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Aerobic gymnastics features a floor routine that demands strength, flexibility and power — all set to upbeat music. For Katherine Jetleb, who just turned 18, aerobic gymnastics made the difference between leaving and staying with the sport.

A student at the academy for six years and an aerobic team member for three, Jetleb said she plans to use a gap year after graduating high school to train, coach and judge the sport. Right now we only have aerobic gyms in Ontario and I want to introduce it in other places. She has been an aerobic gymnastics judge since the late s when the sport began growing in Canada.

Moceanu and the women's team went on to win gold, and it was at that moment Jennifer decided she was going to be a gymnast, too. She took up power tumbling, which involves performing floor exercises down a runway. But Jennifer did not want any allowances to be made for her disability.

She remembers spectators being surprised when they saw her: "Wow, this girl doesn't have legs - is she competing? At the age of 10 she took part in the Junior Olympics and by age 11 she was tumbling champion for the state of Illinois.

Jennifer continued to follow the ups and downs of her idol, who was now making headlines for different reasons. During the court case, stories came out about her father's harsh treatment of her. She succeeded in legally breaking free from her parents and taking control of her own finances. When Jennifer was 16 she asked her mother if there was anything they hadn't told her about her birth family.

She really wasn't expecting her to say, "Yes," because her parents had always been so open. But to her surprise, her mother did have something important to tell her. She sat her down and said: "Your biological last name would have been Moceanu.

There was no doubting what that meant. The Brickers had found out purely by accident. Jennifer's was meant to have been a closed adoption, but her birth parents' names appeared on some documents. As their names flashed up on the screen, the Brickers realised they were looking at Jennifer's parents.

But they decided not to tell their daughter until she was older. When she found out, Jennifer wanted to get in touch with Dominique, but she was determined to do it properly. They didn't deny putting her up for adoption, but after that first phone call they no longer responded. Four years later, Jennifer wrote her sister a letter, explaining the situation and telling her how she had inspired her to take up gymnastics.

She included copies of all the documentation she had and lots of photographs - all from the waist up. I'll just wait and tell her about the no legs afterwards. By now, Dominique was 26 years old and no longer competing professionally.

It was a busy time in her life. She had married a fellow athlete and they were expecting their first child. None of the adults seemed to care about her well-being beyond what it took to help her win.

Maroney was molested by the pedophile doctor during one of her first training camps. Maroney remembers tightening her legs, begging Nassar to work on any other part of her body.

We all hated it. We were really young and naive from living in a gym. When the FBI reached out, Maroney felt like someone was finally listening. In her first two-hour phone interview with them, she says she relayed in intimate detail how Nassar had sexually abused her for years. As Maroney patiently waited for something—anything—to happen, the abuse continued. Larry Nassar MeToo pic. Survivors know speaking out can come at a cost. As Maroney began to feel like she was losing her grip on the way the world saw her, she fixated on other ways to control her life.

She tried a slew of dangerous fad diets and starved herself for three days in a row. At home, her brother Kav watched as she withdrew further and further into herself. By the end of , Maroney stopped posting on Instagram and all but disappeared from the public eye. A post shared by McKayla Maroney mckaylamaroney. For so long, Maroney felt betrayed and undermined by the traditional institutions that were supposed to protect her when she needed them most.

One day, her chiropractor offered up an intriguing new possible salvation. She says she went back twice in , and that her mom has been to an event, too. If you like psychics, whatever, do that. When The Daily Beast published an article in February pointing out that some Master John followers believe he can heal illnesses like HIV and cancer, Maroney found herself on the defensive. None of it is true. The article just attacked me over a necklace that I had been wearing. By , Maroney was finally starting to feel at peace with herself.

Keeping the girls mentally on edge is part of the Karolyi method. Even the extended trials process in previous years is meant to remind the girls that making the team is only the first step. The hard-line approach is a departure for U. She and Bela began as gymnastics coaches in the s where, under the communist Romanian regime, sports were, and still are, a matter of national pride, and training required practically a lifetime commitment. The Karolyis scoured schoolyards and playgrounds for youngsters who showed an affinity for tumbling or swinging from the monkey bars.

Parents thought nothing of the Karolyis simply pointing to the chosen children who would come to live with them at the gym and train nonstop, for the chance of becoming an Olympic champion. The key ingredient in their formula was youth — the Karolyis realized that only by molding a gymnast from her first days on the mats could they groom a gold medalist.

We knew that once we identify talent and expose talented girls to a systematic training with the right techniques, the right discipline and all the right ingredients, they can become a champion.

Comaneci , one of the first youngsters to call the Karolyis coach, remains the ultimate validation of that strategy. The government threatened to cut funding to the gym if they did not comply. Chafing under the constant pressure, in April , the Karolyis defected in New York during a gymnastics tour in the U. Unable to speak any English, the couple, who had left their 8-year-old daughter behind in Romania with an aunt to quell any suspicion of their defection plans, immediately second-guessed their decision as they tried to shape their future from a Los Angeles hotel room.

Equipped only to teach gymnastics, they were not welcomed into the U. So they bought tapes and watched Sesame Street to learn the language of their new home and after five months, were finally reunited with their daughter.

People flatly told us to our face, you guys come from a government system. The government here is not paying for creating national teams — your [system] is dead, gone; your system will not work here.

To be honest, my inside was really damaged. My belief in my sport, my profession was on shaky land. What am I going to do? A lifeline came from the gymnastics coach at the University of Oklahoma, who offered the couple a series of summer clinics and eventually a job at both the university and his private club. For another Nadia, they knew, they would have to start young.

And they would have to train the budding talents on their own terms.