ATHLETICS

Striving for Perfection

Q&A with Mizzou standout gymnast Lauren Schwartzman, a sophomore from San Antonio, Texas

Q: Who got you started in gymnastics?
A: “My mom started me with dancing when I was young and then put me into gymnastics because she thought I had too much energy to just dance.”

Q: What has kept you in gymnastics for so long?
A: “I was really close to quitting when I was in high school, but I made it my goal to compete in college.”

Q: If you hadn’t stuck with gymnastics what would you be doing?
A: “I would have probably stayed in-state for school and been a cheerleader at that college.”

Q: Did you ever think you would score a 10.0 in your career?
A: “I had always hoped that I’d get a 10, but I didn’t think I would get it until maybe my senior year after the program here had been built up more.”

Q: What individual goals do you have for yourself this season?
A: “I would like to finish on the All-Big 12 First Team again and finish in the top five in any event at regionals.”

Q: Do you feel that your height works as an advantage or disadvantage for you in gymnastics?
A: “I think it’s actually an advantage for me. I have a lower center of gravity and that really helps me to balance for my beam routine. If I did bars, I wouldn’t have to worry about the lower bar coming around like some of the taller girls do.”

Q: Where does your nickname “Bunny” come from?
A: “When I was seven I was on a club team and I hadn’t gotten braces yet so I had buckteeth. One of the older girls called me Bunny to try and make fun of me but everyone else thought it was pretty cute so they started calling me Bunny and it’s stuck ever since.”

Q: You seem to almost always be dancing, whether there is music playing or not, where does that love for dancing come from?
A: I really just love to dance. I used to be pretty introverted and didn’t like to dance in front of other people. I think that over the past two years I have come out of my shell, and now I don’t care. There are some other girls on the team that will come and dance with me if they want to.”

Q: Your roommates are Rachel Bridges and Rachael Dombart. What’s it like living with your teammates?
A: “I actually don’t see them very often. When I get home I usually just go straight to my room. It’s usually pretty late when I finally get home so I’m going to bed or something. During the summer, though, is when everyone sees each other all the time, and sometimes our nerves get kind of crazy.”

Q: Your teammates say that you have a lot of superstitions. What are some of them?
A: “Before every meet I have to have a frappucino. I wear the same socks for each of our march-ins. I use the same rubber bands in the same order in my hair for each meet. When we’re boarding a plane, I make the person in front of me and the person behind me touch the plane with their right hand. When I take a shower the day of a competition I go through all of my routines in the shower. I obviously don’t go all out, but I go through them and try to get a vision of them in my head. It’s not as much a superstition, but it helps me get into competition mode.”

Q: Do you have any advice for younger girls who are involved in gymnastics?
A: “Don’t give up because of one bad day. Everyone is going to have a bad day or even a bad week. That just means that every time you have a bad day the good days are going to be so much better. Basically just never give up. I know it sounds corny, but if you want something bad enough it will happen.”

Q: What do you find to be the biggest difference between life in Columbia and life in Texas?
A: “The weather, for one thing, but San Antonio is just a bigger city; it has more than two highways. There’s more traffic in San Antonio so it takes a lot longer to get places than it does here. When I first got here there were more parties so to speak and I knew more people. Now, I think I’m closer with all of the girls and I know more people in Columbia. So now I think it’s more fun living here than it is in San Antonio.”

Archives | Comments | Home

SUBSCRIPTIONS
Subscribe | Change Your Address | Unsubscribe

Copyright © 2007 — Curators of the University of Missouri
DMCA and other copyright information.
All rights reserved. An equal opportunity/ADA institution.
Published by the Mizzou Alumni Association
Questions? Comments? E-mail comments@mizzoualumni.org

Last Update: November 15, 2007