Biography:
At the 2002 World Championships,
Elena Gomez made history by becoming
the first Spanish gymnast ever to win
a world championship title - or a major
international medal of any color! For
years, Spain has lagged behind the traditional
"powerhouse" gymnastics nations
like Russia and Romania. Although the
Spanish gymnastics programs has consistently
turned out high-level international
competitors, the gymnasts have never
garnered the same level respect that
their eastern European counterparts
have always enjoyed. Thanks to one little
gymnast named Elena Gomez, all of that
is changing. The world has sat up and
taken notice of the Spanish gymnastics
program and Spain is now challenging
the dominance of the eastern European
powerhouses. The country's brightest
star, Elena Gomez, has become a legitimate
force to be reckoned with.
It all began in 1991
when Gomez was just six years old. She
began taking gymnastics lessons in her
hometown on the getaway island of Mallorca
at Club Gimnás Manacor. Soon,
it became evident that Elena had the
talent and drive to make it quite far
in the sport of gymnastics. Coaches
Joana Maria Rigo and Mateu Riera oversaw
Elena's development at Club Gimnāstic
Cor Olímpic until she reached
the age of 13 in 1999. When she turned
13, she left home to move to Madrid
and train with Jesus Carballo Sr. as
part of the Spanish's women's national
team. For the past four years, she has
given up almost everything in a singleminded
quest for the Olympic Games. She endures
grueling eleven-hour days that include
seven long hours in the gym. It's no
easy life, but that's what it takes
to become a world champion.
Elena made her international
debut at the 2000 European Championships
in Paris, where she competed on Spain's
junior squad and finished sixth overall.
However, it was an Olympic year, and
the gymnastics community was far too
caught up in the hype of the 2000 Sydney
Olympics to pay this little Spanish
junior much heed. Elena's big coming-out
party at the international level would
have to wait until after the Olympics,
in 2001, when the reigning stars stepped
down and made way for a new crop of
gymnasts to rise to the top.
2001 was Elena's
first year at the senior level, and
to the many gymnastics fans who had
barely acknowledged her existence at
Europeans the year before, Gomez seemed
to appear out of nowhere. She made a
big splash at Worlds, finishing sixth
in beam finals and 17th in the all-around
after helping to lead her team to an
incredible fourth-place finish. The
gymnastics world was captivated by this
adorbale little Spanish girl, who performed
with incredible style, precision and
artistic flair. Elena's innovative routines
came as a breath of fresh air in a gymnastics
world where style and originality are
often sacrificed for difficulty and
bonus points. Gymnastics fans around
the world began to realize that "Elena
Gomez" was a name that they'd definitely
hear again.
In 2002, Elena was
Spain's sole representative at the European
Championships. In spite of her lack
of teammamtes, she managed four top-eight
finishes! The 2002 Europeans were a
remarkable meet for Elena. It was the
first time that her routines shown widely
on television, and her performance not
only showed that she was a competent
gymnast, but that she was fast becoming
one of the very best in the world -
certainly Spain's leading contender
for the 2004 Olympics and a gymnast
who could very well bring the top Russians
and Romanians to their knees.
But it was the 2002
World Championships that truly cemented
Elena's position at the top of the gymnastics
universe. No one, not even Gomez herself,
expected much from the meet. She was
entered in only one event, the floor
exercise, which was not known to be
one of her strongest events. But Elena
competed on floor. She made it to semifinals,
and then to finals. As each gymnast
up before her stumbled and faltered
in the final, Elena began to realize
that if she just nailed every skill,
she would win a medal. As Elena stepped
up to the plate, she hit a clean routine,
nailing every tumbling pass as well
as her one-of-a-kind quadruple turn
to Popa. When all was said and done,
the judges awarded Elena a magnificent
score of 9.487 and the gold medal!
Now that Elena is
a world champion, she has set her sights
on striking gold in Athens. She trains
long and hard, working through painful
injuries and devoting many hours to
her training. Gymnastics takes up a
lot of Elena's time (seven hours every
day!) But when she's not in the gym
working on her skills and training hard
for the Olympics, she can usually be
found reading, embroidering, listening
to music or surfing the net! She cites
sleeping as her favorite way to relax,
and if she's looking for a fun weekend
out, she usually heads to one of two
amusement parks in her hometown, Port
Aventura and Terra Mítica.
She also likes hanging
out with her friends. Her best friends
are her fellow gymnasts Sara Moro, Alba
Planas, Laura Martinez, Lenika de Simone,
Patricia Moreno, Laura Campos, Sara
Moro, Cayetana Medina and Tania Gener.
Since she spends the bulk of her time
living and training at the national
training center in Madrid, her friends
are really like her second family. Elena
sees her real family often enough, however
- she flies home to Mallorca once a
month and her mom, Antonia, comes to
visit once a month. Elena rarely goes
more than two weeks without seeing her
family. Elena is close to her family,
which includes mother Antionia, father
Jose Ramon, three sisters and two brothers:
Marta, 22; Carlos, 19; Claudia, 12;
Natalia, 11; and Daniel, 10. Claudia
and Natalia are also gymnasts, while
brother Carlos plays soccer and Daniel
practices Judo. With her family providing
a strong base of love and support, Elena
will surely have the strength to make
it as far as she can...perhaps even
to the Olympic medal podium in Athens!
Elena can speak
Spanish, Catalan and some
English
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