Skip to main content

More to the story...

I learned something today that made me even more impressed and inspired by "gymnast girl" from my health club.

Turns out, Talya's a cancer survivor. At the age of 23, she discovered a lump in her breast and had a double mastectomy and chemo to fight it, reconstructive surgery to help get her life back on track.

Your chin on the floor, too?

If you'd like to read more about her, click here.

A couple other bits of trivia about Talya:

She and fellow UI Women's Gymnastics Coach Jeff Richards were named 2008 North Central Region Assistant Coaches of the Year.

One of her brothers was Russell Crowe's stunt double in the 2007 film "American Gangster."

Another of her brothers is a senior gymnastics star at Temple University.

And she's a bit of a star on You Tube. That is, someone posted her performances on the various events during a meet 10 years ago when she was at Georgia. Apparently she's best known for her floor exercise. So here it is. I swear, if she were Olympic caliber, she'd be a damn fine Jim McKay vignette.

Comments

Cherie Moore said…
What a great story and how lucky to have such an inspirational person in your spin class.
1:58 PM
Amy said…
I think I take people for granted...those people I don't know yet walk by every day in the grocery store, at my kid's preschool, in other departments at work.

Look what happens when you actually take a closer look. You catch a glimpse of courage in action.
3:18 PM
Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Holy Separated-At-Birth, Batman!

Gary Oldman...meet Uncle Knit-Knots from Imagination Movers.
Post a Comment
Read more

Hair

This has become the age-old question...Why do men hate short hair on women? I've been thinking about this a lot because my current style, an angled bob, requires a bunch of fussing every morning to get it to do anything. My favorite haircut of all time, as far as ease of care, was my pixie cut. I loved that I could wash it, gel it, and be done. No blow drying or flattening or curling. Just gel and go. Very sporty. I thought it looked cute. My husband has another opinion. The longer the better is his motto. Thing is, my hair becomes an unruly, tangled, nappy mop when it gets long. If I had all the time in the world and Jennifer Aniston's budget, I'd be more than happy to grow it long and have others style it every day. In real life, I guess I'd rather go for comfort and convenience. And if you ask me, I think the pixie is dang cute. I suspect heterosexual men aren't hot on short hair, in general, because it's too much like their own hair. No matter how much jewel
5 comments
Read more

Ho, Ho, Ho, How Many Times Can I Use "I'm too busy" as an Excuse?

I haven't had time to write. Work, swim meet volunteering, holiday decorating and shopping. But truthfully, I've not been in much of a mood to write anything anyway. Last night we put up the tree and Santa chachkies, and I drank my first egg nog of the season, so perhaps I'll be in a cheerier mood. Also, I have spent some time writing the annual Schoon holiday newsletter. If you happen to get a copy, treat it like a drinking game. Every time I make you roll your eyes, take a drink. Nog, wassail, Everclear. Whatever gets you through. One sure way to assist with merriment motivation is listening to Christmas carols. I'm not going to get into a debate over what truly constitutes a carol. You can "Jesus is the reason for the season" yourself until you turn blue; I generally lean toward the secular end of the holiday tune spectrum. And if you just gasped at my use of holiday instead of Christmas, go suck on a candy cane. It's my blog and my opinions. Deal.
2 comments
Read more