Monday, October 20, 2014

Whatever Happened To...

... Waverley's Ulln (Yuleen) Sternberg?



Great news! The steady Ms Sternberg has followed the path of several Aussies and pursued collegiate gymnastics in the USA, recently joining the ranks at University of California for the 2014-2015 season.

Yuleen, who has also trained in Japan, had been spending quite some time in California, balancing schooling with gymnastics training at Head Over Heels Gymnastics. Her bars skills and vault confidence flourished at the centre, and she put herself up for recruiting. She will now proudly join the ranks of the 'Cal' Bears as an all-arounder, and says head coach Justin Howell:

"On the uneven bars, Yuleen has an amazing variety of skills from us to choose from and we’re really looking forward to being able to make some unique skill choices. She also has a very elegant line... Yuleen also brings experience with international competition, so she knows what it’s like to compete and focus on difficulty level and execution. It will really help her bring a polished look to her collegiate performances."

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

Wasn't she American anyway and came here to train for some reason or another. She never went through our system and was only here for about a year

Anonymous said...

I find it very interesting that someone with very little to do with our Australian Team or National stream gets such a write up about moving into another area of gymnastics, we have had other Seniors move into such areas as college gym and Circus and don't even rate a mention by GA, thier state program or this blog. Go figure?

Anonymous said...

jeez, everyones always cranky. write even a small story and someone gets upset

Anonymous said...

maybe if you have positive info about gymnasts moves to other area or sports, you could tip mez off as requested on the front page of this blog site, instead of expecting mez to have the inside knowledge of all gymnasts around the country! after all this is likely to be a labour of love for Mez, not a full time occupation - with us benefiting from her obsession with gymnastics

Mez said...

Of 'gymlumni' I've mentioned in the years I've been running this space, 6:08 and 6:45, there's Georgia Simpson, Olivia Vivian, Shona Morgan, Tyson Bull, Nikki Chung, Steph LoPiccolo, Trudy Mcintosh, Anthony Ikin, Dave Morris, Allana Slater, Hayley Wright and Lisa Skinner among others, if not in a full post than at my Twitter. I don't get every single Google Alert that's being pinged around.

If you're keen to have me talk about someone feel free to hit up the email that's stated clearly on the main page. The more material I have to go off, the better.

Otherwise, chill out just a bit. I wrote about Yuleen because I was tipped off by a reader at Twitter about her recruitment to Cal and I thought it was interesting. I had the pleasure of seeing and filming her at state championships a few years ago.

Anonymous said...

What a strange comment that was - pretty sure every Aussie gymnast going to NCAA has had a write up here, along with several in Cirque, skiing, and other sports. I love these stories, because it proves that all those cranky parents commenting that elite is a waste of money and time might be missing something - gymnastics has provided a route to opportunities that you can't even imagine for many of these athletes.

Good on you Mez! You're doing a good job. :) I would never have heard about Ulln at Cal otherwise, will have to add them to my list to follow.

Anonymous said...

Some of you might be interested to know WA Level 10 gymnast Nikky Smith has been offered a contract for Cirque Du Soleil Mystere in Las Vegas! She left Perth last week for Vegas and to start training for the show.

It is great that a gymnast who has worked through the Levels system is able to continue her gymnastics career in this way - hopefully it will encourage others to stay with the sport and head down the Cirque, Disney or College pathways.