived here in DeWitt. Because you know DeWitt’s really small! And then Mitt did mention, “Well, I don’t know who this Jordyn Wieber is, but I sure wish her the best,” or something like that. I wasn’t there but someone recorded it for me and I heard it.

Here are some of the posters I was talking about: (click to enlarge)

I'd also like to mention that Rita Wieber has a book out, called Gym Mom: The Twists and Turns of your Daughter's Gymnastics Career. The website for the book, where you can find all the information and order your copy, is here. I'll put up my own review of it after I read it!

2012 OLYMPIC TEAM

Jordyn Wieber

Gabby Douglas

Aly Raisman

McKayla Maroney

Kyla Ross

Alternates:

Elizabeth Price

Sarah Finnegan

Anna Li

So happy with team selection. Love the emotions as they came out. What an amazing night of competition.

Final Olympic Team Prediction

Photo Credit-Getty Images

I cannot believe it's already Day 2 of Olympic Trials. My team has changed so much throughout the past year, and now it's finally the time to choose the actual team. Here's my final prediction:

Jordyn Wieber
Aly Raisman
Gabby Douglas
Kyla Ross
McKayla Maroney
Alternates: Elizabeth Price, Sarah Finnegan, Alicia Sacramone

Vault: Gabby, Jordyn, McKayla
Bars: Jordyn, Kyla, Gabby
Beam: Kyla, Jordyn, Aly
Floor: McKayla, Jordyn, Aly

I really feel like McKayla proved herself on floor night 1. She got a 15.2, and even though floor was overscored, it would still be a good score a few tenths lower. She did fall on beam and bars, but those are the two events that we wouldn't be using her on. Sarah Finnegan, on the other hand, had a major error on floor, an event on which we would expect to use her in team finals. I was thinking about putting her on the team rather than McKayla, but Sarah doesn't have much experience and her errors at Nationals and Trials make me doubt her ability to perform under Olympic pressure. I think the other four spots are basically locks; the only one with the slightest chance of being off the team is Kyla, but her bars are so strong that I don't really see a team without her on it.

I'm more uncertain about my alternates. Since I believe that Sarah is very close to making the team, I think she's a very likely alternate. Price made a wonderful case for herself on the first night of trials, and her Amanar is almost as good as McKayla's. She's a great all arounder and I think she'd be a fantastic alternate. The last spot is the one I'm not sure about. I think choosing Alicia for the last alternate spot might just be me being optimistic, but I really do think she deserves a spot. She can be counted on to hit in any situation, even if she was brought in at the last second. However, Martha loves all arounders, so I think a more realistic alternate might be Sabrina Vega. She proved herself at Worlds, and although she doesn't have super high difficulty, she hits her routines and would be solid in a leadoff position.

Well, there it is. I can't believe we are less than 12 hours away from the selection of the Olympic team. It's been a great 4 years, and I wish all the best to the girls competing tonight. The USA is so deep right now, and I think that there are a lot of combinations of teams that would do well in London. I can't wait to see what happens tonight!

Why We Loves Us Some Lochte!

Ryan Lochte and Michael Phelps are set for an epic duel in the pool in the Olympic Trials and the Olympics.

Here's why we at Team Ironmac loves us some Ryan Lochte:

A few years ago at a swim meet in Daytona Beach shortly after Mac Crutchfield had died, Maggie Crutchfield (Mac's mom), was at a swim meet to cheer on Mac's former teammates. Ryan Lochte heard about Mac's death at the meet and walked over to her and said, "Whatever I can do for you, you just let me know, I'll be glad to do it."

Well, now we fast forward to look back at what Ryan Lochte has done for the Crutchfields and the Mac Crutchfield Foundation. He has made countless trips to the boonies of South Georgia to just visit with the family or to be the star of a fundraiser. He has agreed to be the spokesperson for the Mac Crutchfield Foundation. But what I saw a couple of weeks ago at a community pool in Gainesville summed it all up for me.

Gold medalist Ryan Lochte revealed his gold heart once again. He has become a surrogate big brother to Savannah Crutchfield, Mac's little sister. I have witnessed him numerous times do big brother things like give her noogies on her head and fake spit loogies in her hair. Things only a big brother could get away with.

Two weeks ago though, I saw it all play out in such incredible simplicity and clarity, it was stunning. Ryan told Savannah he wanted to come watch her swim. Savannah had just returned to competitive swimming a few months earlier. At the pool, Savannah turned to her mother and said, "I don't want him to come see me swim yet, I'm embarrassed."  Savannah's mom told her not to worry. Not two minutes later, Ryan Lochte slipped into the swim meet snuck up behind Savannah and put his hands over her eyes.  She guessed right away who it was.

Ryan Lochte slipped in like a ninja but soon the buzz grew. While Ryan quietly made small talk with the Crutchfield family, a small storm of excited kids waited like they were about to see a Santa Clause with six pack abs and bedroom eyes. When one kid finally got up the nerve to come over and ask for an autograph the line grew exponentially. Ryan was more than friendly and unassuming. He bent down to take pictures with the little ones. He signed everything. Who knows what kind of strong man workout he had just finished. He never complained, always smiled and did whatever the kid asked.

He graciously broke away to yell for Savannah when her event started. This was the only time he got loud. He made sure that everyone knew he was cheering for his newest little sis. Actually I don't think that was his point, he just wanted to be loud enough for Savannah to know that he was there to cheer for his newest little sis.

After she swam, he went quietly and graciously back to signing autographs until there was not a kid in the place with Ryan Lochte's name on something. He and Maggie then quietly made plans for the Crutchfields to come over to his house for dinner. And then he quietly walked off into the sunset like some mythical hero.

And he is, except he's not a myth. He's real. He's genuine. Oh, and Savannah also says he's goofy. Just like any little sis says about their big bro'.

So tonight, or any night over the next couple of months, you see that shark in the water devouring his foes. Remember that is one shark with one very big golden heart.