Miscellaneous,  Travel

Kellogg’s Tour of Gymnastics Champions

Beautiful in His Time is a participant in multiple affiliate marketing programs. The author of this blog may receive commission for purchases or clicks made through links on this website.

Olympics women’s gymnastics has always been one of my favorite things. I was nine years old when the 1996 US Women’s Olympic Gymnastic Team won the team gold medal in Atlanta. My mom and I stayed up late watching their epic victory on our little 19-inch black-and-white TV that only came out of the closet for special things like the Olympics and the Superbowl. From that moment on, I became a huge fan of all things gymnastics.
Over the next year or so, I got books from the library on gymnastics and the Magnificent Seven and autobiographies and biographies of the gymnasts of the winning team. It was pretty much an obsession…even in my playtime (even though I don’t have a flexible or athletic bone in my body):

rp_scan0085blog_zpsb5901513.jpg

Me circa 1997-1998 at a science museum:

scan0042blog_zps27cbb57c.jpg

In October of 1997, my parents surprised me with tickets to the John Hancock Tour of World Gymnastics Champions, a celebratory post-olympic tour. My mom and I went together. I don’t remember much about the night other than that our seats felt very far away, but it was still so exciting. I even bought a Shannon Miller t-shirt. They were sold out of everything except for extra-larges. So we got it anyway and I wore it as a sleep shirt.

Over the next 15 years, every summer olympics, my mom and I have both watched the women’s gymnastics team finals with hope of gold. This year’s olympics were no exception. I even went out and bought a TV antenna so I could hook up my TV to watch. The night of the team finals, my mom and I were on the phone talking, both getting ready to watch. I had seen the results on accident (darn NBC website and their spoilers)…but she hadn’t. I just told her that she needed to watch. We joked that if they won gold again, we were going to have to see if they were going to have a tour that we could go to. We stayed up late and watched them win gold “together.”

The next day, a local activities page that I follow on Facebook posted a link to the Kellogg’s Tour of Gymnastics Champions. I was shocked…I had no idea that there was already a tour going on! I immediately posted it for my mom and we decided that we would go. We could go in Chicago or Louisville, but decided to do Chicago since Russ was supposed to be in the field throughout the month of October. Within two hours we had purchased our tickets for October 12th, 3 days shy of 15 years from when we attended before (yes I looked up the dates online lol).

I drove up to Chicago last weekend and stayed a few days. Sunday night we drove into the city to attend. Our seats were a lot better than they were in 1997! In fact, we were so close that at one point early on in the evening, I dropped my phone over the railing and one of the performers from the national team handed it back to me!

Kellogg's Tour of Gymnastics Champions

Kellogg's Tour of Gymnastics Champions

The entrance of the olympic teams:

Kellogg's Tour of Gymnastics Champions

Jonathan Horton spotting for a local child performer:

Kellogg's Tour of Gymnastics Champions Jonathan Horton

Kellogg's Tour of Gymnastics Champions 2012

Jordyn Wieber’s floor routine:

Kellogg's Tour of Gymnastics Champions Jordyn Wieber Floor

Kellogg's Tour of Gymnastics Champions Jordyn Weiber Floor

Kellogg's Tour of Gymnastics Champions Parallel Bars

John Orozco on parallel bars:

Kellogg's Tour of Gymnastics Champions John Orozco Parallel Bars

Kellogg's Tour of Gymnastics Champions John Orozco Parallel Bars

Kellogg's Tour of Gymnastics Champions Parallel Bars

Kellogg's Tour of Gymnastics Champions

Kellogg's Tour of Gymnastics Champions

This was the most beautiful routine of the evening…the gold medal team synchronized on balance beam while an artistic gymnast did aerial gymnastics overhead:

Kellogg's Tour of Gymnastics Champions Fierce Five Beam

Kellogg's Tour of Gymnastics Champions Fierce Five on Beam

Gabrielle Douglas on beam:

Kellogg's Tour of Gymnastics Champions Gabby Douglas Beam

Kellogg's Tour of Gymnastics Champions Fierce Five on Beam

Kellogg's Tour of Gymnastics Champions Fierce Five on Beam

Fierce Five on Beam Kellogg's Tour of Gymnastics Champions

Fierce Five Beam Kellogg's Tour of Gymnastics Champions

Kellogg's Tour of Gymnastics Champions Fierce Five on Beam

Kellogg's Tour of Gymnastics Champions High Bar

Kellogg's Tour of Gymnastics Champions High Bar

Kellogg's Tour of Gymnastics Champions high bar

Kellogg's Tour of Gymnastics Champions High Bar

This was super neat–two men on one bar!

Kellogg's Tour of Gymnastics Champions High Bar

Gabby Douglas floor routine:

Kellogg's Tour of Gymnastics Champions Gabby Douglas Floor Routine

Kellogg's Tour of Gymnastics Champions Fierce Five Olympic Rings

Kellogg's Tour of Gymnastics Champions Olympic Rings with Nastia Luitkin

This is how close we were. If I’m not mistaken, that’s Nastia Liukin. Not sure who the girl on the left is.

Kellogg's Tour of Gymnastics Champions

Gabby Douglas and Jordyn Wieber waiting in the wings…you’ll have to just believe me on this one!

Kellogg's Tour of Gymnastics Champions

“Jumping through hoops” taken to a whole new level:

Kellogg's Tour of Gymnastics Champions

Kellogg's Tour of Gymnastics Champions

Kellogg's Tour of Gymnastics Champions

Kellogg's Tour of Gymnastics Champions

Kellogg's Tour of Gymnastics Champions Olympic Rings

Check out how much stuff is going on in this one…it was a neat finale!

Kellogg's Tour of Gymnastics Champions

Kellogg's Tour of Gymnastics Champions Olympic Rings

It was an amazing night. I’m so glad that we spent the money and took the time to go. It was definitely worth it!

9 Comments

Leave a Reply