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If you could send one message to your 14-year-old self, what would it be? For Canadian gymnast Kristina Vaculik, the answer comes easily. "Have patience." The message may sound precocious, or perhaps somewhat ironic, coming from a teenage university student. But at 19, Vaculik is considered a veteran in her sport. "Im the oldest one now, so I kind of like to act as the team leader and be in the mentoring position as well. It fits well," Vaculik said in a recent interview with CTVOlympics.ca. "They called me mom around the [Pan American Games]." An Olympic hopeful who recently helped Canada qualify its first full womens Olympic gymnastics team since 2004, Vaculik is preparing to pit herself against many of the countrys top gymnasts -- and her occasional teammates -- at this weeks Elite Canada gymnastics competition in Mississauga, Ont. She is among the more experienced Canadian competitors in the sport, with more than four years of senior-level competition experience under her belt. While it may not seem like a particularly lengthy tenure, it is a full career span for many elite gymnasts. One hole in her resume is her lack of an Olympic Games experience; however Missing out on Beijing 2008 might just be the most useful experience of all. "I was really hoping to go to the Olympics in 2008," Vaculik said, and then paused. "But it just didnt happen." Canada did not qualify a full team for the Games that year, and Gymnastics Canada was faced with the difficult task of choosing just two athletes to compete. At just 15-years of age at the time, Vaculik narrowly missed the cut. Although she was named to the reserve squad, a subsequent elbow injury pulled her out of that position as well. "It was just from constant pounding and that year leading up to the Olympics was really not good for it because thats when I was just competing, training. I competed every weekend up to the Olympics trying to gain points [to qualify]. By the time I was named as the reserve, my elbow was just not good. So I had to pull out and get surgery." The Whitby, Ont. native faced six months of recovery time before she was allowed to return to training. She worried she would miss out on university scholarship offers because she was unable to compete. And she spent the next two years regaining her skills and re-learning how to execute the tumbles and leaps she had grown up executing to perfection. Patience was gained in spades during those long years. "This sport is hard on the body ... maybe if youre injured and if youre not patient with the recovery process you can get more injured and its pretty frustrating," Vaculik said. "When Im training with a group of girls, I know that you look at one another and you look at how other girls are learning new skills and how they might be learning faster than you. "I tell my [younger] sister things like that and girls in my club. I train with a group of younger girls. Ten-or-12-year-olds. Ive told them things like that ... that its all just a matter of time. If youre patient, if you know that you work hard every day in the gym, its just a matter of practising and putting your best into it every day. Everyone learns at her own pace. Thats the patience part." The womens gymnastics national team director, Kyna Fletcher, watched Vaculik go through the heartbreak of missing the Olympic Games her first time around. "At that point, Kristina was really young, not that it means anything," Fletcher said. "But to have a second go-around, shes very, very fortunate. And were fortunate to have her that driven. I think thats a huge example for us. She could have quit and walked away. Easily. And she didnt." Ahead of the Olympic qualifying event in London last month, Fletcher brought up Vaculiks experience with the team. If we dont qualify a full team of five girls, she told them, you will have to go through that selection process again. "As a team, we sat down and talked about it, Ok, girls, which one are we going to send?" Fletcher recalled. "[Kristina] said to me, There needs to be a whole team there. I dont want to do this on my own." The team succeeded at the January qualifier where the 2008 team did not. Their combined score of 221.913 led them to a second-place finish. It was more than good enough for full-team qualification. Fifteen-year-old Victoria Moors -- the youngest athlete from any nation to compete in the London event -- was among the athletes that helped Canada to its qualifying finish. "When I was 10 years old, I watched Canada on YouTube. I would just, go on the gymnastics website and kind of be like, Oh, I want to be like them one day. But now Im competing on their team. It lights me up completely," Moors said at the time. "This is actually my first big competition so I havent really had anything like that before. People are coming up, asking me for my autograph and Im just like, well this is a first. Its really cool." Moors is a budding talent that greatly impressed Gymnastics Canada at a selection camp ahead of the competition, but she had never before competed at a senior international level. The leap upward could have been overwhelming, but Vaculik made sure that Moors knew her door was always open. "Basically, if she was uncomfortable in any way, she had us to come to. ...We all have each others back," Vaculik said. "I know its hard being younger and being with a group of older girls because you feel pressure and like you have to live up to standard, but its not really about any of that. Its about going out there and doing what you know you can do." Teammate Peng Peng Lee, 18, watched and admired as Vaculik took the 15-year-old under her wing at that competition. Moors went on to finish second in the floor exercise final. "I look up to Kristina. Shes a team leader," Lee said. "She keeps us going. She always makes sure that were on track and were focused. There are a lot of gymnasts I look up