Let's hear your U.S. Olympic trials stories!

[duyetanh]

....I have many, but two were hilarious, and as my husband said, could only happen to me.
The first day as those attending know, it was a zoo getting in the place. At one point I leaned over the railing to ask this small blonde woman if we were indeed in the right line. "I am sorry, I don't know...I am just helping out at the credential line." We proceeded to have a nice conversation for a min or so about lines and how exciting the whole thing was. My kid was right next to me throughout this time. We finally got in, and our friends we met up with showed us excitedly where all the old gymnasts were down below, telling us who each one was....
....turns out we were talking to Nastia Liukin.....
...to make me feel even more foolish, we waited a half hour before leaving that night, and she walked right by us, bahaha.
The other moment was when we decided not to wait in a massive autograph session line....only to have the person we wanted to see walk into the bathroom and say excuse me to us as we were walking out.
Right.
Anyone have anything fun to share? It was SUCH a blast, and man those warmups Laurie did on bars made me cross myself and do a few Hail Marys! She was truly a fighter, wasn't she!

 

[MILgymFAM]

We didn't get to do autograph sessions or anything like that, but my ODD is like a gymnastics google and she recognized every gymnast she passed. Every one (there were at least 25) gave her an autograph, a pic, or a conversation- save one. Jordan Wieber had a "handler" with her who refused to let my DD ask for an autograph. We are talking a single kid here too, no group or mob situation. One funny thing was meeting someone from CB only to realize we'd already met about ten times..like at every single of my DDs meets. My kids found that hilarious.

 

[fuzi]

Not exactly an Olympic Trials story, but at National Congress (for coaches/judges/gym owners), I was sitting and drinking a boba tea and eating my wrap and Anna Li asked me where I got my boba. She was with her sister and her parents and her parents were teasing, "Of course you ask, you always want boba." I told her where I got it and then she started to walk away and I was like, "Can I nerd out for a minute and get a picture with you?" Of course, she said yes.

I also saw the whole women's National Team waiting for their bus Sunday morning when I was going to get coffee. They were sitting on the Hilton steps, all on their phones, most with headphones. It was 8 am and they all looked very upset to be awake.

 

[fuzi]

Another little aside that you would have missed if you weren't at trials: I loved watching Laurie Hernandez on the sidelines at trials. If she wasn't cheering on her fellow athletes, she was doing drills and marking through her routines. She was never sitting. Never still. For example, before her vault, she must have done 4 or 5 "heel drive"/needle kicks, jump full turn, jump second full turn, land, stick, and finish. She even practiced her "salutes" and finishes. She easily did three or four beam routines on the carpet while she was waiting her turn.

It was awesome to see her obvious dedication, hard work, and focus.

 

[gymmutti]

I got my "Mom of the Year" award the first day when I agreed to wait in the redemption line in fan fest for over 2 hours so my girls could get their free water bottles and t-shirts. My scalp is lobster red thanks to that but my girls did thank me. They got Svetlana's autograph but that was it. The night of the finals my youngest scraped up her knee on the cement and for her bravery getting cleaned up she got an Olympic Trials baseball cap which she gave to me (woo hoo!). The lines for everything were so, so long that we ended up getting a walk-by pic of Shawn Johnson but that was it. Nosebleed seats so no chance of a rocket-launched t-shirt. However - I loved every single minute of it - just being there and getting to see ALL the routines and not what NBC chose to show (my mother texted me that it was the Gabby show). We saw the men's team heading out after finals and cheered them on while Danell Leyva was taking pics of everything with his phone. The best part for my girls was leaving the next morning at the airport. They got pictures with Martha and Bela (separately), Jonathan Horton, Mary Lou Retton, and Aimee Boorman (yep, we're so nerdy we even love the coaches). And they all ended up on our plane - that was fun! Jonathan's oldest child is so darn cute.
My girls have already told me we have to do this again in 4 years.

 

[emilykatherine]

Not exactly an Olympic Trials story, but at National Congress (for coaches/judges/gym owners), I was sitting and drinking a boba tea and eating my wrap and Anna Li asked me where I got my boba. She was with her sister and her parents and her parents were teasing, "Of course you ask, you always want boba." I told her where I got it and then she started to walk away and I was like, "Can I nerd out for a minute and get a picture with you?" Of course, she said yes.

I also saw the whole women's National Team waiting for their bus Sunday morning when I was going to get coffee. They were sitting on the Hilton steps, all on their phones, most with headphones. It was 8 am and they all looked very upset to be awake.

I would be upset too

 

[sce]

First, watching trials was amazing. I love watching gymnastics live. can;t even begin tog o into detail, so much great gymnastics. Met a few Chalk Bucket folks. Would have liked to meet more, but the meet-up time did not work for us. Hope you all enjoyed your stay in the area!

Let's see: my kids got to model at the GK booth at Congress. As part of that they got to get Nastia's autograph and a group photo with her (without waiting in the long line.) Though I am still trying to get the GK reps to email the photo! Had I known it was going to happen I would have stayed nearby!

Dd looked gorgeous in every single leotard she put on. Told her to not get used to having that much bling on her leotard, it's never going to happen at our gym. They were beautiful though. She literally would model leotard for coaches who were trying to decide on their teams leo for this coming year. Ds played live mannequin as much as he could, scared a few people when he moved.

Saw Shawn Johnson a couple times, but did not get to meet her she was in a hurry. Saw the Bratayley's and Flippin Katie at congress, dd was thrilled to get pictures with them.

I met Shannon Miller! The highlight of my week, for sure. We also met Svetlana Boginskaya. She's very nice. Also, spotted Kerri Strug but she had just finished signing autographs and we had to get somewhere else as well.

Also, enjoyed the parade of champions. So many gymnasts that I followed over the years, so cool!

 

[Ali'sMom]

We don't have any funny stories - but @duyetanh - your story wins!!! that made me laugh so hard that you were asking Nastia about the line!! LOL!

We had a great time! I was lucky enough to think that as soon as we got inside I got in the apparel line, even though the other family (and my own DD) wanted to go check out their seats... Finally they decided they should check out the goods, and joined me. By then, the line was easily over an hour or so long...

We got tickets to the parade night from our coach. Didn't realize it was general admission, as the tickets showed "seat numbers", so we were pretty high up, but not horrible seats. If we had known it was general, then our girls would have had us in line at noon, rather than checking out a winery

Our girls had met Svetlana at a competition a couple of years back, but this time they talked with her - she was indeed very nice. It helped that Svetlana knows one of our coaches, so our girls felt "important"

So very glad we went!!!

 

[Flyaway]

I'm so glad we went, but we didn't have any exceptional stories. I'm horrible about recognizing people in public, so your story resonates with me duyetanh! Although I *think* I would have recognized Nastia! [emoji23]. Anyway, I do think I saw Jordyn Weiber's old coach at one point in line- Geddert, right?