By Derek Reinglass
Action photo by Champion Images
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In the NFL, a running back is said to be over the hill and doomed for diminished success at the age of 30. In the NBA, players enter the league as young as 19 years old. Longevity for an athlete is a rarity. Yuliya Stankevich Hall Brown is one of the exceptions. At age 35, Brown still has enough in the tank for one last run at bringing home hardware from this year's World Championships.

"My goals were to compete for as long as my health allows me to perform at a high level, and I've decided that I will officially retire after the 2011 Worlds," Brown said. "I will then continue to devote my time to coaching and training gymnasts."

Brown's discipline, tumbling, isn't one that discriminates against age, but instead promotes longevity due to the fact that the athletes don't begin to peak until after physical maturity and the reduced impact of the apparatus.

Brown began gymnastics when she was just six years old. A coach saw her playing on a playground, approached her mother, and Brown started soon after. She found her way up to the elite level at a young age and was a member of the Soviet Union Junior National Team.

After the break-up of the USSR, the Russian Mafia began taking control of a lot of sports, schools and businesses. They bought the building where Brown, then known as Yuliya Stankevich, trained to turn it into a casino. Brown's coach at the time decided to take an offer to come to the USA and do some gymnastics tours and Brown, who was 18 at the time, felt it would be in her best interest to go along.

A year later she married her first husband Tharon Hall, and was therefore known as Yuliya Hall. She moved to Idaho and had no gyms close to her house, so she chose to take a break from competition. What initially was intended as a short break turned into a 10-year hiatus from the sport. During those 10 years, she coached artistic gymnastics and spent time raising world champion Chowhounds.

Fast-forward 10 years and Brown began seeking a return to gymnastics. She found a gym only 40 minutes away from where she lived to start back in the sport, but there is no way she could have envisioned what has transpired since.

In 2004 Brown's evolution back into shape brought her to the point where she began contemplating a return to competition. She decided to file for U.S. citizenship, which would allow her to compete as a U.S. gymnast. The following year, Brown joined the U.S. National Team and began competing internationally. She won a medal at every international event she entered that year.

She gave up competitively showing dogs when she returned to competitive tumbling, but she still raises them and then sends them to her parents in Moscow to be shown and bred. Brown never halted her coaching endeavors amidst her return. In fact, she opened her own program called Vladlen Gymnastics, where she coaches six competitive artistic gymnasts before she goes to Team Revolution's team practice. In 2007, Justen Millerbernd began coaching Brown full time. Brown's success and health is something Millerbernd credits to the atypical coach-athlete relationship the two quickly established.

"She is three years older than me and we also have a friendship outside of the gym," Millerbernd said. "I've been to her Moscow home and met her family and friends and have seen where she grew up. That type of relationship just doesn't exist everywhere. She respects me and does what is asked of her in the gym, and I respect her and know her capabilities. That type of relationship has allowed us to devise a plan to keep her healthy."

The special relationship Brown and Millerbernd have formed is one that is sure to continue beyond the days of competition. The thought of Brown stepping off the mat for the final time is one Millerbernd has already begun to muse.

"At the ripe old age of 36 she will be vying for international medals for her last year," Millerbernd said. "It will be a bittersweet moment at Worlds when she culminates a career that has lasted 30 years and I hope I can keep my emotions in check. Last year at the 2010 World Championships, she placed fourth and I was in tears afterwards. It was hard to explain why, but it had nothing to do with my involvement in her career. I was just so happy and pleased for her, that she had climbed so high in the world rankings. Who can do that at age 35?"

What's her secret some may ask? Maybe the secret lies in her pre-game ritual?

"I eat dark chocolate and listen to Russian pop music before I compete," Brown said.

Whether it's the coach-athlete relationship, the chocolate, or the music that helps Brown achieve success, her legacy is as special as it comes.

Longevity in sports is a rarity, reaching the top of the ranks after a 10-year break is even more extraordinary, but concluding her career with a medal in the World Championships at age 36 would be the ultimate storybook ending.