Keep trying

COEUR d'ALENE - There's one gem Mohini Bhardwaj always includes in her talks to budding gymnasts.

"If you don't make it the first time, keep trying," she said on Friday.

That's why Bhardwaj comes back year after year to Coeur d'Alene to tell her story. How she nearly qualified for the Olympics when she was 18, went to college and then tried again, earning herself a team silver medal at the 2004 Olympics when she was 25.

"I decided, 'I'm going to try this one more time,'" remembered the 4-foot, 10-inch athlete turned coach. "Then I trained harder than I have ever trained in my entire life."

That's a lifestyle that will sound familiar to petite teenagers hanging around Coeur d'Alene this weekend.

The 11th annual Great West Gym Fest started Friday, and will have The Resort filled with pliable youth competing for gymnastics awards through Sunday.

This year's event has garnered 640 athletes from across Canada and 15 U.S. states, with about 2,000 spectators expected.

A Resort ballroom was transformed on Friday, with elfin-sized girls bounding and flipping across gym mats, their hands flying through the air and their legs not far behind. Friends hollered to girls grasping the uneven bars and hauling themselves vertically, legs drawing upward.

"I'm pretty excited," said Hannah Wolf, 14, a Coeur d'Alene gymnast who will compete at the event. "This is one of my favorite events."

Home schooled, she practices 20 hours a week, she said. She started gymnastics when she was 1, she said, the "diaper dare" level.

Wolf hopes her gymnastics will garner her a college scholarship someday, she said.

"I just love competing," she said.

The event draws so many because it's focused more on fun than rigid competition, said organizer David Adlard.

For instance, athletes receive wood-carved awards and attend cruise parties where they meet Olympic gymnasts.

"They're all unique and original things you don't get at normal events," said Adlard, who puts on Gym Fest and other athletic events through his LLC. "Some gymnasts tell me its the coolest event they've been to."

Like last year, Kyle Shewfelt is among the Olympians visiting town to encourage the young athletes. This year stands out because it includes a boys meet, he said, to be held today at the Inland Empire Gymnastics Association facility at 6360 Sunshine St. because of its higher ceilings.

"I always love the opportunity to see young male gymnasts competing," Shewfelt said, adding that it reminds him of his own trajectory.

Being a male gymnast does have a little bit of stigma, he said, but it's nothing that dedication and commitment can't rise above.

"There's a hard phase between 13 and 16. Your body is changing, your center of gravity is off, all your friends are playing hockey," the Canadian said. "But I never found it was that difficult. It was what I wanted to do. I felt very privileged that I got the opportunity to fly."

Getting to the Olympics takes dedication and setting goals, Bhardwaj said.

With the odds of making the Olympics pretty slim for anyone, she recommended that most of this weekend's competitors shoot for college scholarships.

"That's forwarding you for most of your life," she said.

Competitions start again today at 8:20 a.m., with the event finals show tonight at 6 p.m. More competitions start at 8:20 on Sunday.

Tickets can be purchased at www.greatwestgymfest.com. The event finals show costs $22. Day passes today are $14 for adults, $9 for children. Sunday, $15 for adults, $11 for children.

Tickets can be bought at the door for $2 extra.

Becoming a great gymnast, Shewfelt said, requires doing the hard stuff even when you don't want to.

"It's really a metaphor for life," he said. "I think that's what separates the successful people from the unsuccessful people."