88: Rhonda Faehn & Mackenzie Caquatto

GymCastic: The Gymnastics Podcast

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4.7 • 1.5K Ratings

🗓️ 16 April 2014

⏱️ 51 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

An all-interview episode with 1988 Olympic alternate at the Seoul Games and Florida head-coach, Rhonda Faehn. She is a super gym-nerd, just like us. We discuss:

Competing at World Championships with no ligaments left in her ankle.
The pile of injuries that led to her injury-retirement from UCLA.
How she met her super-hot, French, tennis coach husband at Florida.
What was Rhonda thinking as her team made uncharacteristic falls at Regionals.
What it was like living away from home with Phoebe Mills and then the Kristie Phillips family.
Being a Karolyi Kid; one of the first crop of gymnasts to train with Nadia's coaches when they first came to the US.
If there were any perks, like extra leo sparkles for becoming national champions.

Mackenzie Caquatto won a silver medal with the US team at the Rotterdam World Championships in 2010. Then she became a key player at the University of Florida and led the Gators to their first ever, national championship.

Can having a boyfriend actually improve a girl's gymnastics?
Choosing artistic gymnastics over rhythmic gymnastics.
The injury that ended her elite career and landed her in a wheelchair two years in a row.
How college improved her consistency and confidence on beam.
How her elite coaches and college coaches worked together to help her reach her goals to compete for the US.
Her suggestions for improving the team dynamic in elite gymnastics to improve the confidence and experience of elite gymnasts.

Announcement! The first ever GymCastic Meet-up is happening at the NCAA Championships. Come join us for a drinky-poo and gym-nerd out with your people!

When: 3:30-4:30 on Saturday, April 19th before Super-Six Finals.

Where: Todd English Pub, right behind the parking structure at BJCC arena. It’s only a three minute walk to the meet from here. The address is: 2221 Richard Arrington Jr. Blvd. N, Birmingham, AL 35203.

Check out Rhonda and Macko in action in this week's playlist here.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Gymnastics combine grace with strength, elegance with power, artistry with
0:05.0	athleticism, and they all strive for the same elusive goal, absolute
0:09.5	perfection.
0:10.5	Look at that!
0:11.5	Experience it live at the 2014 NCAA Women's Gymnastics Championships, April 18 through the 20th at the
0:19.2	B.JCC in Birmingham, Alabama.
0:21.6	hosted by the Alabama Sports Foundation and the University of Alabama.
0:25.0	Affordable tickets available.
0:27.0	Visit NCAA.com slash W gymnastics.
0:30.0	What I loved, I mean when I first decided to go down to Bellas I remember standing there on the
0:37.1	outside behind the glass window and I saw him with with Mary Lou and Phoebe and
0:42.0	and and you know just the work I mean it was just
0:46.5	intense and I instantly called my mom from there and I just said because we were
0:51.2	there for like a little other another competition and I said this is where I want to go I want this
0:56.6	She was like wait a minute you know let's wait and come back home and we'll talk about it and I said no I'm I'm coming to train here and I just love to be a part of that even though I knew I wasn't at that time at the caliber of Christie or Phoebe or and I just wanted to be a part of it because it was it
1:16.7	was a great time of you know I love that era of gymnastics I mean mean, the Romanians in 87, I mean that you can't get better than that.
1:26.3	And the Soviets and their innovation with gymnastics and their creativity and it's just, I just, I was in love with that.
1:34.0	A world medalist and a
1:40.0	a little bit of a little bit
1:41.0	and a Libyan become NCAA champions at Florida.
1:44.0	Hey gymnast, Elite Sports Band is a cutting edge compression backwormer that can
1:50.0	protect your most valued asset.
	...

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