It has been a while since my last post. I have been swamped with my day job. I have seen several interesting things come across my Facebook USA Gymnastics page lately that I thought were worth discussing, but I really liked the article about the 1996 Gold Medal Olympic Team. I thought that would be an appropriate place to start this article out.

The USA Gymnastics Staff spent a little time with each of the 1996 Olympians asking them what they do these days, if they are married, if they are still involved with the sport and how and what opportunities they felt winning the Olympics provided them with. I am only going to provide a recap of the responses here (the ones I thought were interesting) however I would highly encourage you to hop over to the USA Gymnastics site and read the full article (http://www.usa-gymnastics.org/pages/features/110301_96team/).

I found it fascinating to see where these young ladies have landed after their time in the spotlight. It should come as no surprise that a couple of them are still into gymnastics. Amanda Borden and Jaycie Phelps both own gymnastics training centers and love being involved with the sport to this day. Amy Chow is now a physician, Dominique Moceanu works special events with her husband, Kerri Strug works as a lawyer for the Federal government in DC, and Dominique Dawes also works with the Federal government supporting special program and initiatives…in addition to working in broadcasting.

All of the 1996 Olympians have come a long way and continue to set an excellent example for young ladies.

You know I am a big fan of saving money, it’s one of the reasons I created this website. I believe it is important for folks to have alternatives when picking up leotards for their little gymnasts. This is just as true now as it was 3 years ago when I began writing here. One of the directions that I am moving towards is actually beginning to sell used gymnastics leotards here on the site. Many folks out there buy a $60 name brand leotard, use it twice and then have no reason to keep it. I am going to track some of those down and put them onto a Leotard Shop page I am going to build and add on. I will let you know as soon as it goes live.

Finally, have any of you ever used DreamLight Leotards? I just stumbled across them this week. The information I have been able to find indicates they are very similar in quality and price to the GK Leotards that are out there on the market. Some folks like the way they fit and feel; others are not so excited. I have seen a great deal of discussion regarding the fact that they provide competitive gymnastics leotards, but I haven’t really seen anything about them making toddler gymnastics leotards and such. Any experience with them?

Remember, keep your eyes open for our Girls Gymnastics Leotards Shop!

Let me begin by saying that I am fully aware that the 2010 Visa Championships took place in August of this year, so yes – this post is a little late. I did want to take the time to highlight the performances by some of the young ladies and point out their very colorful leotards (hey, that’s what I do here). We will start out with one of the favorites, Bridget Sloan. Bridget wore two distinct leos for this competition. One was an elegant pink and white and the other had a blue body with a green border around the neck for her performances on beam. She performed on beam in spite of being injured and as a result struggled on nailing her front aerial connection. Additionally, she was wobbly on her full turn and struggled on the front tuck. She kept an excellent attitude throughout her performance and persevered to the end. You can view her routine here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bn69H0vdEZA&feature=channel.
Also performing at the championships was Rebecca Bross wearing a classy purple and white gymnastics leotard for her performance on the bars. Her lines were impeccable and her body was tight the entire time. This was a great performance and ended with her first stuck landing of the night. Here is a link to her routine: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HvofeBuyafY. Mattie Larson had an exceptional night on floor and her gray and yellow gymnastics leotard was stunning. She had incredible power on her double back layout, and excellent form while executing the triple twist in her second tumbling pass. You can judge this routine for yourself here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SrlagilIOUk&feature=channel. Finally, an old favorite, Alicia Sacramone, provided solid performances on vault while styling a blue bodied leotard with purple sleeves. Her vaults for the evening were a two-and-a-half twisting front handspring with excellent form and a yurchenko with a one-and-a-half twist. Both of these vaults were solid and had a ton of power. Watch them here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FmMWCkoW9EI.

I recently stumbled across a new site to get discount gymnastics leotards. The site is the Down East Outlet which apparently specializes in providing all sorts of GK leotards. Not only do they have gymnastics leotards, but they also provide leotards for other sports as well. There isn’t a whole lot of information on the site, but they do promise deep discounts and a broad selection. The main page of the site has an email address if you are looking for more information on the products they have.

To round out this month’s article, I wanted to remind you that now is the perfect time to begin to look for Christmas specials on girls gymnastics leotards. Most of your big name gym leo providers (Addidas, GK, Danskin, Alpha Factor, etc.) are beginning to roll out their special Christmas deals. Make sure you order early for the best selection.

The following site http://sewing.patternreview.com/cgi-bin/patterns/sewingpatterns.pl?patternid=4608 provides some information for those of you who feel you are up to this challenge. I’d like to hear how your outfits turn out. The creation of your own outfit provides a way for parents who are looking for an inexpensive way to get girl’s gymnastics leotards for their children, and provides a learning experience in the process.

In the course of follow-up investigation on the matter, I also found that Amazon offers a gymnastics leotard pattern. I went out and found a link to the patterns that they offer. These look like a decent pattern (based on my professional opinion) and the price is right (around $10). If you make the decision to go out and try these I would also really appreciate any feedback you may have. With Leotards becoing so expensive, sewing your own leo is a great alternative.

Now get out there and stick it.

Larry G

Girls’ Gymnastics Leotards

Here is the link: Click Here!

Happy reading!

GirlsGymnasticsLeotards.com