5 South Bay Girl Gymnasts Dance Their Way to a Dream Come True

Five South Bay gymnasts are living an adventure they once dreamed of: They have made the U.S. Gymnastics Team and are competing in the 1990 Rhythmic Gymnastics National Championship today through Saturday in Eugene, Ore.

For Kasumi Takahashi, 9, of Palos Verdes Estates; Franca Abbatiello, 13, of San Pedro; Lily Garcia, 15, of Carson; Akiko Haramaki, 15, of Palos Verdes Estates, and Christina Hughes, 18, of Rancho Palos Verdes, rhythmic gymnastics has been the focus of their lives for years. Though they differ in personality as well as age, two things have drawn them together: the allure of competition and the beauty of their sport.

This week, the girls will be spotlighted on national television as they go through routines that have taken months to perfect.

In Hughes’ case, the competition may mark the end of a career.

“I’m not sure that I will have the time for gymnastics after I leave (Miraleste) high school,” she said. “It’s tough trying to do both school and gymnastics now.”

Still, like the other four girls, Hughes would like to get on the U.S. Olympic Gymnastics Team--an even bigger dream.

Rhythmic gymnastics first appeared in the Olympics in 1980 as a demonstration sport. It became a regular event in the 1984 games.

Originally known as modern gymnastics, and technically as rhythmic sportive gymnastics, it uses objects such as a ribbon, a hoop, clubs and a ball. It combines dance, artistic gymnastics and the manipulation of an object to create an individual expression of strength and artistry.

Jolie Barretta, co-coach of the West Coast Waves, a rhythmic gymnastics team based on the Palos Verdes Peninsula, and one of the national team’s coaches, said rhythmic gymnastics expresses the personality of the gymnast more than does artistic gymnastics, the kind best known in the United States.

“It shows a feminine strength, a more subtle strength,” Barretta said. “The girls must show a more refined awareness of their body motions than in artistic gymnastics,” which consists of floor and bar exercises.

The national team is separate from the Olympic team, though both are selected and trained by the U.S. Gymnastics Federation, the national governing body for all branches of gymnastics.

To become a member of the national team, which represents the United States between Olympics, a gymnast must post an all-around score of 35 points in a state or regional championship, an average of 8.5 points per event.

The national team has no head coach, dividing the duties among several coaches, including Barretta and Sandi Shannon-Conell.

Getting on the team is a struggle, but it has its perks, including travel to other countries to compete with the world’s best gymnasts.

In March, for example, Abbatiello traveled to Louvain, Belgium, to compete in a tournament.

“Traveling is definitely the best part of the whole thing,” she said. “You get to meet and compete against some of the best, and that’s exciting.”

Hughes echoed that sentiment, and added that missing a week of school in May for the nationals is a welcome break.

Rhythmic gymnastics has two divisions: junior, from 10 to 13 years old, and senior, from 14 to 25.

At 9, Takahashi, the youngest of the five gymnasts, is ineligible for this week’s regular competition in Eugene. She is at the national championships as an exhibition artist, invited by the USGF.

Takahashi, who has been in the sport since she was 7, said her biggest challenge has been mastering the basic skills.

“The coaches give us the base of our routine and work out the choreography with us, but if we come up with a new trick on our own, we get to put it into our act,” she said.

Takahashi’s first big tournament after she becomes a junior will be the Pan American Games next year, and she said it already consumes her thoughts.

“Sometimes I think that I deserve to win something for all of the trouble that I have to go through,” she said.

It’s not easy being a coach, either, Barretta said, adding that anything that appears glamorous on television usually isn’t.

“Every time I have to leave for competitions, I lose business (training the Waves, of which the five national team gymnasts are members) and money,” she said. “I still do it, though, mainly for the love of it.”

Love for their sport is a common drive in most athletes, and all five girls said it kept them competing.

At 13, Abbatiello is on the verge of entering the senior division. Going into the national championships, she is ranked No. 2 in the nation as a junior.

In practice, she said, she focuses all her energy into getting her routine perfect. This pays off in competition, when she can relax a bit.

“You have to be focused during competition, but you also have to play around a bit while you’re there,” Abbatiello said. “The pressure gets taken off a little when you can play around.”

At this point, she plans never to leave gymnastics. She hopes to compete until age 25 and then coach.

“I’ll never get to old to be a part of the sport,” Abbatiello said.

Training is the toughest part of being a gymnast. Monday through Thursday, the South Bay five work out for four hours every night at the Waves’ headquarters gym, Studio West Gymnastics and Dance in Rolling Hills Estates. In getting ready for the nationals, they also practice from 6 to 9 a.m. on Saturdays.

During the summer they work out at 6 in the morning Monday through Thursday.

Much of the social life that normal teen-age girls would expect to have is denied them. Afternoons are taken up with homework. The only time they get to see their friends is during school and on weekends.

“We get Friday nights off to do what we want, so it’s not too bad,” Hughes said.

Coach Shannon-Conell, who was a member of the national team as a junior, said practice is where the gymnasts can get rid of all their kinks and rebellion before they compete.

The right atmosphere in practice gives gymnasts the right mind-set in competition, she said.

“Getting out here at 6 in the morning and 6 at night is important for training purposes,” Shannon-Conell said. “There is such a thing as getting the good floor”--empty gym space where gymnasts can practice and concentrate without interruptions.

Takahashi said: “When you get here for the early workouts, you’re tired, but moving around makes you wake up.”

Garcia has been working at her routines for five years and says she has to work only on the little things.

One of those is facial expression. Though there is no score for it, facial expressions play an important part in having a winning routine, she said.

“It catches the audience and the judges when you have a good facial expression,” Garcia said. “The judges always look for a personality as well as a good routine, and the expression helps display that.”

Dance plays a big part in rhythmic gymnastics. In fact, the undulating body movements and manipulation of objects look more like an intricate modern dance than a sporting event.

All five gymnasts said love of dance helped them decide on rhythmic gymnastics.

Hughes has been in rhythmic gymnastics for three years. She was an artistic gymnast for seven years before making the change.

“The dance-like aspects of rhythmic gymnastics were much more interesting to me than the tumbling and jumping of artistic,” she said.

Haramaki has been in the sport three years but said she still gets frustrated when she wants to do a trick and her body won’t let her.

“I’ve come pretty far in those three years,” she said. “The one thing that I still need to work on is my concentration. I need to keep my focus at all times.”