{"id":11367,"date":"2024-09-25T09:15:02","date_gmt":"2024-09-25T14:15:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.wisconsin.edu\/all-in-wisconsin-new\/?post_type=campus_story&p=11367"},"modified":"2024-09-25T09:15:02","modified_gmt":"2024-09-25T14:15:02","slug":"blugolds-head-gymnastics-coach-helped-select-womens-u-s-olympic-team","status":"publish","type":"campus_story","link":"https:\/\/www.wisconsin.edu\/all-in-wisconsin\/story\/blugolds-head-gymnastics-coach-helped-select-womens-u-s-olympic-team\/","title":{"rendered":"Blugolds’ head gymnastics coach helped select women’s U.S. Olympic team"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Like much of the country, Jessie DeZiel is passionately watching Simone Biles and the rest of the U.S. gymnastics team in their quest for gold medals at the Paris Olympic Games.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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The University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire women\u2019s head gymnastics coach is not only a fan of the sport, but she is one of three members of the Team USA Gymnastics Athletes\u2019 Council\/Selection Committee that picked the women\u2019s team made up of five members and two alternates.<\/p>\n

\u201cI will be watching every single women\u2019s gymnastics competition, cheering my heart out for these incredible people and athletes that have worked incredibly hard to get to where they are now,\u201d DeZiel says. \u201cI got up at 4:30 a.m. Sunday to watch the qualification round. They did awesome and I am looking forward to team finals on Tuesday.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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DeZiel also was on the panel that selected the team that competed in the Tokyo Olympics in 2021 where the U.S. team had two individual gold medalists and a team overall silver medal. Those Olympics were postponed a year by the pandemic, and when the Games were held, almost no spectators were allowed in the venues. Four of this year\u2019s five team members also were at the Tokyo Olympics.<\/p>\n

\u201cAfter having to compete at the Olympics during the pandemic, it is so incredible that they will get the full Olympic experience; it is well deserved for them all,\u201d DeZiel says.<\/p>\n

DeZiel, who is in her fourth year as UW-Eau Claire\u2019s head gymnastics coach, was a nine-time All-American at the University of Nebraska and a gold medalist at the 2011 Pan American Games.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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DeZiel has been involved in USA Gymnastics since 2019 and says the gymnastics routines performed at the June Olympics Trials in Minneapolis were \u201cjust incredible.\u201d With so much talent, it was difficult to select a team for the Olympics, she says.<\/p>\n

\u201cSelecting any team is always hard,\u201d DeZiel says. \u201cAll these athletes work so hard for a spot, and it is absolutely heartbreaking when we only get to choose five athletes.\u201d<\/p>\n

DeZiel knows what gymnastics success looks like. During her time coaching at UW-Eau Claire, DeZiel\u2019s teams have produced a national champion and three All-Americans, and set multiple program records in both individual and team competitions.<\/p>\n

Jason Verdugo, UW-Eau Claire director of athletics, calls DeZiel \u201ca tremendous ambassador\u201d for USA Gymnastics and was not surprised the Blugold coach is part of the Olympic team selection process.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe quality of our coaches is\u00a0 undoubtedly one of our greatest strengths in our department, and Jessie certainly falls into that category,\u201d Verdugo says. \u201cThe gymnastics program experienced some tremendous growth last year, and I anticipate we will continue to see that moving forward.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Written by UW-Eau Claire<\/p>\n

Link to original story: https:\/\/www.uwec.edu\/stories\/blugolds-head-gymnastics-coach-helped-select-womens-us-olympic-team<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Like much of the country, Jessie DeZiel is passionately watching Simone Biles and the rest of the U.S. gymnastics team in their quest for gold medals at the Paris Olympic Games. The University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire women\u2019s head gymnastics coach is not only a fan of the sport, but she is one of three members […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":15,"featured_media":11369,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","institution":[96],"story_category":[],"class_list":["post-11367","campus_story","type-campus_story","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","institution-uw-eau-claire"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wisconsin.edu\/all-in-wisconsin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/campus_story\/11367","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wisconsin.edu\/all-in-wisconsin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/campus_story"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wisconsin.edu\/all-in-wisconsin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/campus_story"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wisconsin.edu\/all-in-wisconsin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/15"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wisconsin.edu\/all-in-wisconsin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11367"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wisconsin.edu\/all-in-wisconsin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/11369"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wisconsin.edu\/all-in-wisconsin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11367"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"institution","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wisconsin.edu\/all-in-wisconsin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/institution?post=11367"},{"taxonomy":"story_category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wisconsin.edu\/all-in-wisconsin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/story_category?post=11367"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}