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© February 2001 GirlsGymnastics.com
Hollie Vise's body twists and
flips high in the air, but she keeps her thoughts - and any pesky tummy
butterflies - firmly grounded.
She's only 13. Her coach says
she's mature beyond her years.
"She has incredible
presence," says Evgeny Marchenko, one of Hollie's coaches at World Olympic
Gymnastics Academy in Plano, Texas. "She's very patient and very calm ... and
cool."
Hollie puts that mentality to
work every day in the gym when she pushes herself toward new tricks, such as the
Yurchenko one-and-a-half or the full-twisting double back pike she's working on
now on vault and floor.
"I usually just tell myself
that I'm ready," says Hollie, who lives in Dallas.
When it comes to competition,
Hollie usually is ready. No matter what. A week before her first international
assignment in Russia, a bout with food poisoning knocked her out. Hollie lost
eight pounds. She couldn't work out. Still, she made beam finals.
Before a meet in Italy,
Hollie pulled a calf muscle but went on to win the meet.
At the end of last year -
right before the Pontiac International Team Championships - Hollie had such a
bad cold that she couldn't make it through her floor routine. But during the
meet, she clinched first place for the U.S. - and second place for herself in
the all-around - with a 9.725 on bars.
"It was a nice surprise,"
says Martha Karolyi, who coordinated the U.S. team. "She just had the flu - she
was so weak the first day I was thinking of making her an alternate."
At the ripe old age of 13,
world-travel and high-pressure situations have become second nature to Hollie.
She qualified for junior international elite status at 11 and immediately began
jetting around the world. Hollie has competed beside Olympians such as Svetlana
Khorkina and Elena Produnova. She has trudged through snow in Moscow's Red
Square, explored a castle in Germany, shopped in Venice and inhaled the fresh
mountain air in Switzerland. By 2004, she hopes to add a trip to the Athens
Olympics to her list.
Hollie's mom, LeAnn, used to
travel everywhere with her. But LeAnn says Hollie rarely needed her on the road.
Now that Hollie's a teen, she'll travel on her own.
"It doesn't phase her," her
mom says. "She just goes out and does what she needs to do."
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