What amazing role models these athletes have had their entire lives. And one of my favorite quotes – which is what I tell parents about the sports journey, too – is Motherhood is a Marathon, not a Sprint.

In the segment Shawn’s mom talks about everything from keeping a balance to not being “THAT MOM” – you know the pushy one who thinks their child is the next Olympian and how she has been their for Shawn every step of the way in her gymnastics journey.  Add to it all, the adorable footage of Shawn as a little gymnast, and I quickly found myself reaching for a box of Puffs tissues!

I’m not sure if Shawn will make this year’s Olympic team, but regardless, I think she has contributed so much to the sport of gymnastics that she is always going to be a champion as far as I am concerned.

Starting in the upper left corner:

• Alexandra (Aly) Raisman – 2011 World Championships team gold medalist and floor exercise bronze medalist
• Jordyn Wieber – 2011 World Championships team and all-around gold medalist and balance beam bronze medalist (and her list of winning moments is miles long)
• McKayla Maroney – 2011 World Championships team and vault gold medalist
• Sabrina Vega – that’s her in the jump photo, too – 2011 World Championships Team gold medalist
• Shawn Johnson – yep, two photos of her too – Won four medals at the 2008 Olympics: Gold (balance beam) and silver (team, all-around and floor exercise)
• Alicia Sacramone – Ten World medals (four gold, four silver and two bronze); the most World medals by an American gymnast. 2008 Olympic medalist, 2011 World Championships Team gold medalist
• Anna Li – Alternate for the 2011 World Championships Team that won a gold medal. Former NCAA gymnast, 8-time All American
• Gabby Douglas – 2011 World Championships Team gold medalist
• Kyla Ross – 2012 Kellogg’s Pacific Rim Championships, Everett, Wash. – 1st-Team, BB; 2nd-AA, UB; 3rd-FX
• Nastia Liukin – Won the all-around gold medal at the 2008 Olympic Games
• not pictured here, but on the actual Facebook album, Rebecca Bross – Six-time World medalist – three silver and three bronze.

* career highlights found on USAG National Team bios

Only five gymnasts will make the Olympic team and in my opinion you could put together just about any combination of five of the girls pictured above and come up with a solid US Olympic Team. It is going to be tough, because only the top placing girl at Olympic Trials is guaranteed her spot! The next four plus as many as three replacement athletes will then be determined by a selection committee. Yikes.

The competition format at the Olympics is going to be 5-4-3 format in preliminaries, and 5-3-3 in team finals. What that means is there can be 5 athletes on the team. In preliminaries 4 athletes will compete on each event (it doesn’t have to be the same four on each event) and the top 3 scores will count for that event’s score. In team finals, each team still has 5 athletes, but only 3 can compete on each event and all three scores count. That means the team who makes the least number of mistakes – wins.

And, if I had to go out on a limb and make my predictions for the 2012 US Olympic Gymnastics team now, I would go with:

• Jordyn Wieber
• Aly Raisman
• Gabby Douglas
• McKayla Maroney
• Alicia Sacramone
• Alt: Kyla Ross

It will be interesting to see if I am right and I would love to hear your predictions for the 2012 US Olympic Gymnastics team! And do you have your Team USA Olympic fan gear yet?

The story is about McKenna Brooks, a young gymnast with her sites set on the Olympics. The side story has to do with keeping the balance in your life as McKenna struggles in school. An injury seems like the end of the world to McKenna at first, but ends up being the catalyst for taking on other challenges in her life. It will probably have just enough gymnastics in the movie to make gymnastic fans not want to change the channel and the story line will be popular with girls and their parents, too. In a way it reminds me of a Disney-fied version of Stick It- specifically the pretend telephone scene right at the beginning, but I think it will be fun!

Official movie synopsis: Meet McKenna Brooks™, a determined and confident young gymnast, in this all-new modern-day adventure. McKenna™ is on track to make the regional competitive gymnastics team but off-track in school, where she’s suddenly struggling to keep up. When her teacher suggests a tutor, she’s embarrassed and desperate to keep it a secret from her friends. Then a bad fall at the gym sidetracks her from her favorite sport. Will she recover in time to make the team? Can she succeed in school, too? McKenna™ needs to focus on her strengths to overcome her challenges – and, with the help of family and friends, find a way to believe in herself again.

And Olympic legend, Cathy Rigby, stars as McKenna’s coach. Got your DVR set?

