FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. — The Fierce Five were the talk of the town around the United States in 2012, five women, including Jordyn Wieber, won the gold medal in the team gymnastics competition.
Wieber has moved from competing to coaching. She is now the Head Coach for the University of Arkansas Gymnastics team.
She said, “I”m able to speak from experience in a lot of the things there are going through.”
“Whether it’s an obstacle, in the gym, out of the gym, an injury, mental blocks things like that,” Wieber says. “I’ve pretty much seen it all in this sport on every level.”
Wieber has high hopes for her team, but Jordyn is also hoping her sport can rebound from an abuse scandal.
She added, “While I was in that process it just felt like the adults really didn’t care, they just allowed this to happen because we went out there and we won gold medals.”
“Gymnastics is in a really interesting place right now,” she added. “We are just getting through some really intense stuff, a lot of horrible abuse and dark times in our sport, and it’s still being uncovered to this day.”
“There’s a new standard for what makes a good coach or what makes a good team doctor, and I’m really glad we are kind of redefining some of those standards.”
In early 2018, President Trump signed a law adding further protections for young athletes.
Before heading back to practice, we asked Wieber about Simone Biles, as expected she said she’s as impressed as the rest of us.
“Even having been Olympian and trained at a high level for a long time, I look at Simone and I think, ‘Man she is a superhero, she does superhuman things,” Weiber says.
