San Jose
– Morgan Hill’s Champions Academy famous son Josh Dixon became
the national champion and gold medal winner in the floor exercise
and vault competitions at the Visa National Gymnastics
Championships at the HP Pavilion Wednesday.
San Jose – Morgan Hill’s Champions Academy famous son Josh Dixon became the national champion and gold medal winner in the floor exercise and vault competitions at the Visa National Gymnastics Championships at the HP Pavilion Wednesday.
Competing amongst 16-18 year olds in the junior competition, Dixon, 17, placed fifth overall, winning the floor exercise competition for the second year in a row, with a high score of 15.1.
The Stanford-bound Dixon also nailed a double back flip with a twist to earn the top score of 15.3 in the vault.
Dixon, however, did not place in the four other events earning scores of 12.5 in the pommel horse, 13.4 in the still rings, 12.85 in the parallel bars, and 13.1 in the high bar competition.
Dixon slipped up in his first event, the pommel horse, misplacing a hand causing him to fall, and was penalized 8/10s of a point.
On his fourth event, the parallel bars, Dixon was again penalized but this time for “walking” his hands.
Holding himself in a handstand, Dixon moved his hands or “walked” to maintain the handstand and not rotate out.
Despite a few mishaps his overall score of 82 put him in fifth place overall and landed him a spot on the junior national team.
From yesterday’s competition in both the junior and senior divisions, 36 men advanced to the final day of competition based on a points system that awards credit based on performances. Dixon’s performance earned him an opportunity to compete in the senior men all-around and individual event finals on Friday.
“We’re very proud of him,” Champions Academy co-owner Jenny Liu said. “Josh has always exceeded our expectations.”
Dixon, while happy to be among the leaders, felt he could have doe better, he said..
“I think I need to improve in the pommel, and there’s definitely room for improvement overall, but I’m just glad that I made the national team again,” Dixon said.
Dixon has quickly become one of the best junior division gymnasts in the country, competing in the national gymnastics championships in 2005, and in 2006 when he took second place all around and also making the Junior National team for the last two years.
Members of the National team will compete in international competitions leading up to the 2008 Olympics, in Beijing, in hopes of making the Olympic team.
Dixon is conscious that practice and competition for the national team might conflict with his school schedule, but for a former All-American student-athlete who maintained a 4.5 grade-point average at San Jose’s Willow Glen High School, keeping up with his academic requirements shouldn’t be a problem.
“We have a training camp (for the junior national team) in October, and then from there they decide teams to go to national competitions in Japan and Germany,” Dixon said.
“The complexity of the skills that kids do increases every year,” said Dixon’s father Mike Dixon.
Competitors are scored on execution as well as difficulty level of what they are trying to do, or their “skill.”
“These kids are trying to add and add and add and do as complicated of routines as they ca, and that makes it more and more exciting to watch,” Mike said.
At 165 pounds and 5 foot, 11 inches tall, Dixon is much bigger than most Olympic-class gymnasts who are between 5 foot, 2 inches tall and 5 foot, 6 inches tall.
“Its just physics,” Mike said. “If you’re bigger you have to compensate for your size with your strength and abilities in other events.”
For two weeks leading up to the championships Dixon practiced twice a day for five to six hours a day to get as mentally and physically prepared as possible, Mike said.
“One of the best things that’s happened with Josh is that he has gotten to know so many kids from all over the world,” he said.
After the Senior division competitions Wednesday night, Dixon found out that his performance also qualified him to compete with the Senior men in the all-around and individual event finals on at 7pm today, at the HP Pavilion.
Champions Academy founder and Olympic silver medalist JinJing Zhang said Dixon deserves everything he has achieved.
“He deserves making the the junior national team because he always tries so hard,” JinJing said. “This championship is a competition and you never know who will make it.”
Being Dixon’s first time making the senior competition finals, JinJing thinks it will be a good opportunity to compete with the best of the best.
“I told him to just try as hard as he can,” JinJing said. “It’s good to get this kind of experience before he goes to Stanford because the level off competition is so high.”
“Our goal is to give kids opportuniy and get them as far as they can … we try to be as professional as we can,” he said. “Josh has been with me for 5 years. We share a lot together.
Whatever I say he will listen, that’s how I’m able to make him better every year.”