For more on American Girl’s McKenna, her collection (much of which is already sold out – so glad we got her bars and beam when we did), and more on the movie, visit DollDiaries.com. You can also get her books – which my daughter loved – McKenna (American Girl) (American Girl Today) and McKenna (American Girl) (American Girl Today).

Of course, this commercial puts the athlete spin on things, but whether your child is an athlete in the making, aspiring musician, budding academic, or just an all around great kid, chances are you can relate to the commercial. And if you are not a Mom, you have a Mom and she probably was there for you every step of the way, too.

And before we start hearing, what about the Dads? Well, Dads do a lot of great things too, and in many cases the same things Mom does. I’m sure we will see Dads show up in commercials at some point this summer, too. Either way, our athletes can not do it with out us! It is a long road full of ups and downs – enjoy the journey!

You just don’t see a lot of Field Hockey t-shirts anywhere but specialty stores and you certainly don’t see ones this cool very often either. Right now my daughter is in the middle of field hockey season and I am thinking we just may need to add this to her practice wardrobe. And it will make a great coach gift at the end of the season, too!

You can buy this field hockey t-shirt and more USA Field Hockey gear at the Fanatics website.

I was in Ireland last week which means I had a layover at London Heathrow airport which means I got to do some shopping! The buzz for the London 2012 Olympic Games has definitely begun – from billboard ads to keychains, the Olympic logo is everywhere. I had wanted to go to the London 2012 store at Heathrow but it was in Terminal 3 and I was in Terminal 1 and if you have ever been to Heathrow you know that its not like you are going to just pop over to another terminal.

Luckily lots of stores had London 2012 souvenirs and I knew my girls would love something with the London Olympics logo on it. They both are bag girls – the love bags, they swap them out all the time and they use them, too. I found Team Great Britain London 2012 drawstring bags that were perfect.

You don’t have to go all the way to London to get your 2012 Olympic gear, plenty of souvenir options are already available – take a look at our Olympic gear page for the latest choices.

Taken as a screen capture from the digital program, here is the women’s field for tomorrow’s event:

The competitors include:

• Georgia Simpson – AUS
• Victoria Moors – CAN
• Rebecca Tunney – GBR
• Lisa Hill – GER
• Diana Chelaru – ROM
• Larisa Iordache – ROM
• Alexandra Raisman – USA
• Jordyn Wieber – USA
• Gabrielle Douglas – USA (Exhibition – meaning her scores don’t count)

The event will be held on Saturday, March 3, 2012 at Madison Square Gardens in New York City. You can watch the meet on TV or on your computer:

Universal Sports: 11:30 a.m.-1 p.m. LIVE
NBC Sports: 1-3 p.m. LIVE

The competition will be simultaneously webcast on UniversalSports.com and will be available for on-demand streaming following the broadcast.

My prediction:  Jordyn Wieber is the clear favorite to win the meet,  however, I do think Ali Raisman can give her a run for her money on floor and vault and it will be interesting to see how the two Romanian girls do.

Last week I got the opportunity to do something really fun! I got to do a Skype video interview with Olympic Beach Volleyball player Misty May-Treanor in conjunction with  the “Put the Two Back in Tuesdays” campaign from Stouffers. As Misty goes for her third Olympic team this summer, I felt honored to be able to ask her some questions that would be relevant to our readers as we all are raising healthy athletes and dealing with the ups and downs of this journey called sports.

My questions to Misty included:

• How long has she been playing volleyball? And what inspired her to start?
• Did she play other sports as a child?
• What advice does she have for athletes that might be going through a rough patch or may be frustrated in their sport?
• What advice would she give an athlete who is transitioning from an individual sport such as gymnastics and playing a team sport like volleyball for the first time?
• How does she manage to balance family time with her husband, professional athlete Matt Treanor, and the rigors of their busy sports schedules?

Misty and Matt are working with Stouffers to help promote their “Put the Two Back in Tuesdays” campaign. From the press release:

Kicking off today and continuing for the next six weeks, STOUFFER’S® will challenge couples to make their Tuesdays extraordinary with the help of STOUFFER’S® unique, chef-inspired Sautés for Two™ meals. Gold medal winning pro beach volleyball player and former Dancing with the Stars contestant Misty May-Treanor will be sharing how she and her husband, professional baseball player Matt Treanor, re-connect over STOUFFER’S® Sautés for Two™ to inspire couples across the country to do the same.

