Fil-Am gymnast Kyla Ross: Winning Olympic gold was 'surreal'

Filipino-American gymnast Kyla Briana Ross helped the United States Women’s Gymnastics Team bag the gold for the first time in 16 years, and only the second time in Olympic history, at the ongoing 2012 Summer Olympics in London.

 

The American gymnasts — composed of Ross, McKayla Maroney, Gabby Douglas, Jordyn Wieber and Aly Raisman — opened with a jaw-dropping performance on the vault and never trailed, finishing with 183.596 points to relegate the imploding Russians to silver (178.530) and Romania (176.414) to bronze.

 

“We all did our events the best that we could and hit our routines, and we are all really proud of each other,” said the Hawaii-born beauty, whose father, Jason, is half-African-American and half-Japanese.

 

Ross, who, at 15, is the youngest member of the team and whose mother, Kiana Ross, is half-Filipino and half-Puerto Rican, contributed scores of 14.933 on the uneven bars and 15.133 on the balance beam toward the American team’s gold medal finish Tuesday.

 

“It was really fun watching floor,” Ross said.

 

“McKayla and I were together cheering as loud as we could. We were screaming so loud.”

 

‘U.S. solid as granite’

 

The Washington Post reports that as world champion gymnasts from Russia and China “crumpled under pressure, teetering wildly on the balance beam and falling face-first on the floor, the Americans were solid as granite, delivering their 12 mandatory routines without a single glaring gaffe.”

 

China’s team, which won the gold in the 2008 Olympics, placed fourth.

 

“Fierce Five leave rivals sobbing,” reads Chicago Tribune’s headline, referring to the massive victory of the U.S. women gymnasts.

 

The American team’s margin of victory, 5.066 points, is said to be unheard of in international competition, making its coach John Geddert proclaim Ross and her teammates as “the best team of all time.”

 

“There was no comparison with any other team in sturdiness and the decisive, aggressive and strong approach,” said Bela Karolyi, the Romanian native who coached Nadia Comaneci to Olympic perfection in 1976 and masterminded the historic 1996 U.S. gold.

 

“That was absolutely a huge difference between them and particularly the Russian team.”

 

The team is fondly Fab Five, but the team prefers to be called Fierce Five, according to Maroney, “because we are definitely the fiercest team out there.”

 

Maroney added that her 2012 team followed in the greatness of the Magnificent Seven, which won the gold in the Atlanta Olympics in 1996.

 

Reports said Ross will not continue on to the event finals in the balance beam as her teammates Douglas and Raisman outscored her by a very slim margin.

 

But Ross, who will forever be an Olympic gold medalist, said she’s perfectly fine with it and is truly proud of her contributions for Team USA.

 

Started at age 3

 

Ross began gymnastics when she was three years old at Greenville Gymnastics Training Center in South Carolina.

 

She later trained at Richmond Olympiad and National Gymnastics Training Center before moving to Gym-Max Gymnastics in Costa Mesa, Calif. in 2005.

 

Her junior career began in 2009 when she competed at the American Classic in San Diego, Calif., and placed second in the all around with a score of 55.316.

 

It would be followed by numerous triumphs until her senior career.

 

Last March, Ross competed at the 2012 Pacific Rim Gymnastics Championships in Everett, Washington, and helped the American team place first. Individually, she placed second in the all around with a score of 59.200.

 

It was followed at the end of March with another huge victory at City of Jesolo Trophy in Jesolo, Italy, and at the Secret U.S. Classic in Chicago, Illinois, where she placed second in the all around with a score of 59.800.

 

In early July, Ross competed at the Olympic trials in San Jose, Calif.

 

After the first day, she was quoted as saying, “Oh my gosh, I love the crowd. I walked in and shock went right through me. There were so many people and the crowd was just so loud. I was so thrilled to have everyone there watching the meet, but especially my friends and family. I had huge support behind me and was so happy that all of my teammates could come, and that my family could come watch me. A lot of my family from all over the country came.”

 

She placed fifth in the all around with a two day combined score of 120.000.

 

In event finals, she placed first on uneven bars scoring 31.150 and third on balance beam scoring 29.950.

 

Afterwards, Ross was chosen as a member of the team that will be sent to the 2012 London Olympics.

 

‘Most surreal feeling’

 

“This is the most surreal feeling,” she said following her selection.

 

“Hearing my name called, I couldn’t even believe it.”

 

In London, Ross helped the U.S. team qualify to the finals.

 

Individually, she qualified as the second reserve for the uneven bars final with a score of 14.866.   

 

“It was definitely exciting competing here today,” she said after qualifying.

 

“I was surprised I wasn’t too nervous. I thought we did well and hopefully we can come back in team finals and fix our little mistakes and do even better.”

 

In past interviews, Ross’ proud mother, Kiana, said her daughter was “always very strong with a lot of energy.”

 

“She was born with muscles,” Mrs. Ross recalled.

 

“We would go to the park and everybody would say ‘Whose baby is on top of that jungle gym?’ And I would say ‘Oh, that’s my baby. Don’t worry about her, she’s fine.’”

 

Her father, Jason, added, “I would use all my effort to get her to sit in her car seat, and I’m a pretty big guy, a strong guy. When she was born, we were like, ‘Oh my God, she has triceps, she has quads hanging off her. What the heck’s going on?’ And she was just super strong. I mean, at an early age, she was able to walk across the monkey bars, just hanging herself.” - Filipino Reporter