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© February 2001 GirlsGymnastics.com
Hollie Vise made a liar out
of her own mother.
When friends and family asked
her mom when they could see Hollie compete on television, her mom told them to
wait a few more years.
She had to take it all back.
Hollie made her national
television debut late last year, just weeks after she turned 13, when NBC aired
the Pontiac International Team Competition.
"I'm having to call everybody
and back track on what I said," her mom, LeeAnn, says.
Hollie finished second in the
ITC, hitting all four of her routines. Broadcasters interviewed her after the
meet and while their cameras rolled, so did her mom's. She filmed the crew
filming Hollie.
A few weeks later, the crew
captured Hollie practicing at World Olympic Gymnastics in Plano, Texas and
followed her home to Dallas. Mom and dad got interviewed, too. That made LeeAnn
a nervous wreck, even though stardom runs in her family. Her dad, Hollie's
grandpa, has acted in movies and commercials.
She enjoyed her own
television debut as well.
"It's really exciting,"
Hollie says. "It's cool
to tell people you're going to be on TV."
Like her mom, Hollie didn't
expect to reach this milestone for a couple of years. But Hollie has always
operated ahead of schedule. She enrolled in gymnastics at a local recreation
center at age 3. In six months, she outgrew the program. She moved to a gym and
into the most advanced class. After practice, she'd come home and perform harder
tricks on the balance beam in her living room and trampoline in her yard.
At 7, Hollie moved to WOGA.
At 11, she skipped level 10 and national elite to qualify for international
elite - a rare accomplishment for a gymnast so young.
"She developed much quicker
than other girls," says one of her coaches, Evgeny Marchenko.
Hollie is used to being one
of the youngest in the gym and at competitions.
"It's cool," she says. "I
look up to the seniors and the older girls. They help me get through some of the
stuff they've already been through."
Thursday: Nothing seems to
rattle Hollie, not even big meets
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