United States National Team coordinator Martha Karolyi looks on during a training session at the Karolyi Ranch on Wednesday, Jan. 26, 2011, in Huntsville, Texas. The Karolyi Ranch, which is approximately 60 miles north of Houston and has been the training home of the women’s gymnastics team since 2001, was officially designated by the U.S. Olympic Committee today as a U.S. Olympic training site for women’s gymnastics, rhythmic gymnastics, trampoline and tumbling and acrobatics.
Colorado Springs remains the Men’s venue, I assume.
This means teams will be training at the Ranch long after Marta retires in 2012.
… The Karolyi Ranch includes housing for 300 athletes, coaches and administrators; three training gyms, two artistic and one multi-discipline (rhythmic, trampoline/tumbling, acro); a dance studio; dining and recreational areas; medical and rehab facilities; and office space. The training gym for rhythmic gymnastics, trampoline and tumbling, and acrobatic gymnastics was added in 2010. …
Gymnastike has plenty of photos and videos from the announcement day.
(via Going for Gold)
3 comments ↓
What’s the place really like (from someone who has been there?)
Are the gym facilities good? Is it a regular training gym for local gymnasts when there’s no camps going on there?
I wish people would stop crediting the camps for the success of the US women’s program. The US started winning a little in the late 70s. Long before the camps. Then they won a lot more from 1991 to 1996 without the camps. After a dry spell from1997 to 2000, people always like to credit the camps for the winning starting again in 2001. That’s just not sound reasoning to me. There was a lot that was happening and the camps are totally playing an insignificant part in the whole picture, if you ask me.
The camps must help some, especially in terms of making the team closer as well as more competitive with each other. But you’re right; to credit it 100 or even 50% with the camps is silly, especially when you think of all the great coaches that would have developed great gymnastics with or without the camps (Liukin, Brestyan, Sharp, etc.). Also, I think the camps create a National Team that looks more uniform or robotic. I don’t like the stiff sharpness of the US team, and of course flexed wrists are all over the world but it seems the US has quite a chunk of the ownership in that department, too.
Leave a Comment