Erica Stokes is a former United States gymnast. Stokes trained with Bela Karolyi in

Houston, Texas Houston (; ) is the most populous city in Texas, the most populous city in the Southern United States, the fourth-most populous city in the United States, and the sixth-most populous city in North America, with a population of 2,304,580 in ...

Early life

Stokes spent three summers training with the Karolyi's. When she was 9 years old, Karolyi invited her to move to Houston to train at the

Karolyi Ranch The USA Gymnastics National Team Training Center at Karolyi Ranch or simply Karolyi Ranch in unincorporated Walker County, Texas, southeast of Huntsville, was a gymnastics camp facility which was the site of the main training center for the United ...

full time. Her family agreed, and later moved to Houston to join their daughter.

Gymnastics

Stokes finished second in the 1989 Junior National Championships and fourth in the 1990

National Championships A national championship(s) is the top achievement for any sport or contest within a league of a particular nation or nation state. The title is usually awarded by contests, ranking systems, stature, ability, etc. This determines the best team, indi ...

behind Kim Zmeskal and Betty Okino. She was unable to compete in the 1990

Goodwill Games The Goodwill Games were an international sports competition created by Ted Turner in reaction to the political troubles surrounding the Olympic Games of the 1980s. In 1979, the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan caused the United States and other ...

due to an injury. Her mother recalled that "she was guaranteed a spot on the '92 Olympics team as much as anyone can be guaranteed a spot a year ahead of time". Stokes appeared in a

Minute Maid Minute Maid is a product line of beverages, usually associated with lemonade or orange juice, but which now extends to soft drinks of different kinds, including Hi-C. Minute Maid is sold under the Cappy brand in Central Europe and under the bran ...

commercial with other Olympic hopefuls and her parents accepted money from Minute Maid, as well as a $12,000 annual stipend from USGF. Because of this she was ineligible to compete in college gymnastics. She developed bulimia nervosa and left Karolyi's gym. She began training with

Steve Nunno Steve Nunno is an American gymnastics coach. Most notably, he coached Shannon Miller Shannon Lee Miller (born March 10, 1977) is an American former artistic gymnast. She was the 1993 and 1994 world all-around champion, the 1996 Olympic bal ...

, who was also coaching Shannon Miller. She finished sixth at the World Championship Trials, which should have secured her a spot on the World Championship team but the USGF decided to combine scores from both the trials and the national championships. Stokes had been unable to compete in nationals because of a shoulder injury, and she dropped to ninth, losing her place on the team. Erica quit gymnastics nine months before the

1992 Barcelona Olympics The 1992 Summer Olympics ( es, Juegos Olímpicos de Verano de 1992, ca, Jocs Olímpics d'estiu de 1992), officially known as the Games of the XXV Olympiad ( es, Juegos de la XXV Olimpiada, ca, Jocs de la XXV Olimpíada) and commonly known as ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Stokes, Erica Year of birth missing (living people) Living people American female artistic gymnasts U.S. women's national team gymnasts 21st-century American women