Recently crowned world all-around champion Jordyn Wieber of DeWitt, Mich./Gedderts’ Twistars USA, was selected as the U.S. Olympic Committee’s female Athlete of the Month for her performances in October. World champions Danell Leyva of Homestead, Fla./Team Hilton HHonors, and the U.S. women’s team claimed two close second-place finishes in this month’s voting.
Along with Wieber, rower Mike Gennaro of Havertown, Pa., and the U.S. women’s field hockey team were awarded for their top performances in the male athlete and team category.
At last month’s 2011 World Championships in Tokyo, Japan, Wieber, coached by John and Kathryn Geddert, became the sixth U.S. woman to win the World all-around title, joining Olympic medalists Kim Zmeskal (1991), Shannon Miller (1993-94), Chellsie Memmel (2005), Shawn Johnson (2007) and Bridget Sloan (2009). In addition to her all-around win, Wieber was part of the gold medal women’s team and captured the bronze medal on the balance beam.
In Tokyo, Leyva, who trains at Universal Gymnastics with his coach and stepfather Yin Alvarez, won the gold medal on the parallel bars. The medal, the first Worlds gold for an American male since Paul Hamm in 2003, marks just the third time in history that an U.S. gymnast has won the parallel bars title (Bart Conner, 1979; Sean Townsend, 2001).
Finally, the women of Team USA won the team gold medal in Tokyo for just the third time in history (2003, 2007, 2011). In total, the U.S. women’s team claimed five medals, including three gold, at the World Championships. The members of the team were Gabrielle Douglas of Virginia Beach, Va./Chow’s Gymnastics and Dance Institute; McKayla Maroney of Laguna Niguel, Calif./All Olympia AOGC; Alexandra Raisman of Needham, Mass./Brestyan’s American Gymnastics; Alicia Sacramone of Winchester, Mass./Brestyan’s American Gymnastics; Sabrina Vega of Carmel, N.Y./Dynamic Gymnastics; and Wieber. Anna Li of Aurora, Ill./Legacy Elite Gymnastics LLC, served as the team’s alternate.