Sports

West Des Moines-Trained Gymnast is 'One to Watch' After Secret U.S. Classic

Coach Liang Chow had the midas touch Olympic gold medal winners Shawn Johnson and Gabby Douglas in 2008 and 2012. Will Norah Flatley complete the trifecta?

Norah Flatley, a 13-year-old gymnast training at Chow’s Institute of Gymnastics and Dance won the balance beam competition and finished fourth in the all-around competition at the 2013 Secret U.S. Classic in Chicago Saurday.

The web site Gymnastike.org. called her debut in the junior elite competition “stunning,” said that she won the junior beam title “easily” and “will be one to watch” at the 2013 P&G Gymnastics Championships next month in Connecticut.

RELATED: Olympic Gold Medal Gymnastics: The Midas Touch in West Des Moines

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Catch up with the aspiring Olympian on the web site. There, you’ll find a handful of interviews, including one shot after her win in Chicago last weekend. She described being “excited and nervous,” but said she was pleased with her performance on the bars.

A key to her success, she said, is “to go slow and calm down.”

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Rachel Gowey, an Urbandale gymnast  training at Chow’s, did not compete in the classic, but has qualified as a senior elite for the U.S. national championships in Connecticut, the Des Moines Register reported.

Flatley, Gowey and another gymnast, Alexis Vasquez, all moved to Iowa to train with Chow after West Des Moines native Shawn Johnson and Gabby Douglas, who left her home in Virginia to train with Chow, won their Olympic medals.

Johnson won Olympic gold medal on the balance beam at Beijing in 2008, Douglas in the all-around at London four years later. Douglas also was a member of the gold-medal winning U.S.women's team. Johnson also left Beijing with three silver medals.

Flatley, Vasquez and Douglas are all featured in the first episode of Gymnastike’s Far From Home, which relates their reasons for leaving the comfort of their homes to train with the distinguished Coach Chow.

An emigrant from China, Chow runs one of the most respected elite programs in the country alongside his wife Liwen.

“Young gymnasts from across the country jump at the chance to train with Chow, and they often drag their families along for the ride,” Gymnastike wrote.


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