Best friends also friendly foes in gym
Hernandez, Foberg aim to make Olympic team
HAMILTON, N. J. Once a month, the best female gymnasts in the country convene at the Karolyi ranch in Texas to participate in camps that have helped fuel the Americans’ dominant run for more than decade. Once they go home, though, athletes such as Simone Biles or Gabby Douglas find no peers in their gyms.
For Laurie Hernandez and Jazmyn Foberg, the competition continues. The two first-year seniors compete together for MG Elite, a team that with their success has taken the last two U.S. junior titles.
With selection for the Rio Olympics months away, coach Maggie Haney finds herself in the rare and enviable position of having two gymnasts in contention to make the five-woman team. Gone are the days when super gyms would contribute several athletes to the team, so Haney’s success is unique in a system that nurtures talent development across the country.
With Haney’s guidance, Hernandez and Foberg support each other in a way that has allowed them both to excel at the elite level.
“When they’re both healthy and both at their best physically and mentally, they definitely kind of in a nice way battle it out each day in the gym,” Haney says. “They’re always helping each other.”
Though they find themselves in a similar place now, they’ve taken different paths to the senior elite level. Hernandez, who turns 16 in June, has been with Haney since the beginning when Haney’s sister spotted Hernandez in a class and suggested Haney take her on.
Always an energetic kid who loved to dance, Hernandez quickly progressed through the levels. By the time Hernandez was 9, when she was one of the best gymnasts nationally in the TOPs program, Haney knew there was potential. She got Hernandez into developmental camps at the ranch when she was 10, and she’s been making the monthly trips to Houston since.
Foberg, meanwhile, came to MG Elite just three years ago. A level 10 gymnast, she felt she had maxed out at her gym but wanted to get to the elite level. Haney was skeptical.
“I came here, Maggie, she’s like, ‘ We could try elite. I’m not sure if you’re going to make it,’ ” says Foberg, who turned 16 in February.
Her form was sloppy, they agreed, and her dance was not good. Foberg lacked consistency, pretty much a holy tenet of the program national team coordinator Martha Karolyi has built.
“I didn’t really see the talent, to be honest,” Haney says. “But she has good legs. She’s very strong and powerful. She can swing bars naturally. She just kind of had to learn, so she is now a very good bar worker.
“She was just so hungry for it. She just worked circles around everyone.”
Both gymnasts credit Haney with their success. A former gymnast at North Carolina State, Haney started coaching in 2000 and started her own team, MG Elite, in 2007.
Haney is calm but disciplined. Things done right don’t catch her eye as much as errors, but those are handled with equal parts toughness and encouragement.
“Maggie always just knows what to do to put us in good spots, so I think that’s why we are where we are,” Hernandez says.
For all Haney can do to guide her gymnasts, though, it’s the competition and support from each other that pushes them.
During a practice in March, as Hernandez struggled, Foberg offered words of encouragement. As Foberg dealt for several months with torn ligaments in her ankle, Hernandez was there to support her.
“We always give each other little tips here and there,” Foberg says. “She’s like my best friend, so she’s fun to be around and we always hang out.”
Adds Hernandez, “I think we motivate each other every day.”
Both have been consistent over the last year, but it’s a good start to the season that could put Hernandez in position to make the U.S. Olympic team.
She’s placed third in the allaround in the City of Jesolo Trophy in March and the Pacific Rim Championships last month. She didn’t make it to the podium in the latter because of the two-percountry rule, but Hernandez finished 0.1 points behind Fierce Fiver Aly Raisman.
U.S. trials are in July. Haney knows Karolyi has been impressed with Hernandez and Foberg ’s consistency, and she can only hope what they do over the next few months will put them in a position to make the team.
“I think you just have to prove yourself,” Haney says. “As we get to the homestretch, it’s really going to be your past competition experience that will matter, for sure, but I think what’s going to matter the most is who really looks good in the end.”