For years, Olympic men’s gymnastics have sweat in the shadows of women’s Olympic performances — but that may be changing.
And it could all be thanks to a glasses-wearing, Rubik’s Cube-solving gymnast who also rules the pommel horse.
Helena Thorpe, one of the owners of the Youth Sports Gymnastics in Woodbridge, Virginia, said the performance of U.S. Olympian and pommel horse specialist Stephen Nedoroscik has generated a lot of interest in the sport.
Looking at the recent additions on the Woodbridge gym roster for the beginners boys’ program, Thorpe said, “We have 21, but I signed up three more today.”
“Within the last two weeks now, I want to say, people are now coming in (wanting to try the sport at the team level),” she said.
Thorpe, who is an international and national coach in the United States and in the United Kingdom, said she’s “fanatical” about men’s gymnastics. And so is Greg Patterson, a former gymnast at the collegiate level who co-owns the gym with Thorpe.
“We’re not a girls’ program with boys on the side,” she said.
She said it’s exciting to see the enthusiasm coming from the performance of the male gymnasts at the Olympics.
“Boys have so much more opportunities, whether we like it or not,” she said, referring to everything from T-ball to flag football for the youngest boys, and other team sports at the middle and high school levels.
Thorpe’s advice to parents is to give gymnastics a try if their sons are interested, but encourage a sort of trial run.
“Try it for at least a couple of weeks before you sign on the dotted line and (hand) over the money,” she said. “With competitive gymnastics, you’re (not just talking about) the tuition for the month. You’re talking uniforms, meets — these are the hidden costs of it.”
But Thorpe’s passion for the sport comes through when she says gymnastics is a foundational sport. Male gymnasts, she said, “are strong, they are flexible, they have a lot of stamina,” all the things that other sports require.
Thorpe said her own son took up soccer after gymnastics, adding, “If you’re playing soccer and you’ve got to do a fast turn, if you’re flexible, you’re not going to be injured.”
