Jamie Dantzscher

Jamie Dantzscher
— Gymnast —
Full name	Jamie Annette Dantzscher
Country represented	United States
Born	(1982-05-02) May 2, 1982 Canoga Park, Los Angeles, California, United States
Hometown	Palmdale, California
Residence	San Dimas, California
Discipline	Women's artistic gymnastics
Level	Senior international
Years on national team	8
Club	Charter Oak Gliders
College team	UCLA Bruins gymnastics team
Former coach(es)	Beth Rybacki Steve Rybacki
Music	My Drag (1999), La Cumparsita (2000)
Medal record Women's gymnastics Representing the  United States Olympic Games 2000 Sydney Team City of Popes 1996 France All-around 1996 France Floor exercise American Classic 1997 New Haven All-around 1998 Orlando All-around 1998 Orlando Floor exercise US Nationals 1999 Sacramento Uneven bars 1998 Indianapolis Floor exercise 2000 St. Louis All-around Representing UCLA Bruins NCAA Championships 2001 Athens Team 2002 All-Around 2002 Vault 2002 Floor Exercise 2003 Uneven Bars 2003 Lincoln Team 2004 Los Angeles Team 2001 Floor Exercise 2003 Floor Exercise 2003 Vault Pac 12 Conference Championship 2001 Seattle Floor Exercise 2002 Stanford Team 2002 Stanford Team 2002 Stanford Uneven Bars 2002 Stanford Floor Exercise 2003 Los Angeles Team 2001 Seattle Team 2002 Stanford All-Around 2004 Tucson Team NCAA Regionals 2001 Los Angeles Team 2002 Tuscaloosa Floor Exercise 2003 Columbia All-Around 2003 Columbia Uneven Bars 2003 Columbia Balance Beam 2003 Columbia Floor Exercise 2003 Columbia Team 2004 Raleigh Team 2002 Tuscaloosa All-Around 2003 Columbia Vault 2002 Tuscaloosa Team 2002 Tuscaloosa Uneven Bars 2004 Raleigh Uneven Bars

Jamie Annette Dantzscher (born May 2, 1982 in Canoga Park, California, U.S.) is a retired American gymnast. She was a member of the bronze-medal-winning American team at the 2000 Olympics in Sydney. Her hometown is San Dimas, California, and she graduated from San Dimas High School.^[1]

Debut

Dantzscher trained at the Charter Oak Gliders club in Southern California and was a member of the United States national gymnastics team for eight years, starting in 1994. In her international debut, the 1996 City of Popes competition in France, she won the all-around and floor exercise titles.

Dantzscher competed in her first senior U.S. Nationals in 1997, finishing sixth in the all-around. Her placement would have qualified her to the U.S. squad for the 1997 World Artistic Gymnastics Championships, but at 15, she was too young to meet the International Federation of Gymnastics' newly raised minimum age requirement. She did represent the U.S. at the 1999 World Artistic Gymnastics Championships, where she placed sixth with the American team.

Olympics

In 2000, Dantzscher won her first national all-around medal, a bronze. She placed fifth at the Olympic Trials, securing a berth on the U.S. Olympic team. Although Dantzscher fell on the floor exercise during the team preliminaries in Sydney, she competed well in the team finals, contributing a 9.700 on the uneven bars and a 9.712 on floor exercise. She was one of the most visible members of the U.S. Olympic team in the media because of her outspoken opposition to the policies of the national team coordinator, Béla Károlyi. Her opinions about Károlyi, which were corroborated by teammates and their coaches, were published in many major news outlets during the Olympics.

On April 28, 2010, Dantzscher and the other women on the 2000 Olympic team were awarded the bronze medal in the team competition when it was discovered that the previous medal winner, the Chinese team, had falsified the age of team member Dong Fangxiao. Dong's results were nullified, and the International Olympic Committee stripped the Chinese team of its medal.^[2]

After the Olympics

After the Olympics, Dantzscher joined the UCLA Bruins gymnastics team. During her NCAA career, she achieved 28 perfect-ten scores, setting a school record that has yet to be overturned. In her first meet as a Bruin, she scored perfect tens on both of the events she competed: floor and bars. It is believed that she is the first gymnast in NCAA history to score a perfect ten on her first collegiate routine. By the time she finished her four years of NCAA competition, Dantzscher had achieved All-American honors 15 times, earned three Pac-10 individual titles and been a part of three NCAA Championships first-place teams with the Bruins. She received the 2004 AAI American Award.

During the 2008-09 season, Jamie was an assistant coach at Arizona State University, where she was in charge of balance beam and floor exercise. Before that, she coached at three gyms in California: Diamond Elite Gymnastics in Chino, Club Champion in Pasadena, and East Bay Sports Academy in Concord.^[3] She will be inducted into the UCLA Athletics Hall of Fame in 2016.

Personal life

Jamie's parents and all of her siblings have first names beginning with the letter "J."

She comes from a family of seven children, many of whom have participated in gymnastics. Her younger twin sisters, Janelle and Jalynne, also competed on the UCLA gymnastics team. Jalynne competed with the Bruins for one season before retiring from gymnastics because of a recurring injury.

Dantzscher is a Latter-day Saint.^[4] She is the sister-in-law of San Francisco Giants shortstop, Brandon Crawford,^[5] who is married to her sister, Jalynne.

References

• USA Gymnastics bio
• "Bela-aching is tough to stomach" Article from the Chicago Sun-Times, September 20, 2000