Cecily Rizo, right, and Gabby Van Frayen both won events for Kentucky in Friday's match against Georgia. (Larry Vaught Photo)
Becoming a successful Southeastern Conference gymnast starts at an early age and normally requires athletes to focus on only one sport.
Kentucky gymnasts Cecily Rizo and Gaby Van Frayen both tried other sports but not for long.
“I started gymnastics when I was about six years old, and I’ve stuck with it ever since. I did like many sports outside of gymnastics, and I did any sport that you could think of. I did soccer, basketball, softball. But at one point my parents were like, ‘Okay, you need to pick a sport now’ when I was maybe 10 at the most,” Rizo, a junior, said. “But I was flipping around too much, and my parents were finally like, ‘You are doing gymnastics,’” Rizzo said.
Van Frayen started gymnastics at age five because she wanted to learn how to do a cartwheel.
“My parents said they were not teaching me a cartwheel in the house,” Van Frayen said. “They signed me up for gymnastics and I fell in love with it instantly. I also did soccer for a little bit, but it got to be where the hours were too much and my dad said I had to pick one and I said gymnastics. He said not to make a decision too fast, and I think he probably wanted a soccer player. I think I was about seven at the time.”
That means the UK teammates have spent the last 12 years solely concentrating on gymnasts.
“Gymnastics is life,” Van Frayen said.
