OK, I admit it. I fell asleep too early last night to see the women's gymnastics all-around competition. There were reasons. The sister-in-law stopped in for dinner on her way back from Grayton Beach, so I had some nice fish, a lot of salad, and more than a bit of wine. Anyway, I was still thrilled to hear that Shawn and Nastia took the top two medals. I watched the video of their routines on the nbcolympics.com website and they were just so incredibly solid. It was particularly nice to see Nastia's dad, though. I've been through a lot of gymnastics meets with The Daughter, and the bigger ones, like Regionals and Nationals, were pretty stressful for the parents. You'd sit during beam and bars and just think over and over, "Don't fall, don't fall!" It only worked about 70% of the time. I can't even imagine what it must have been like to be not only "dad" but also "coach" and also at the Olympics with a gold medal (and to a certain extent the reputation of your business) on the line.
There's also a little bit of a connection with Valeri Liukin and WOGA in Texas. You see, one of the gym's founders, Yevgeny Marchenko, originally came to the U.S. through the efforts of The Daughter's gymnastics club, Riverbend Gymnastics, in New Orleans. He and his acrobatic gymnastics partner coached there for a couple of years before he and Valeri and some other Russians got together and started up WOGA. I was sad to see him go because he was a genuinely great guy and The Daughter really learned a lot from him. For a few years back then we would spend a week or two in Dallas every summer and The Daughter would work out at WOGA. It was a lot different from her home gym in New Orleans. At the time, the gym was in a little strip mall in the space that had once been a grocery store. At WOGA the emphasis was very firmly on competition and although the coaching was excellent, it was a lot more harsh than it was back home. It was not uncommon to see one or more of the girls in tears during practice because the coaches did not usually mince words when they got something wrong or wimped out. Most of the girls in the upper levels were home-schooled so that they could spend more time in the gym. I think The Daughter learned a thing or two about what it takes to be a champion from those visits. I guess toward the end Nastia was probably working out there too.
Today was the funeral of Edith Gulotta. Back when I started racing, Edith and her husband Buddy ran the oldest bicycle store in the U.S., Gus Betat & Sons, in New Orleans. For years, I was a regular fixture there on the weekends. It was a family-run shop and as I was getting into racing one of their sons, Greg, was beginning to take charge of the operation, especially the special "10-speed store." That was back when "10 speed" referred to the total rather than just the number of cogs on the rear wheel. Betat's was the club's original sponsor, and remained a sponsor pretty much until it finally closed down in the 80's. Edith and Buddy attended a lot of the local races back then. When Greg died suddenly back in the 70s the Tour de Louisiane was still in its infancy and without him the survival of the race, if not the club itself, was in serious question. I guess that's about when I started to take a more active role in the club and the Tour de La. It was great to see Gulotta family again and a little frightening to know that Glenn's son is now an M.D. working at Ochsner in Radiology, and even more frightening to know that Glenn currently has a 2 year old daughter. Anyway, we should all be thankful to the Gulotta family and to Betat's for all they gave to the New Orleans racing community, not the least of which were the NOBC and the Giro Ride and all those Bottechias and Atalas and Raleighs that I know are still hiding away in garages all over the city.
Oh yeah, I almost forgot. We had a nice smooth uneventful Friday ride this morning up on the levee. Just what I needed. Tomorrow we'll be heading up to Meridian, MS for a criterium and road race. For some reason I haven't been feeling too sharp on the bike the last week or so, but hopefully I'll survive the masters races.
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