By Chuck Slater
www.NorthCountyNews.com

Photo by John Racioppo

Her name is Sabrina Vega. She is a 14-year-old gymnast from Carmel.

Remember the name. Remember the girl. You just may be rooting for her at the 2012 Olympics in London.

She is the best gymnast I have ever coached, says Teodora Cepoi, a former Romanian Olympic gymnast.

She has a special talent and an elegance not many gymnasts can show, says the former Russian Olympian Sorin Cepoi, Teodora's husband.

Together, the Cepois run Dynamic Gymnastics in Mohegan Lake. They have been honing the special talent that is Sabrina Vega since she was 7.

It was a little more than a year before that when what is so far the decisive moment in Vega's young life occurred.

Sabrina was 5 ½ going on 6, said Jahaira Vega, her mother. The family had just moved up from the city and she was invited to a gymnastics' party. She came home all excited. "I want to do that. I know I can do that."

Photo by John Racioppo Sabrina Vega, a Carmel resident, practices on the balance beam at Dynamic Gymnastics in Mohegan Lake, NY.

With the youngster doing handstands and hand-walking all through their house, the Vegas signed her up for gymnastics at a local club. Within months, recognizing her unusual aptitude, the local teacher referred her to the Cepois.

We got her at 6 and it wasn't hard to notice her ability, Sorin Cepoi said. She started to compete at 7.

I loved competing at once, Vega said. I loved training.
She advanced very quickly to the highest level, Sorin said.
In gymnastics, the normal skill levels go up to 10. Above that is only elite, usually achieved by national contenders and, yes, Olympians.

Sabrina progressed without some of the advantages they have in the system in the Western states, said Cepoi, where even the youngest talented gymnasts train 30-35 hours a week and are homeschooled. We got Sabrina in 2002; she wasn't homeschooled until 2007. That was the year the Carmel youngster won the Level 9 Junior National Olympic title while 11. The next year, she not only competed at Level 10 but also at the Elite level.
It was difficult, Sorin Cepoi said. Between Level 10 and Elite she mixed two programs, had to change routines.

Early in the year, she stood second in the Level 10 Junior Olympics of the United States but fell off the bar on her last routine and tumbled to 11th. But later in the year, she won the American Challenge in Texas at the Elite Level and was 11th in the nationals at Boston. This put her on the traveling Junior National team where, in Sorin Cepoi's words, she was a tower of strength in 2009.

In an international competition in Montreal, she took second all-around and was also the silver medalist in three of the sport's four disciplines; the uneven bars, the balance beam and the floor exercise. On the junior team's European tour, Vega was first on the beam in Germany and second in France.

Then in July 2009, she dominated her class of the U.S. Classic in Des Moines, finishing first in all four events to walk away with the all-around crown. The next month, at the tough Visa championships in Dallas, she was fourth all-around with a third on the beam and a first in the floor exercise.

In November, she was one of four juniors representing the Stars and Stripes team that won the Pan American Games in Brazil. By finishing second all-around there, she automatically qualified for the first Junior Olympic Games in Singapore this August.

Before that, however, is a trip to Italy with the U.S. national team for junior competition at the end of March and then the Pacific Rim championship in Melbourne, Australia in April. And then, on May 24, Sabrina Vega, all 5-feet ¾ inch of her, will reach the ripe old age of 15.

Photo by John Racioppo

It hasn't all been easy, however. Since parents are not allowed to travel with national teams, Vega was overseas without them at the age of 13.

At first it was a little weird, she said. I was used to being with my parents and my brother David (10). But I got used to it and I enjoy traveling a lot. Since I made the U.S. team, Ive met a lot of new girls.

And her mother has swallowed hard. It's nerve-wracking not being with her, Jahaira Vega said. But I know the coaches look after her closely, so it's a balance; a fearful balance.
Sabrina will not be alone if she makes it to London, her mother promises. If Sabrina's in the Olympics, the whole clan will be there, she said. There are a lot of aunts, uncles and cousins.

And there is a lot of work still to be done. The beam, Sorin Cepoi said, is Vega's strongest event and she is also outstanding on the bars and the floor exercise (her personal favorite, perhaps because it most interacts with the audience).

She still has a relatively weak vault, Sorin said, which needs greater difficulty. Vega, who as a ninth-grader has scholarship offers to some top gymnastic colleges, already has challenges beyond even the best of high school gymnasts.

She's better than the kids in high school, said Yorktown senior Danielle Bonner, the Section 1 gymnastics champion who has finished in the top five at the state high school championships for three straight years. She has jam-packed routines, really hard skills. She's going to the Olympics.

Bonner and Vega often work out together at Dynamic. She's a very hard worker but also a very nice person, Bonner said. I've known her for a long time, she's a friend and she's also very funny.

For hardworking, talented athletes there is also a fine line between training and over-training.
Our goal also is to keep her healthy for London, Sorin Cepoi said.
Wouldn't it be great to have an Olympic gymnast from this area? Teodora Cepoi asked.
You know, Sabrina Vega said, when I was 4 ½ or 5, I had a dream that I won the Olympics. It's one childhood dream that very well could come true.