Backflips off the bed. Slouching on the couch. Handstands in the hallway. My 7-year-old daughter’s life is completely dominated by gymnastics and her hero, Simone Biles.
“I want to be just like her when I grow up, I want to go to the Olympics,” she told me on Monday, mimicking Biles’ gestures. “She does cool flips and dance moves, but she works hard.”
As Biles looks to bring home even more medals in Paris, her performance at the Olympics this week will undoubtedly be the most important in our household. Her every move will have a profound impact on my daughter’s journey in the sport, as if she were one of her coaches. Watching Biles swiftly move her fingers back and forth on the iPad to capture in slow motion the moves that have redefined women’s gymnastics on a global scale, I am in awe of her determination to be just like Biles, who began gymnastics at age 6, with so many moves named after her.
But when Biles injured her left calf muscle Sunday while warming up for the floor exercise, I, like most Americans, winced and feared her historic run would end in an instant. But my daughter remained calm.
“I love the hard days,” she said. There was little doubt Biles would go on to post the highest scores of the day. I watched my daughter cry while warming up for vault, her “least favorite event,” and she was confident enough to win gold medals at regionals and nationals.
But her confidence has grown so quickly that it still surprises me a little.
Early signs
Chanel Chandler’s 7-year-old daughter. (Photo courtesy of Chanel Chandler)
Three years ago, I first noticed my daughter had talent as a gymnast. After spending most of her ballet classes doing cartwheels, she traded in her tutu for a gymnastics leotard. During her first formal class, the coach asked me if I would be interested in progressing to a more advanced level. Before I knew it, we were enrolled in a gymnastics club in Atlanta, and the coach quickly informed me that my daughter’s skills were “exceptional.”
Soon, my friends nicknamed her “Baby Biles,” and she finished her first season by winning the vault and floor exercise at nationals.
Though she now calls gymnastics a “natural talent,” I have to constantly remind her that she’s only 7. In truth, I’ve had insecurities about her physical abilities since she rolled out of her crib at 9 months old. At 2, she tried to jump off the bed and landed on an open drawer, hitting her head on the metal knob and needing three stitches. At 3, a frightened teacher had to explain to me how she’d jumped out of a playpen and broken her elbow, requiring surgery.
A new burden
Chanel Chandler’s 7-year-old daughter. (Photo courtesy of Chanel Chandler)
Becoming good at a sport that defies gravity requires effort from both the young athletes and their parents: daily practices, driving to and from the gym, daily emails from gymnastics clubs, traveling to meets around the country.
The costs are so high that they make you wonder if it’s even worth it. Monthly tuition, thousands of dollars to cover tournament expenses, group fees, coaches’ salaries, the list goes on and on. In just one year of competing, we’ve dipped into our savings more times than we’d like to admit.
Our whole family, including my daughter’s two siblings, have made sacrifices, such as eating fewer meals together. My daughter comes home at 8:30 p.m. after a three-and-a-half-hour practice and goes straight to the shower and then to bed.
It’s especially hard as a mother. I can’t stop practice to kiss my daughter’s bloody calluses because she’s now a competitive athlete, trained to endure pain. I worry that one day my daughter may leave me to train in another state with a big-name coach and a big-name gym, as is often the case with top athletes with promising futures. Practice has already disrupted her normal school schedule, and my daughter’s new coach has said he will bring in a tutor to maximize her time in the gym.
Due to increased training demands, Simone Biles was homeschooled during her high school years. I learned this when I was helping my daughter with a project on black history in her freshman year. The poster she included with her report read, “Simone Biles, Greatest Gymnast of All Time.” I also learned that Biles was diagnosed with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) at a young age and used gymnastics to calm herself down.
“I get distracted easily, and gymnastics helps me focus,” her daughter said when I asked her if she might have the same attention issues as Biles. “Whenever I dance or tumbling, I’m always thinking about how tense I should be, and I have to listen to my coach, but when I’m not doing gymnastics, I get distracted.”
Those words help ease my own anxieties, but so does seeing her pride in the 30-plus medals that hang on her wall and the smile on her face when I pick her up from practice.
So this week we will be watching Simone Biles not just as fans, but as fellow competitors and someday fellow Olympians.
