Getting With the Program

When Lillie Young signed up her only son for the Big Brothers program, all she was looking for was a role model who could help keep him out of trouble and away from the drugs often sold right in front of their house.

Little did she know she was starting Chris Young on a journey that would make him one of the best U.S. gymnasts--and could lead all the way to the Sydney Olympics.

“I’m so proud of him, sometimes I have to pinch myself,” Lillie Young said. “We came such a long, long way and it was hard.”

Life wasn’t easy for the Youngs when Chris was growing up. With an absentee father and little money, the family got by as best it could.

There were frequent moves around Winston-Salem, N.C., days when Lillie Young went without food so her children could eat--even a six-week stint at the Salvation Army once.

The neighborhoods were also desperate. They could look out their front door and see people selling and using drugs.

“It was pretty rough, I think,” Chris Young said. “The opportunity for me to go that route was definitely there.”

But that was something that, no matter what it took, his mother wasn’t going to allow.

“I had made up my mind I was not going to lose my children to drugs,” said Lillie Young, who now lives in a house in a much better neighborhood in Winston-Salem. “I woke up one morning and said there’s more to life than this.”

Young was 9 when his mother called Big Brothers. Her son had been surrounded by women almost all of his life--he has three sisters--and she knew he needed a male influence.

She had no idea what a difference that phone call would make.

“I was just trying to keep him occupied, to keep him away from the drug thing. That’s what this was about,” she said. “It was about trying to protect my son.”

Young was already doing gymnastics when he met his Big Brother, Ron Brown. People would throw out their old mattresses, and the kids would stack them up and hold contests to see who could do the best flips or twists.

But it gave Brown an idea. A friend, Bob Kohut, was a middle school teacher and a gymnastics coach, so Brown brought Young to the gym where Kohut worked.

Kohut knew right away that Young was exceptionally talented, one of those athletes coaches see once in their lives if they’re lucky. The first time Young got on the pommel horse, he mastered a skill in five minutes it takes other gymnasts up to a year to learn. When he did tumbling runs, everyone stopped to watch.

Though Young’s family couldn’t afford lessons, Kohut didn’t want him wasting his talent. So the owners of the gym let Young work off his tuition with odd jobs, and Kohut helped by paying for uniforms and entrance fees to meets.

“I just took a liking toward Chris, I don’t know why it was,” Kohut said. “I ended up probably doing maybe more than you would for the average guy, and I think that was the fact there was a true need there.”

Their relationship soon became about more than gymnastics. While Kohut helped Young climb the junior ranks, he also became a surrogate father.

Kohut helped Young with homework and gave him advice, talking to him like a father would. If Lillie Young had a problem with her son she couldn’t solve, Kohut was the one she called. When Young couldn’t talk to his mom, Kohut was there.

“He’s basically like a dad to me,” Young said.

Added Lillie Young, “If it had not been for Bob or Ron, I don’t know where Chris would have been. . . . Everybody he was raised up in the projects with, they’re dead. If they’re not dead, they’re on drugs. If they’re not on drugs, they’re selling drugs. If they’re not selling drugs, they’re in prison.

“Chris was one of the lucky ones.”

Though people were constantly telling Young how talented he was, he didn’t think much about a gymnastics career. While other gymnasts were spending hours doing nothing but training, Young was running track and playing football in high school.

Then, during his senior football season, he tore the anterior cruciate ligament in his left knee. While he was in the hospital, he overheard a teammate’s father, a doctor, saying how foolish Young was. He’d had a chance at a gymnastics scholarship, the doctor said, and now he’d blown it.

The next summer, Young finished second at nationals.

“It was a wake-up call,” he said. “At the time, gymnastics was my way of getting out of the neighborhood, my way of getting to see different cities, different states. It wasn’t a sport. It wasn’t me trying to become an Olympian.”

Young, now 26, dedicated himself to gymnastics, and in 1998, made the U.S. national team. He’s been at the U.S. Olympic Training Center in Colorado for 2 1/2 years, and was part of the U.S. team for the world championships last fall.

Though he had surgery almost three months ago to repair a torn bicep, Young is back training again and has a good chance to make the U.S. team for the Sydney Olympics.

“I give Bob and Ron the credit,” Lillie Young said. “They truly saved my son.”