BYU gymnastics: Boon found her place at BYU

Alethea Boon was a 6-year old in New Zealand when she sat down in front of the television and watched fellow Kiwi Nikki Jenkins take a gold medal on vault at the Commonwealth Games in 1990.

That one performance propelled Boon into nagging her parents for the next two years until they put her into a recreational gymnastics program. Now, Boon didn't just sit around waiting for those two long years until she could get professional training. No, she trained herself.

She started doing the basics, handstands, walkovers, cartwheels and anything else she could work on by herself. And along with talent, that prep work skipped her right through the rec program and into a competition group.

"I started in rec at the local club, and they had a handstand competition. I held it close to a minute," Boon said. Not only did she win the competition, they told her that she was in the wrong place and needed to be learning at a much faster rate.

"When I was younger I was very gutsy. I didn't know it was scary," she said, and noted that she never regretted pushing her parents into getting her into the gym because until she was 13, all the hours she spent preparing were just play. "We got to go and flip around all over the place. It was so much fun."

And, of course, after awhile, her favorite event became the vault, the same event that her hero had won the gold on so many years before.

"I just like the power," said Boon, who has been competing vault, floor and beam for BYU for years. At about the middle of last season, she added her least favorite event, bars, and now is the only Cougar competing in the all-around. The reason it took her so long to add bars to her events is that she had a tough time transitioning to the wider bar settings and kept missing the lower bar on her releases.

And now, just as she's getting a great bars routine together, her career is nearing its end, which is a bittersweet thought for the girl from New Zealand.

"At 24 my body is not what it used to be," Boon noted, adding that it is time she give her battered body a break from the tough sport. She's also looking forward to the freedom that comes from not having to be in the gym five hours every day.

"When you're doing gymnastics you can't wait until you're free to go play, but now I'm nervous because I'll have all that time and I have to find something to do to fill it. Finishing gymnastics is forcing me to get out of my comfort zone," she noted.