I love gymnastics. I have loved this sport ever since I stayed up late to watch Mary Lou Retton win the first All-Around Olympic gold medal for the USA. In the '90's there was Shannon Miller. She won her first World Championship medal in 1991 and won her last Olympic (gold) medal in 1996. The span of how long she has competed as an amatuer is unparreled except by the great Svetlana Boguinskaya who competed in 3 Olypmic Games.So, naturally I want to dedicate the beginings of the Princess' Gymnastics page to America's Greatest Gymnast, male or female,SHANNON MILLER
I just found this the other day while I was cleaning out some of my old school stuff. Its a poem I wrote for Junior English. Its based on a Walt Whitman poem. I think it is very reflective of Shannon's career.
The Many Faces of Gymnastics
Pounding down the runway or tumbling on the mats, oh such faces!
Faces of frustration, confusion, excitement, challenge, strength,
The competiton face, the worn haggard face that has competed too much,
The face of big dreams and high hopes, the disappointed face of one whose time has passed,
The faces of youth with neverending energy, the worn out face of one whose talents are outdated,
The happy, excited, delighted, unkowing faces of children just learning,
the bitter face of a gymnast who never got what she was promised, the crumpled, aged, lifeless face,
The face of a child, the face of dreams.
The face as of a perfect ten, the face of glory,
The face who never lived her dream, it is gone never to be recaptured,
Still, she goes on, in pursuit of what every little girl dreams of...
Watching television or going to a competition,
Faces and faces and faces,
I see them and criticize not, I can do nothing to stop a dream.
Email: smdeasy@hopper.unh.edu
