Show A - The Herald Journal Logan Utah Tuesday July 3 1979 Tt pA i-f- Kyjr ' A little girl headed for the Olympics? Traces By Veda Travis Richards sports writer The Buster Brown finished her vault with a wide-ope- n grin The Salt Lake City crowd waa delighted They had come to see gymnastics at its beat and they knew the vault was good So did Tracee And so did the judges They gave young Tracee Talavera a perfect mark of 10 She had never before eome close to such a score in the vault The crowd roared its approval 71 pound girl returned But as the to the edge of the University of Utah's Special Events Center floor the maturity evident during her performance disappeared At 12 she is still very much a girl She began to bite her nails and smiled sheepishly as she accepted the congratulations of the other competitors And at her feet lay 'an open bag belonging to another young competitor On top r of the vsrmup elotheiand tap was 'the' evidence of their childhood — Snoopy and Woodstock cuddled together among the paraphernalia of Olympians “Just like anything else when you run across a group of kids they’re still just kids like anyone else" said Utah State University gymnastics coach Ray Corn who is also director of the Logan School of Gymnastics "Kids will always have fun" Despite the fact that Tracee must train six days per week for 1 hours each day Dick Hulvihill her coach 4-- 0 6-- v' 71 pound gymnast from Tracee Talavera the Eugene Ore stands among her fellow athletes In preparation for competition during the World maintains that she is not missing much in comparison to the "normal'' life "So what is she missing?" he asked "TV maybe? and these kids don't even know what smoking pot is They miss quite a bit of the negative "This type of training is a lot easier on a youngster Tracee's age because they don't have any inhibitions relative to putting in that much time and effort" continued MuivihilL “An older girl has more temptations to family work boyfriends etc “And school is certainly not as demanding on a seventh or eighth grader compared to a college student” he said It is clear that many young girls are very intereated in gymnaatica Hundreds of children were in attendance during Saturday night's finals many hoping for the opportunity to get Tracee's autograph And among the crowd two Logan school gymnastics students sat intently watching Tracee The two girls were obviously entranced Each time Tracee came near blond Chris Harris anxiously tried for a picture as her friend Missy Johnson looked on Would it be worth it to these girls to work six days a week 64 hours each day to be as good as Tracee? "Oh yeah it’s worth it to work that hard” said Missy "You’d have to adjust to being away from your family'’ added Chris after learning that Tracee does not live at home but rather at the National 4-- 9 Championship Gymnastic trials held last week in Salt Lake City Tracee at 12 years of age was the youngest competitor at the meet Dut despite the - Academy of Artistic Gymnastics in Eugene Ore "But it would be worth it to be that good “It's really neat to see somebody your own age do that good" continued Chris "It makes me want to work harder and makes me also feel a little behind" But Johanna Williams was not as sure she would leave home to be as good as Tracee “I wouldn’t want to live away from ld family” she said "I like living at and besides I get scared sometimes at night Despite that fact Johanna still thought Tracee was the best "She was the best because she was my hoifke the littlest there" she said "1 thought she did better than the other people" But if Tracee Talavera goes on to the '! V'tf'jj maturity displayed during each performance many of these outstanding gymnasts are still only children evidenced by Ihe presence of Snoouy and Woodstock (above left) V 1980 Olympics bringing home a medal for the United States where will she go from there? "Those Olympians that I have known have gone on to become successful in other endeavors " said Hulvihill “A lot of the discipline spills over into other areas" Corn agreed “The failures later oil in life are very few and far between" he said Corn added that any athletic pursuit such as gymnastics will be positive whether the individual becomes a champion or not "The rewards arc there and will eventually come" he said "I really think that in today's age we should all find something that we can dedicate ourselves to And Athletics can be a very positive outlet for kids" Photographed by Paul Carter Anxiously awaiting her next h V routine Tracee (above) bites her nails nervously But all anxieties seem to have as she disappeared smiles to the crowd and judges following her dismount from the uneven parallel bars i- - fi 9 ( t v ? y Wt’‘T -- a 1 Coach Dick Mulvihlll advises Tracee following a first attempt on the vault Although Tracee considers the uneven parallel bars to be her best event she scored a perfect mark of 100 during Thursday night's optional vaulting event for the opportunity to get T raccc's autograph during a break in Thursday night's ac Young fans wait tion Most ol the young qymnaifs performing were more than hippy tu rign autographs lor the hundred of C ycurq fn enf-'- r ttiit tame d jrnT’he four inytits id l ' I om i MN L'vcnis |