“Like most Americans, we’re an incredibly busy couple with schedules that don’t always align, but we always make the time to enjoy dinner together at least one night a week because it’s important to us and to our relationship,” said Misty May-Treanor.  “We love STOUFFER’S® Sautés for Two™ because it is a quick, easy and unbelievably delicious meal that equates to less time cooking and more time actually re-connecting.”

To help other couples nationwide “Put the Two Back in Tuesdays,” STOUFFER’S® will be rewarding Facebook fans with weekly, downloadable coupons to try one of the indulgent meals from the Sautés for Two™ collection as well as providing useful tips and hints on how to make Tuesdays extraordinary. Fans can begin downloading coupons starting today with additional discounts available to Sautés for Two™ fans through March 20, 2012. (Stouffer’s Facebook page)

With three kids going three different directions sometimes getting a healthy meal in can be tough for us – especially if I am out at a swim meet with the girls and my husband and son are home or returning from one of their activities. Those are nights that they are very happy to find I have put a Stouffer’s Lasagne in the oven for them. I am looking forward to downloading some of the coupons and trying out the new Sautés for Two™ for nights when there may be only two or three of us home or getting a variety and letting the kids try more than one.

Disclosure: I did not receive compensation for the interview or for sharing information about the Stouffer’s campaign. However, I was sent an autographed volleyball from Misty May-Treanor as a Thank You and to give to my daughter’s best friend who inspired question #3.

Posing for photo with Olympians Ian Crocker and Christine Marshall

The four-hour clinic was comprised of getting to know the athletes and their swim careers, stroke work in the pool, more stroke work, races with the Olympians (how cool is that?), question and answer time with the athletes, and autograph/photo sessions. Each swimmer got a t-shirt – love the back – “I raced a gold medalist today – what did YOU do?”, a bag, 2 DVDs of swim meets the Olympians, posters, a set of Finis goggles and snacks at the end of the swimming portion. I consider it to be an excellent value for the $75 entry fee!

All the goodies my daughter got from the Breakout Swim clinic.

Both Ian Crocker and Christine Marshall have retired from competitive swimming but it is apparent they both still love the sport and did an excellent job connecting with the swimmers. The drills were clearly presented with actionable instructions complete with high fives and compliments – all things that would inspire a young swimmer to be eager to try their best and bring what they learned back to practice.

Drills and practice for each stroke were done and at the end of the “instruction” for a stroke the athletes got their chance to race the Olympians. Ian and Christine were on the blocks side by side with the young swimmers and depending on how old the swimmers were, the swimmers may have gotten a little head start. It was all in good fun and had my daughter talking about it non-stop.

Olympic Swimmer Christine Marshall

I missed the beginning of the clinic – the part where Ian Crocker told his story – as I was out with friends getting a brisk walk in on a sunny day, but I was there for Christine Marshall’s story at the end of the clinic.

Christine is a young woman who certainly beat the odds when it comes to swimming. She was pretty upfront with the kids that she was not the coach’s dream athlete – she was super talented, but made quite a few bad choices along the way to include skipping school and practice, and not focusing enough on her swimming or her studies.

She must have been talented though!! In high school she was the State Champion in the 100 Free and was recruited by Texas A&M to swim in college. She was only given a 60% scholarship her Freshman year, but in college Christine definitely matured and got her act together earning a full scholarship by her senior year.

She talked about her road to the Olympic team. She was not even ranked in the top 10 in her events leading up to the Olympic Trials in 2008. As a matter of fact, she was ranked 50th. She needed to be in the Top 6 if she even had a chance.

One of the points Christine made to the swimmers is that you need to have Goals and that Goals are what keep you on track. Christine made herself a “death sheet” of the top 50 athletes in her races. Throughout the course of the season leading up to the Olympics she would cross off names as she swam faster than her competitors putting her in a confident spot going into Trials. I don’t think she ever expected to be in the top 2 but a top 6 spot was within her reach.

At the Olympic Trials her dream came true. She was in the top 6 and made the US National Team and US Olympic Team at the same time. While she only swam in prelims in the womens’ relay, her relay team took the bronze medal in finals which meant she got a medal, too.

My daughter asked Christine if she was trying for the Olympics this year, and she said “no, that she is trying to decide what path to take next in life.” For the moment she is managing a retail store and coaching gymnastics part-time.

If your swimmer has the opportunity to participate in one of the Mutual of Omaha Breakout Swim Clinics – go for it!! There is a different set of athletes for each clinic, but every athlete has a story and something to give back.