Ivana Hong (born December 11, 1992 in

Worcester Worcester may refer to: Places United Kingdom * Worcester, England, a city and the county town of Worcestershire in England ** Worcester (UK Parliament constituency), an area represented by a Member of Parliament * Worcester Park, London, Engla ...

Massachusetts Massachusetts (Massachusett language, Massachusett: ''Muhsachuweesut assachusett writing systems, məhswatʃəwiːsət'' English: , ), officially the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, is the most populous U.S. state, state in the New England ...

) is an American former

artistic gymnast Artistic gymnastics is a discipline of gymnastics in which athletes perform short routines on different apparatuses. The sport is governed by the Fédération Internationale de Gymnastique (FIG), which designs the Code of Points and regulates ...

. She was a member of the gold medal American team at the

2007 World Artistic Gymnastics Championships The 40th World Artistic Gymnastics Championships were held at the Hanns-Martin-Schleyer-Halle in Stuttgart Stuttgart (; Swabian: ; ) is the capital and largest city of the German state of Baden-Württemberg. It is located on the Neckar r ...

and the all-around bronze medalist at the 2007

Pan American Games The Pan American Games (also known colloquially as the Pan Am Games) is a continental multi-sport event in the Americas featuring summer sports, in which thousands of athletes participate in a variety of competitions. The competition is held ...

. Hong was named an alternate to the 2008 U.S. Olympic team and was a member of the U.S. Women's Team in the

2009 World Artistic Gymnastics Championships The 41st World Artistic Gymnastics Championships was held at The O2 Arena in London from 12 to 18 October 2009. Similar to the 2005 World Championships, there were no team competitions. Individual all-around and event finals were contested. C ...

in London. Hong is of

Chinese Chinese can refer to: * Something related to China * Chinese people, people of Chinese nationality, citizenship, and/or ethnicity **''Zhonghua minzu'', the supra-ethnic concept of the Chinese nation ** List of ethnic groups in China, people of ...

and

Vietnamese Vietnamese may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to Vietnam, a country in Southeast Asia ** A citizen of Vietnam. See Demographics of Vietnam. * Vietnamese people, or Kinh people, a Southeast Asian ethnic group native to Vietnam ** Overse ...

ancestry. Hong lived in

Blue Springs, Missouri Blue Springs is a city located in the U.S. state of Missouri within Jackson County. Blue Springs is located east of downtown Kansas City and is the 9th largest city in the Kansas City Metropolitan Area. As of the 2020 census, the population wa ...

, and trained at

Great American Gymnastics Express Great American Gymnastics Express, known also as GAGE Center or just GAGE, is an American artistic gymnastics academy, located in Blue Springs, Missouri. History GAGE was founded in 1979 by its present-day owner and head coach, Al Fong. Nota ...

(GAGE) for four years. She also trained under

Valeri Liukin Valeri Viktorovich Liukin (russian: Валерий Викторович Люкин; born 17 December 1966 in Aktyubinsk, Kazakh SSR, Soviet Union) is a Soviet-born Russian-American retired artistic gymnast turned gymnastics coach. As a competitor ...

at the

World Olympic Gymnastics Academy The World Olympic Gymnastics Academy (WOGA) is a two-facility gymnastics club located in Frisco and Plano. The head coaches at WOGA are former USA Gymnastics women's national team coordinator Valeri Liukin, who was a Soviet medalist at the 1 ...

(WOGA). She competed for

Stanford University Stanford University, officially Leland Stanford Junior University, is a private research university in Stanford, California. The campus occupies , among the largest in the United States, and enrolls over 17,000 students. Stanford is consider ...

from 2012 to 2016.

Elite career

Hong became a junior international elite in 2004 and qualified to her first United States Junior National Championships at age eleven. She was named to the Junior National Team for the first time following the 2005 National Championships, a feat she repeated in 2006 after a fifth-place finish in the all-around. Podium of 2009WAGC Beam

Hong became a Senior International Elite in 2007. She was part of the gold-medal winning.U.S. team at 2007 Pan-American Games and won the bronze medal in the all-around competition. This and a strong showing at the 2007 Visa National Championships assured her place on the U.S. World Championships team, which again won the gold medal. The following year, Hong was named to the 2008–2009 U.S. Senior National team, and was invited to the 2008 Olympic Trials. Hong's skill as an all-around athlete without a weak event enabled her to be named, along with Jana Bieger and Corrie Lothrop, as one of three alternates for the U.S. Olympic team. Following the Olympics, Hong left her former gym and moved to WOGA to train with

. Hong finished second in the all-around at the 2009 U.S. National Championships with a total score of 117.250 in

Dallas, Texas Dallas () is the third largest city in Texas and the largest city in the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex, the fourth-largest metropolitan area in the United States at 7.5 million people. It is the largest city in and seat of Dallas County w ...

. She also won the national titles on the balance beam (with a combined score of 30.350) and the vault (combined score 29.950). At the 2009 World Championships in

London London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...

, Ivana scored a 14.550 on balance beam to win the bronze medal on that event. This made medalists of all four American gymnasts (

Bridget Sloan Bridget Elizabeth Sloan (born June 23, 1992) is an American artistic gymnast. She is the 2009 world champion in the all-around, the 2009 United States national champion, and a silver medalist with the American team at the 2008 Summer Olympics in ...

, Kayla Williams and

Rebecca Bross Rebecca Marie Bross (born July 11, 1993) is an American former artistic gymnast and six-time World Championship medalist. Personal life Rebecca Marie Bross is the daughter of Terry Bross and Donna Bross. She has one older brother named Benjami ...

in addition to Hong) in the women's competition. In early March 2010, Hong tore the anterior cruciate ligament in her right knee at the National Team training camp as she landed a vault. She subsequently spent several months out of training, recovering from surgery.

Routines

Vault

Double Twist Yurchenko -5.8 Difficulty (D) Score

Uneven bars

Mount on LB; Pike stalder 1/2 (D) Endo 1/2 (C) Toe shoot to HB (B); Pike stalder 1/1 (E) Tkachev (D) +0.2 Connection; Kip, cast to HS 1/2, Giant (B) Toe on 1/1 (D) Bail to HS on LB (D) Stalder shoot to HB ay(C) +0.2; Giant, Giant, Double layout dismount (D) 6.0 D Score

Balance beam

Press to Handstand mount (B); Front aerial (D) Backhandspring (B) Layout stepout (C) +0.2; Full turn with leg at horizontal (C); Switch leap (C) Back tuck (C) +0.1; Onodi (D) Sheep jump (D) +0.1; Aerial cartwheel (D); Switch ring (E); Side somi (D); Split jump (A) Wolf jump (A); Backhandsrping (B) Backhandspring to 2 feet (B) Double pike (E) +0.2 6.4 D Score

Floor exercise

Pike full-in (E); 1½ (C) Rudi (C) +0.1; Split leap 1/1 (C); Double turn with leg at horizontal (D); Switch ring (C)...Switch side 1/2 (C); 2½ (D) Front layout (B) +0.1 5.5 D Score

References

External links

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Hong, Ivana 1992 births Living people American female artistic gymnasts American people of Vietnamese descent American sportspeople of Chinese descent Gymnasts at the 2007 Pan American Games Medalists at the World Artistic Gymnastics Championships Pan American Games gold medalists for the United States Pan American Games bronze medalists for the United States Sportspeople from Missouri Sportspeople from Worcester, Massachusetts American sportswomen of Chinese descent World Olympic Gymnastics Academy Pan American Games medalists in gymnastics People from Blue Springs, Missouri U.S. women's national team gymnasts Medalists at the 2007 Pan American Games 21st-century American women