For the last 20-plus years, the same Ohio team has taken home the state championship title for gymnastics.
This year was no different.
The Brecksville-Broadview Heights Bees, a gymnastics team in the suburbs of Cleveland, hold a decades-long dynasty in high school athletics. Their reign continued this past weekend at the Ohio High School Athletic Association championship, where the Bees won their 23rd consecutive state title, a national record.
Sports journalist Nina Mandell went behind the scenes with the team in one of their most intense seasons for her new book "A Fraction of a Point". Mandell spoke to the Ohio Newsroom about what she learned.
This interview has been lightly edited for brevity and clarity.
On how the team has kept the state title for more than 20 years
“A lot of credit for the title goes to the gym, Gymnastics World, in Broadview Heights, where a number of the gymnasts have trained since they were pretty little kids. What makes Gym World different is that it encourages its gymnasts to compete in high school. I think that training with Gym World – as well as Gym World's emphasis on mental health and the physical health of its gymnasts – is what propels [the Brecksville Bees] to state titles every year."
On how the team trains mentally
“One of the keys for this team is that, before [mental health] was popular to talk about, [co-owner] Ron Ganim came up with something called ‘psycho-babble’ at Gym World. That was when the gymnast would gather in a room to really talk about the mental side of gymnastics – whether that's performing under pressure, concentrating, dealing with things outside of gymnastics. I think that's a tradition that's been carried on since long before the streak and has really helped propel it through the years.”
On what surprised her behind the scenes
“I knew that gymnastics was an incredibly difficult sport, but I think I never really realized how incredibly difficult it is. But I do remember one of my first practices with the gymnastics team I was watching, they started with the entire team just walking on their hands. The incredible strength, dedication, and work ethic that each of these gymnasts have is something that I should have realized and didn't realize until I started writing this book.”
On the noteworthiness of their streak
“The title of the book is ‘A Fraction of a Point' because that is often what the state title is decided by. The incredible thing about this streak is that every year the gymnasts have to show up and – even if it's something where they've competed a thousand times over on floor, on beam, on bars, on vault – if they have a mental block, if they make a mistake, that could be the fractions of the points off of the team score which could results in them losing. So I think just how fragile this streak is every year to me makes it fascinating.”
