US history-making women’s Olympic gymnasts inspiring young hopefuls back home
By Rikki Klaus, CNN
(CNN) — The most diverse US women’s gymnastics team in history will begin competing this weekend at the Olympic Games, inspiring younger gymnasts in the process.
Four of the five team members are women of color, according to USA Gymnastics, which deemed the team the most diverse in history.
But far from Paris, at James Jones Gymnastics Academy (JJGA) in Jonesboro, Georgia, everyone — from the eponymous Jones himself to his gymnasts – are Black.
The gym owner and coach said seeing this year’s diverse Olympic team competing at the highest level in a sport where their race has been underrepresented is inspiring.
“It makes me feel wonderful,” Jones told CNN. “There are no more tokens. And that’s good. Everyone is there for their merit, and everyone has worked hard to get there. And they’re sharing the spotlight.”
Four members from the Tokyo Games are returning: Seven-time Olympic medalist Simone Biles, three-time world medalist and reigning Olympic all-around champion Suni Lee, seven-time world medalist Jade Carey and 2020 Olympic team silver medalist Jordan Chiles. Rookie Hezly Rivera, 16, is the youngest member of Team USA’s delegation, according to USA Gymnastics.
Jones said he had also seen the effect this Olympic team was having on his young gymnasts.
“It motivates me and inspires me to work harder,” said Zuri Norwood, an 11-year-old competitive gymnast at JJGA. “If I keep on going and working harder, then I will become the best. And like them, they had to push through a lot of injuries and a lot of like, emotional stuff.”
“Possibly racism,” her mother Danielle Saxon-Norwood chimed in.
“Yeah, racism,” Zuri agreed, “but they worked through it. And I want to do the same.”
‘Things are changing’
Phoenix Rogers trains more than 20 hours a week at her gym in Chicago. Rogers, who has a Black mom and White dad, told CNN that seeing the Olympic team representing multiple races feels “powerful.”
“To all gymnasts out there, no matter the color of your skin, it doesn’t really matter. Things are changing – and even if it’s in the smallest way – but it’s getting a little bit easier for people who aren’t White to achieve their goals,” Phoenix told CNN.
The 12-year-old is a level 9 gymnast – meaning she’s been able to complete certain routines as laid out by USA Gymnastics – who started as a toddler with “mommy and me” classes. Her mom was not the typical parent, however, as Onnie Rogers had started competing in gymnastics when she was six years old and won the NCAA individual all-around title in gymnastics in 2001 while at UCLA.
Rogers is now an associate professor in the Department of Comparative Human Development at the University of Chicago, specializing in cultural stereotypes, diversity and educational inequalities.
During Rogers’ gymnastics career, she was often the only Black person on her team and one of very few in a whole arena at competitions, she said, and all of that was normalized.
She told CNN white tape stood out distinctly on her brown skin, “flesh” colored undergarments were never the color of her flesh, and in photos, her image would often appear dark, among her well-lit White teammates.
The US Olympic team’s diversity didn’t signify racism in the sport had gone, she said.
“I think there’s been just time, representation, as well as the technical advocacy and disruption of racism that’s starting to allow us to see the talent and the breadth of diversity within the sport,” Rogers said.
‘You see diversity across the board’
Betty Okino, a member of the bronze medal-winning 1992 US Olympic gymnastics team, told CNN that when she began competing for the national team she didn’t have Olympic role models who looked like her. She was on her own with her gymnastic dreams.
“Whereas today, the next generation of kids growing up, that’s not a question anymore – if they can do gymnastics because they don’t see anybody else that looks like them,” said Okino.
“You look at our team, our national team, and you see diversity across the board. Not only Black and Brown girls, but you see all of the different colors.”
Corrinne Tarver is the first Black gymnast to win an NCAA all-around championship and currently the Head Women’s Gymnastics Coach at Fisk University, an historically Black college.
“I was trying not to cry honestly when I saw the makeup of the team. I just kind of felt in my heart, I truly felt, ‘Wow, we’ve finally gotten somewhere,’” said Tarver.
“We’re finally able to truly show the talent that we have, and it has nothing to do with the color of one’s skin. It has to do with what they do on the mat,” Tarver added.
Back in Georgia, Jones said his all-Black team continued to experience inequity in various forms. At one gymnastics competition, he said an announcer had skipped his group during team announcements, the team’s name had been omitted from the list of competitors online and judges had doled out blatantly unfair scores.
“There have been occasions where Zuri has done great routines, and I’m like, OK, that’s gonna do a 9.4, 9.5. And they’re like, 8.9. And I’m like, how?” said Jones. “Then a (White) gymnast gets up and falls off the beam completely. And she gets the same score.”
Zuri’s brother Cruz Norwood, who’s 12 and competes alongside his sister around the country, told CNN that there were “a lot of barriers that we need to get past, like racism, with judges and scoring.”
But they won’t let anything get in the way of winning medals or dreaming.
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