Mohini Bhardwaj and Annia Hatch defied the youth trend prevalent in women's gymnastics by winning Olympic silver in the team event on Tuesday. The American pair are enjoying their second stint as elite gymnasts after both retired in their teens.
Now aged 25 and 26 respectively, Bhardwaj and the Cuban-born Hatch proudly showed off their medals after fate prevented them from going to the 1996 Olympic Games. Bhardwaj missed the cut eight years ago, when the US went on to capture their first Olympic women's team gold, while vault specialist Hatch had to forgo her sporting aspirations due to financial difficulties. On Tuesday, victorious Romanian coach Octavian Belu turned out to be one of their biggest fans.
"For me it is good to see in competition gymnasts who are 25, 26, 27 or even 29," said Belu. "It shows you can still win a medal at that age."
While Belu's teenaged squad charged to the gold medal in Athens, the experienced Americans did manage to leave the youthful Chinese and Ukrainian teams in their wake. Bhardwaj gave up on gymnastics in the late 1990s to pursue a college degree but got herself back into shape after a $25,000 sponsorship cheque from actress Pamela Anderson allowed her to chase her Olympic goal.
"I'm excited to be a part of a innovative group of older women in the sport," Bhardwaj said. "I feel as an older gymnast, you can work out your priorities more as I now know what I want, I know how to break them down and to attain them." "Age is only a number and we're all really talented and we proved we can get a medal here," said Hatch, who qualified for the vault final.
{{/usCountry}}"I'm excited to be a part of a innovative group of older women in the sport," Bhardwaj said. "I feel as an older gymnast, you can work out your priorities more as I now know what I want, I know how to break them down and to attain them." "Age is only a number and we're all really talented and we proved we can get a medal here," said Hatch, who qualified for the vault final.
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