Photograph by Robert Scheer
The six-meter ribbon is one of five events Tomiko Ogasawara will compete in during the upcoming national championships.
By Anne Gelhaus
Surrounded by clouds of chalk dust and classes of young tumblers, 14-year-old Tamiko Ogasawara leaps into the air in a perfect split, twirling both her body and a long, tapered ribbon before landing gracefully on the corner of the mat she's been able to secure for the afternoon's practice at Top Flight Gymnastics in Fremont.
Ogasawara, a Sunnyvale resident and a freshman at Homestead High School, is refining her rhythmic gymnastics routines for the Junior Olympic National Championships April 20 and 21 in Baltimore. Under the watchful eye of coach Judy Whelan, she executes turns and leaps that, in and of themselves, require strength and grace, while also focusing attention on the ribbon she must keep spinning over and around her body.
Ogasawara qualified for the Junior Olympics, sponsored by USA Gymnastics, after winning the state championship in her age group earlier this year. In her routines, Ogasawara must coordinate dance and acrobatic movement with a hand apparatus, such as a rope, hoop, ball, ribbon or set of clubs.
"To coordinate the equipment is the hardest thing for her," says Whelan, who has coached Ogasawara for three years. "She leaps high and has great flexibility."
Ogasawara used to take regular gymnastics classes at Sunnyvale Gymnastics, but she says rhythmic gymnastics is a more challenging sport.
"It's also more frustrating," Whelan adds.
The frustration shows on Ogasawara's face a moment later, when Whelan tells her she forgot to keep her head down during a leap she just performed.
Whelan says the Junior Olympics is the apex of competitions for rhythmic gymnasts in the United States.
"It's highly regarded in other countries," she says of the sport. "It's very prestigious in Russia, Bulgaria and Spain, but not in the U.S."
Top Flight is the only gym in the South Bay where Whelan could find practice space for her rhythmic gymnasts, and she says it's hard to find space in general in the Bay Area.
"There are a few big clubs in the San Francisco area," she adds, "and the rest are in Southern California."
Ogasawara goes from school to the gym each weekday, where she normally practices in the company of her teammates.
"We usually work out together," she explains, "but since I have the nationals coming up, I've been working in private."
Ogasawara says she'll stay with the sport as long as it's fun and as long as she keeps improving.
"I don't really have a goal," she adds. "It's just a pleasure sport."
Whelan says Ogasawara's enjoyment of the sport comes through in competition.
"I get compliments everywhere she goes," the coach says. "She's fun, and she enjoys what she's doing."
This article appeared in the Sunnyvale Sun, April 17, 1996.
©1996 Metro Publishing, Inc. All rights reserved.