to, like [four-time Olympic medallist] Shawn Johnson, and all those big names. But Kristina always makes sure that no one is left alone and that no one is being isolated. So we always feel like a team. And [in London], that was amazing. Because we all needed to be as a team." Becoming a team in a sport that emphasizes individual achievement is no easy feat. Canadas top gymnasts come from across the country and train separately until they gather at competitions and occasional team selection camps. According to Fletcher, veterans like Vaculik have a lot to offer the younger competitors. Canadian teammates Lee and Brittany Rogers were also a great help in London, she said. "I think they set a good example. They have a calmness about them because of their experience. Weve really worked at getting them to sort of pull the girls in and make sure that were all together no matter what. Were one." Fletcher expects the veterans to continue to play a big part in the lead-up to the 2012 Olympic Games. The team will not be named until sometime in June, and the girls will have just a few short weeks to come together before the Games begin. "I think trying to put [young gymnasts] into as many circumstances as you can with those girls to kind of be able to model and mentor the behaviour ... and the mental preparation, I think thats important. Its great for them to kind of be able to model behind that and for us to encourage them and be able to say, Hey. Have a look at So-And-So. Shes dealt with adversity, shes dealt with this and shes still come through on the other side." Teammates have picked up the message. Asked which gymnasts she admired, 17-year-old Olympic hopeful Madeline Gardiner thought of Vaculik right away. "Kristina tried for the 2008 Olympics and shes back again for 2012", she said. "Were all super proud of her and she had a previous injury, but shes back and doing really well and thats just inspiring. "It kind of gives you a little bit of hope knowing that you have almost a second chance." Michael Jordan Authentic Jersey . -- Canadian Kevin Pangos had 18 points, Drew Barham matched his career high with 17 points off the bench, and Gonzaga beat Pacific 70-53 on Thursday night to clinch the outright West Coast Conference regular season title. Michael Jordan Jersey . JOHNS, N. http://www.bullsofficialjerseys.com/red-23-michael-jordan-wo mens-jersey/ . - Eries top line of Dane Fox, Connor Brown and Connor McDavid combined for six goals and 14 points as the Otters crushed the visiting Windsor Spitfires 9-0 on Sunday in Ontario Hockey League play. Tony Kukoc Swingman Jersey . "I cant say much, we agreed not to say much, but talks are ongoing and Andrei wants to stay in Montreal," agent and former NHL player Sergei Berezin told TSN Hockey Insider Pierre LeBrun on ESPN.com on Friday. "Well see where it goes. Hes played 13 seasons with Montreal. Pau Gasol Bulls Jersey . Hoefl-Rieschs exit — from the downhill course into safety nets, then airlifted from the slope by helicopter — left Anna Fenninger of Austria favourite to win her first giant crystal trophy one month after becoming an Olympic champion.ATHENS -- The Olympic flame was handed to organizers of the Sochi Winter Olympics in a ceremony at the site of the first modern summer games on Saturday. Actress Ino Menegaki, dressed as a high priestess, who lit the flame in Ancient Olympia last Sunday, lit a torch from a cauldron inside Athens Panathinaiko Stadium. The flame, placed in a lantern, was handed over to Hellenic Olympic Committee president Spyros Kapralos, who, in turn, handed it to Russian Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Kozak. After a seven-day run through Greece, the flame will cover 65,000 kilometres (40,000 miles) on Russian soil. The record-setting relay will start on Monday in Moscow, in a ceremony attended by Russia President Vladimir Putin, and will finish in Sochi on Feb. 7, the opening day of the games. The flame will travel through all 83 Russian regions, from the enclave of Kaliningrad in the west, to Chukotka, the region facing Alaska, to the east. In a brief speech before the handover of the flame, Kozak referred to the "difficult road" the games organizers and the IOC had travelled from the day the Olympics were awarded to Sochi, in 2007. Kozak said organizers had undertaken "the biggest investment project in the history of the Olympic Games." The Sochi Olympics are projected to be the costliest ever. Spending on infrastructure is projected at $50 billion, up from the $12 billion esstimate at the time the city won the bid.dddddddddddd. "We will fulfil all the engagement we have undertaken to the Olympic movement," Kozak added. The Winter Games have drawn the wrath of gay rights activists who have pointed out at discrimination against gays in Russia and a recent law banning "homosexual propaganda." The International Olympic Committee has warned participating athletes not to make a public issue out of this during the games. Inside Panathinaiko Stadium, two activists silently raised a rainbow flag, but there were otherwise no demonstrations during the ceremony. Early Saturday afternoon, as the flame moved from the Acropolis, where it had stayed overnight, to a cauldron inside the courtyard of the Acropolis Museum, a few dozen gay rights activists gathered on the museums steps in a peaceful protest. Some held rainbow flags, while others held a banner reading "Homophobia is not in the Olympic Spirit" and "Love is not Propaganda." Another banner mentioned "Putins victims" allegedly beaten, raped or murdered for being gay. "The Olympics should have taken a stand against this law in Russia because the Olympic ideals are for supporting human rights and diversity and thats not whats happening in Russia," said protester Zak Kostopoulos. Police presence was light and there were no incidents. cheap jerseys wholesale jerseys ' ' '
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