By Amanda Robinson
Action photo by John Cheng
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From paying tribute to his father, supporting a team, and promoting the sport, Christopher Brooks knows how to take every situation as an opportunity to better himself.

After the loss of his father from a car accident in 2008, Brooks reflected on it as a new source of inspiration.

"It gave me a new drive in that it was a reason to push forward on days I didn't want to train," Brooks told the Houston Chronicle. "My dad was my No. 1 fan. He believed in me more than anyone else, and when I'm in the gym and my body hurts and I've got a bad attitude and I'm wondering why I'm doing this, I think of him. That gives me something extra on the days I need it."

That inspiration paid off.

As he served as captain his senior year of college at the University of Oklahoma in 2009, Brooks led his team to a third-place finish at the NCAA Championships. The next year, Brooks won the horizontal bar U.S. national title at the 2010 Visa Championships in Harford, Conn., and earned a spot on the Worlds team.

There, in Rotterdam, Netherlands, Brooks helped Team USA to a fourth-place finish and placed sixth in the horizontal bar individual event final.

This past August in Saint Paul, Minn., Brooks finished fourth in the all-around competition, second on horizontal bar and third on the parallel bars at the 2011 Visa Championships, and was named as the alternate for the team headed to Tokyo.

"Being part of this World Championships team is awesome," Brooks said. "I got to be a part of it last year and then again this year as the alternate. It feels great and it is a great honor to be a part of this team."

Even though Brooks isn't assured time on the competition floor this year, he never loses sight of the greater picture and overall goal of the team.

"The team looks great and I really feel this team has a chance to win," Brooks said. "I really wanted to be on the competition floor, but after thinking about it, I realized the alternate position is just as crucial to the team and that at any moment in time, I have to be ready to step in for any one of these guys."

As Mazeika said in an interview with the World Championships team, the team members from the University of Oklahoma are truly a "band of brothers." Having Brooks as an alternate can only make for a stronger group of competitors.

From his time competing for the University of Oklahoma to representing the United States across the world, Brooks has shown to be a committed and reliable teammate and gymnast from all fields of play.

Currently training in Houston, Texas, at Cypress Gymnastics with coach Tom Meadows, Brooks also finds ways to promote gymnastics outside of the gym.

When speaking with a reporter from the Houston Chronicle, Brooks recalls one career highlight in particular, which was performing a series of gymnastics moves in the background of The Victoria's Secret Fashion Show.

It was his hope, along with the other male gymnasts putting on the performance, to encourage young men to stay involved in gymnastics as well as put a spotlight on the sport itself.

"It's not like we're doing anything super spectacular," Brooks told the Houston Chronicle. "But the more we can get in the public eye, the better it is for the sport."