This post was contributed by a community member. The views expressed here are the author's own.

Sports

Olympian Carly Patterson Visits North Shore Gymnasts

Patterson paid a special visit to the Wilmette Community Center on Wednesday.

Rachel Sondheimer was scared when she went to bed feeling sick on Tuesday night.

Sondheimer knew that a special guest—2004 Olympic gold medalist Carly Patterson—was coming to visit the gymnastics facility at the Wilmette Community Center on Wednesday and didn’t want to miss it.

“But I woke up [Wednesday] morning and felt so much better so I was very relieved,” said Sondheimer, 9.

Find out what's happening in Wilmette-Kenilworthwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

Sondheimer was one of many kids who greeted Patterson on Wednesday afternoon, hoping to get some advice and some autographs from one of the country’s all-time great gymnasts.

Running late due to rush-hour traffic, Patterson first talked about the U.S. CoverGirl Classic, a gymnastics meet held on July 23 in Chicago, featuring some of the world’s best gymnasts.

Find out what's happening in Wilmette-Kenilworthwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

“They’re going to be competing so you’re going to see them in a really good arena right before the Olympics,” said Patterson about the CoverGirl Classic, which will feature Shawn Johnson and Alicia Sacramone among others. “Everyone’s ready.”

Patterson then answered a range of questions from the Wilmette Park District’s young gymnasts talking about her experience as an Olympian, the unique school she attended as a youngster and her favorite tricks. She signed autographs and posed for a couple of pictures afterwards.

Many of the kids in attendance were too young to remember Patterson’s gold-medal-winning performance in the 2004 Olympics in the all-around competition, but Mike Kharpak, one of the Park District’s gymnastics coaches, said the kids did their research.

“I was only three years old when she won the gold medal so I didn’t really remember,” said Sondheimer, a soon-to-be fourth grader at North Shore Country Day School. “I wasn’t interested in gymnastics until I was five years old.”

This isn’t the first time Wilmette has hosted a big-time Olympic gymnast. Kharpak said Bart Conner visited the facility many years ago and both athletes told their kids how much work was involved in becoming a world champion.

“When you get to her level, the workouts are seven hours a day, six days a week,” Kharpak said. “That’s extremely demanding, very challenging.”

The young kids in Wilmette’s program range from toddlers to high school students. A lot of the girls go on to compete for New Trier.

And while Sondheimer says she loves gymnastics – she’s been participating in the sport for more than four years – even she realizes it’s tough to devote a lot of time to it.

“It’s going to be hard fit in with the rest of my stuff though,” Sondheimer said. “I’m also doing soccer and violin.”

Perhaps not the next all-around gymnast, but definitely an all-around kid.

We’ve removed the ability to reply as we work to make improvements. Learn more here

The views expressed in this post are the author's own. Want to post on Patch?