Carly Patterson: What Makes A Champion?

If you have been following gymnastics for any length of
time, odds are you have heard of a particular gymnast by
the name of Carly Patterson. You probably also know that
she is one of the youngest female Olympic gymnasts ever -
and that she has stunned the world of late with her
astounding abilities. In 2004, she became the first
all-around Olympic champion for the United States in more
than two decades, and was also the first to win for the US
in the past two games, an amazing feat indeed, considering
these past Olympic games were fully attended! The last
female all-around gymnastics champion for the United States
won in 1984, when the Soviet Union had boycotted the
Olympics entirely.

Carly was born on February the fourth, 1988, in Baton Rouge,
Louisiana, to a pair of loving parents - her mother,
Natalie, and her father, Ricky. She is the first of a pair
of girls (her younger sister is Jordan). Currently, she
lives with her mother, her sister, and her pets in Allen,
Texas. A straight-A student, she is almost a normal
teenager when it comes to taste in music, boys, and
shopping. However, one thing sets her apart from the rest
of the crowd, even beyond her academics: she spends more
than thirty hours a week training in her Texas academy. Of
course, she could not have gotten to where she is currently
without help. This logically leads to the question -- what
makes a champion?

Carly started early on with her gymnastics career. In 1994,
she began taking classes after attending a friend