Corridor of Fame gymnast Wendy Hilliard displays on representing the US on world stage

Celebrity American gymnasts Simone Biles, Gabby Douglas and others have definitely helped shine a light-weight on the game lately. 

A legendary American gymnast is doing her half to construct off that momentum by ensuring younger athletes who’re within the sport, significantly those that are rising up in underserved communities, aren’t left behind.

Wendy Hilliard rose to fame when she turned the primary Black rhythmic gymnast to characterize the U.S. on the worldwide stage. She later launched the Wendy Hilliard Gymnastics Basis in 1996. The group seeks to “empower the lives of younger individuals from underserved communities by bettering bodily and emotional well being by means of the game of gymnastics.”

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“I turned a coach after I retired… moved to New York. My gymnast made the Olympic workforce in 1996, after which I needed to return to grassroots coaching as a result of the game was not so numerous. So I began a basis and we have been fairly quiet for some time,” Hilliard informed Fox Information Digital.

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Hilliard coached former rhythmic gymnast Aliane Baquerot Wilson, who was a member of the nationwide senior group. Wilson, together with Kate Nelson, Mandy James, Becky Turner, Challen Sievers and Brandi Siegel, have been chosen to compete on the 1996 Olympic Video games in Atlanta.

Regardless of the inspiration’s comparatively quiet begin, a strategic partnership and Douglas profitable gold in all-around and workforce classes and the 2012 Summer time Olympics in London helped the inspiration attain new heights.

Wendy Hilliard attends the Ladies’s Sports activities Basis’s Annual Salute To Ladies In Sports activities at Cipriani Wall Road on Oct. 12, 2023 in New York Metropolis. (Dia Dipasupil/Getty Pictures for WSF)

“We began a partnership with the Harlem Youngsters’s Zone after which Gabby Douglas gained in 2012… and it has been on an incredible trajectory since then,” Hilliard mentioned. “We do partnerships that permit us to boost cash to make it as (inexpensive) as doable after which we give scholarships to people who nonetheless want monetary help.”

When she was competing, Hilliard mentioned she took nice pleasure in representing the U.S., and he or she understood the duty that got here along with her place. She additionally mentioned touring throughout the globe highlighted the similarities that exist between individuals world wide.

Wendy Hilliard attends The Ladies’s Sports activities Basis’s Annual Salute to Ladies in Sports activities at New York Historic Society on Oct. 13, 2021 in New York Metropolis. (Jamie McCarthy/Getty Pictures for Ladies’s Sports activities Basis)

“It was actually thrilling. I actually appreciated for one, having the ability to see the world. The opposite factor it does while you go internationally is you see how a lot persons are alike. When all of the athletes (from international locations the world over) get collectively the one factor that it does train is that all of us prepare alot… all of us have intense coaches and intense existence. However, to characterize america… I used to be very pleased with course, however it’s a duty, so I skilled exhausting and the profit was to have the ability to see the world.”

Hilliard has carried out on Broadway in “Candide.” She additionally hosts the “Champion Sports activities Mothers Podcast.”

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Hillard’s dedication to serving to kids develop their Olympic goals was acknowledged in 2011 when she obtained the Rings of Gold award from the U.S. Olympic Committee. 

The 2024 Summer time Olympics begins July 26 and conclude Aug. 11 in Paris.

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