Journey to Tokyo 2020: Olympian talks new era of USA gymnastics, Simone Biles
FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. (KARK) – The 2020 Olympics are just over six months away and over the next 29 weeks, KSNT News will have everything you need to know before the opening ceremony.
The fierce five were the talk of the town in every city around America back in 2012, as five women took gold in the London Olympic games.
Since then, a lot has happened in the United States gymnastics program. As for Jordyn Wieber, one of those five athletes, she took a gold medal and turned it into a coaching job in the foothills of the Ozark mountains in Arkansas.
“I”m able to speak from experience in a lot of the things there are going through,” said Wieber. “Weather it’s an obstacle, in the gym, out of the gym, an injury, mental blocks, things like that.”
From a gold medal with team U.S.A. in England, to a head coach job in the college ranks, Jordyn Wieber says it best: “I’ve pretty much seen it all in this sport on every level.”
Jordyn is preparing for her first season at the University of Arkansas and she has high hopes for her hogs, but Jordyn is also hoping for her sport to rebound from an abuse scandal.
“While I was in that process, it just felt like the adults really didn’t care, they just allowed this to happen because we went out there and we won gold medals,” said Wieber. “Gymnastics is in a really interesting place right now. We are just getting through some really intense stuff, a lot of horrible abuse and dark times in our sport, and it’s still being uncovered to this day.”
The president signed a law adding further protection for young athletes in early 2018.
“There’s a new standard for what makes a good coach or what makes a good team doctor, and I’m really glad we are kind of redefining some of those standards,” said Wieber.
Now before we let Wieber head back to practice, we had to ask her about superstar Simone Biles. It’s safe to say this gold medalist is just as impressed as the rest of us.
“Even having been an Olympian and trained at a high level for a long time, I look at Simone and I think man she is a super hero, she’s does super human things,” said Wieber.