He encontrado alguna noticia sobre lo de Lénika, Stanford y la NCAA:
Al parecer, no le dejaron entrar en el equipo no por la peli de Stick It, sino por que la Federacion Española de Gimnasia le dió dinero por la medalla en barra de los Europeos de 2006.
Quería seguir entrenando para competir en barra en alguna Copa del Mundo, pero ni eso puede...
Comparte habitación en Stanford con Alyssa Brown, y empezó ayudando a la entreandor de gimnasia de la universidad, pero ahora ya se ha retirado completamente y no entrena, por lo que dicen se ha apuntado a clases de Danza...
Es una pena, por que la entrenadora del equipo estaba muy emocionada de que Lenika hubiera elegido Stanford y tal (esto es de otra noticia que leí..)
Aqui la noticia:
Women's gymnastics
Lenika De Simone is strictly a student now. And that's fine with her.
De Simone arrived at Stanford only a month removed from the Beijing Olympics, where she competed for the Spanish gymnastics team. But De Simone was unable to compete for Stanford because of what the NCAA deemed as an illegal payment from the Spanish federation, as a reward for medaling at the 2006 European Championships.
"I was so stressed out with preparing for the Games and then coming to Stanford," she said. "I tried to appeal, but then decided not to because I was overwhelmed."
Because of NCAA rules, she was not allowed to practice with the Stanford team. She still had hopes of competing on the balance beam for Spain at the World Cup, and tried to get gym time by enrolling in every gymnastics class she could find; beginning, intermediate and advanced. Even so, instead of her normal training schedule of seven hours a day six days a week, she was lucky to get two hours only two days a week.
She stayed in touch with gymnastics by serving as the Stanford team manager, and made some great friends, including her roommate Alyssa Brown, but still felt something like an outsider.
"Last year was hard," she said. "I felt like I was losing more than maintaining. It wasn't worth it."
She also felt she had lost her direction.
Stanford honored her athletic scholarship as a freshman, but De Simone, a native of Cooper City, Fla., who moved to Spain at age 13, had to make a decision on whether to continue, transfer to a more affordable school, or move back to Spain where her mother lives.
She chose to stay and was granted federal aid. Today, De Simone has come to accept the end of her gymnastics career. She's thankful for the chance to live up to her potential, something she wasn't sure she would be able to do after injuring her hip a week before the 2004 Athens Games and being unable to compete.
"I thought I was going to quit," she said of that disappointment. "But I never got to compete to the level that I felt I was capable of."
So, she pressed on, and surprised herself by earning a bronze medal at the 2005 Mediterranean Games on the uneven bars - not her strongest event - and followed with a silver and bronze at the European Championships, and a 2008 Olympic berth.
De Simone has no regrets. What could have devastated her has instead led her down a different path.
"I didn't want people to know me as someone who went to the Olympics," she said. "I wanted to be normal."
Now a sophomore, De Simone is about as normal as a Stanford student can get. She has decided to major in human biology, with an eye toward pre-med. And she has chosen dance as a minor, having grown to love the feelings of movement that are so similar to gymnastics.
"I'm really excited about dance," she said. "I miss the competition, and the adrenaline, and I loved performing. But Stanford has so much to offer even if you're not an athlete."
And De Simone is ready to take advantage.
"Gymnastics was a stage of my life," she said. "Now, there's a new stage, and it's OK."
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Tema: Lénika de Simone - NCAA?? 
Lun Nov 16, 2009 8:52 pm
