Devotion to sport leads to Townsend’s induction
Former Olympian operates, coaches at Pearland gym
Every day he teaches children at his Pearland gym, Sean Townsend recalls the fundamentals he learned as a child that carried him to an Olympic team, a world championship and induction into the USA Gymnastics Hall of Fame.
Townsend, a member of the 2000 Olympic team and the International Gymnastics Federation world champion on parallel bars in 2001, will be among a stellar group that will be honored during the federation’s national championships Saturday in Anaheim, Calif.
Also inducted will be the 2016 women’s gold medal-winning team — Simone Biles, Aly Raisman, Gabrielle Douglas, Lauren Hernandez and Madison Kocian — plus former world champion and Olympic medalist Chellsie Memmel, Olympic and world gold medalist Shawn
Johnson, Douglas as an individual and coaches Mihai Brestyan, who coached Raisman and Alicia Sacramone, and Miles Avery, former coach of Olympic medalists Paul and Morgan Hamm and Raj Bhavsar at Ohio State.
The women to be honored have a higher profile, but Townsend rivals them for his impact on the sport. He was part of the 2001 U.S. team that won a silver medal at worlds in addition to his gold medal on parallel bars. Both were the first world medals for the U.S. men since 1979.
“It was right after 9/11, and it was a special moment and a patriotic moment to see our flag raised in another country (Ghent, Belgium),” Townsend said. “It was an emotional time for us.”
Trained in Houston
Townsend was a rarity in the late 1990s and early 2000s, choosing not to compete in college and training at Houston Gymnastics Academy with his longtime coach, Kevin Mazeika. In addition to his 2001 individual title, he won the USA Gymnastics men’s all-around title in 2001 and collected eight World Cup medals.
“He embraced that path and was able to succeed at a high level,” said Mazeika, who coached the U.S. men’s team to two Olympic medals. “Now he’s giving back to the sport in so many ways as a coach and a gym owner and passing along what he learned to his gymnasts.”
Bhavsar, the former Houston gymnast who was a member of the 2001 team and now is a coach in California, said that event was a defining moment for the U.S. team.
“Sean was a true American-spirited athlete who went out there with a lot of pride,” Bhavsar said. “That was an era of gymnastics when we had a lot of success, and Sean was the spearhead that sent us on the way to a really nice run of winning medals.”
Townsend retired as a competitor after 2008 and went to work for his old coach before returning to the gym as a coach. He and a partner purchased Pearland Gymnastics Academy in 2014, and he now coaches preschool boys in addition to running the business.
“It can be stressful to own a gym, but I like it,” he said. “My son, Jackson, is 4 years old, and that’s helped me enjoy coaching little kids. When I work with them, memories come back to me learning these things when I was a kid, and it’s fun teaching old memories to the next generation.”
Sharing old times
Townsend recently attended a coaching clinic with former teammates Paul Hamm, Jason Gatson and Mike Dutka, swapping memories of an era he believes rivals the 1984 gold medal-winning team that included Bart Conner, Tim Daggett and Peter Vidmar for its impact on the sport in the U.S.
“We had a lot of success and won a lot of medals,” he said. “We laugh and consider ourselves old men now, but people will remember forever what we were able to do.”
As such, he says he leaves the high-flying skills around his gym to others.
“I play around every now and then once in a while,” Townsend said. “I can still do some high bar and parallel bars, but I can’t do anything hard anymore.”