Three decades after becoming the youngest member of the 1980 Olympic team, Beth Kline-Rybacki is back in the gym, helping son Stephen as he launches his elite coaching career.
Rybacki, the first U.S. woman to score a perfect 10 in national competition, was barely 14 when she made the U.S. Olympic team during the summer of 1980. But because of the U.S. boycott of the Moscow Games, she never got the chance to compete. Within two years, she had left gymnastics behind.
"You would never have known that I was an athlete," Rybacki said. "I had a hard time telling people when gymnastics came up, because to me I was just a normal person. I didn't really feel like an Olympian."
When she did return to the sport, it was as a coach at the Charter Oak Gliders in Covina, Calif., a gym that grew out of a highly successful Parks and Recreation program once housed in a school cafeteria.
Along with her husband, Stephen, Beth Rybacki coached 2000 Olympian Jamie Dantzscher and Olympic hopefuls Vanessa Atler, Tabitha Yim and Allyse Ishino, as well as a number of gymnasts who went on to earn NCAA scholarships.
In 2000, with Dantzscher, Rybacki finally got to go to the Olympics. "I didn't do that because it was something I needed to experience," she said. "I just wanted to help athletes fulfill their dreams the same as what I had." Nonetheless, being at a Games was "surreal," she said. "It just took 20 years."
Although she and Stephen decided to take a hiatus from high level coaching after the 2004 Olympics, Beth appeared on the floor at the U.S. Championships last month to assist the next generation of Rybacki coaches: oldest son Stephen, 25, who was coaches Jaclyn McCartin.
In the interview below, conducted at last month's U.S. Championships, Beth Rybacki talks about what it was like to be honored as a 1980 Olympian in Hartford, her brief elite gymnastics career and gives an update on Atler, her former protegee, now also coaching in California.
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Examiner.com: How does it feel to be honored like this after all this time?
Beth Rybacki: "I feel old! Thirty years was a long time ago. Everybody keeps asking me that question. I'm old! That's what that means. Thirty years...I'm excited. It's mostly neat to be around all my teammates. That's emotional. Because we were kind of the forgotten team, so to be together with them again is neat, brings back a lot of memories."
Examiner.com: Did you keep in touch with your Olympic teammates?
Rybacki: "Not really, not so much. We just went our separate ways, and I just came out of gymnastics right away."
Examiner.com: You didn't continue at all after making the 1980 Olympic team?
Rybacki: "No. I had just turned 14, and I stopped when I was 15, 15-16, something like that."
Examiner.com: Why?
Rybacki: "I don't really know. Now when I look back it was a mistake. But it was just a decision that I made. Don't know if it was the right one, but I'm on the path that I'm on now. I'm married and I have three kids and coach and had Olympians with my husband and World team members, and now I'm back in the gym with my son, coaching and I'm here again, first time since 2004, and he's here with me, and it's his first time. It's all good now, it's just a different path of life. And they're all good."
Examiner.com: What's it like to be back here out on the floor at Nationals with an elite in Jaclyn McCartin?
Rybacki: "It's exciting! She's been in our program since she was five, and it's always been a dream of hers. And when we came out of the gym we told the kids we'd take care of them, and our son came in to take over his dad's spot right after we came out. He wants to follow in his dad's footsteps, so I'm kind of helping him do that. We're doing that together right now."
Examiner.com: How did you make the decision to step back from elite coaching?
Rybacki: "After 2004, Steve pretty much just was done. He felt like his kids grew up before his eyes and wanted to be around them more, and so because he stepped out, I stepped out. So we gave our athletes that we had at the time a choice: If you want me to stay, I was going to stay for them. But we only had three elites at the time, and most of them were...you know, Tabitha was going on to college, and Allyse had one more year and really didn't want to go to the next worlds and ended up going on to a program where she could just do level 10 and go to college and be a normal person, and the other athlete decided to go her own way. So I just came out, and was with my daughter and she's a swimmer, and I got to be a mom for awhile, and then I got bored. And [husband Stephen] went on to do national team stuff, and I did some national team stuff and kind of did some freelance choreography and stuff like that for a couple of years, and when my son came into the gym he wanted me to help and so, I'm back."
Examiner.com: Going back to the 1980 Olympics, where were you when you heard that the U.S. athletes weren't going to the Games?
Rybacki: "That's a long time ago. I remember hearing about it going into championships, that maybe there's a possibility. And I think we found out before Trials, right before Trials. But to me it was a competition. You have a goal. You're focused on what you're doing, and regardless whether you're going or not, you have to fulfill your dream. And that's what I did. It is what it is. We couldn't go. There's nothing we could have done or said that would have made a difference, so it doesn't really matter."
Examiner.com: Did you feel anguished about not being able to go to the Olympics at the time?
Rybacki: "You know, after there was. When I stopped and I would watch the Olympic Games on TV, I couldn't really watch it. I threw away all my gymnastics stuff. You would never have known that I was an athlete. When I was an adult and married and had kids, you would never know that I was an Olympian. I had a hard time telling people when gymnastics came up, because to me I was just a normal person. I didn't really feel like an Olympian. And it was my children and my husband and my own athletes that actually made me realize I was special. And when I would go places with my son and it would come up, my son would nudge me -- 'Mommy, mommy, tell them who you are. You'll make somebody's day' and then they'd be 'Oh my God, I've never met an Olympian before!' and we'd walk away and he'd hold my hand and go, 'See, mommy? I told you you'd make somebody's day.' So I think for me it took awhile. It took awhile for me to realize I was gifted, and it was a special time for me. It just didn't seem like it, because we didn't have that hoopla, you know? It took awhile. And then when I had my first athlete 20 years later to make the Olympic team and actually went to Sydney and I saw the rings and saw the torch and experienced the whole experience, it was surreal. It just took 20 years. But I coach for my athletes. I didn't do that because it was something I needed to experience. I just wanted to help athletes fulfill their dreams the same as what I had."
Examiner.com: You've also seen when that dream doesn't come true...
Rybacki: "It's hard, but you don't embed that in somebody's head. You say, you're here to be the best you can be, and you hope for the best and in her case it didn't end up being that way. But we have a very good relationship now."
Examiner.com: Good to hear. How's Vanessa doing?
Rybacki: "She's doing wonderful. She's a head coach of her own gym in Valencia, and she was just in the gym with Stephen and I before we left for the meet here. She brought some kids down and was working out with us, so that was really neat. She's doing great, she looks great, it's all good."
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