Sister act
Gymnasts Christine and Catherine Nguyễn balance training, school and the beam in their quest to be among the best.

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They share a lot, these two sisters. A love for “Grey’s Anatomy.” Both list math as a favorite school subject. Their idea of fun? Hanging out with friends and family. Typical teenagers. Typical, that is, until you see them flipping and twirling in an arena filled with thousands of fans. Christine Nguy?n, 18, and her 15-year-old sibling, Catherine, are two of the top 27 female gymnasts in the United States, competing on the senior and junior national teams, respectively. Both train in hopes of reaching the pinnacle of their sport, whether winning an NCAA title in college or competing in the Olympics. Each counts the other among her heroes in the sport. And that’s only natural, being that it’s been the two of them doing gymnastics, together, since childhood. Gymnastics in the Nguy?n household started naturally enough with a little girl, Christine, turning everything she did into some sort of gymnastics move. “I was jumping, flipping, climbing, hopping, and flying,” she recalled. And that became a safety concern for her parents. Friends and family members persuaded them to enroll Christine in gymnastics. It was the start of a legacy as younger sister, Catherine, quickly followed suit. “I used to go along with (Christine) every day to the gym, mainly to watch her,” Catherine said. “I always went to her competitions to watch and to imagine that some day, I would be out there on the floor to compete. During those early years, gymnastics definitely looked like a lot of fun and excitement. So, naturally, it was just a matter of time that I asked my parents to sign me up for training.” As the girls’ talent and work ethic helped them rapidly move up in the sport, their parents moved apart to allow their daughters to train with Evgeny Marchenko — the former national coach in Latvia who also has served as an assistant on the U.S. Olympic gymnastics team — at the World Olympic Gymnastics Academy in Plano, Texas. Their mother, Tho, stays in Houston for work while their father, Hi?n, made the move to Plano. The other Nguy?n daughter, Crystal, is 24 and in her second year of medical school at the St. Matthew's University School of Medicine. She is not a gymnast. “I cook Vietnamese food and drive over on weekends to give it to them to freeze,” Tho said. “I do anything to help them with their dreams.” “I want to say thank you to their parents to let their kids achieve their dreams,” Marchenko said. “Their family sacrifices a lot for the girls.” Christine left Marchenko’s gym this fall for the University of North Carolina, where she will compete on the gymnastics team. Marchenko said he misses her. “It’s very hard to no longer coach her,” he said, telling a story about her. “Right before nationals last year, she put too much effort into her release move and flew too far. Since she is such a powerful and high flyer, her elbow went out when it hit the mat.” It was a pretty serious injury that took about six months to rehabilitate. During this period, Christine never gave up and did not have any doubt that she would be back. She never complained and had a great personality. She came back, pursued her dreams and competed at the national championships, Marchenko said. Derek Galvin, Christine’s coach at North Carolina, echoed Marchenko’s praises. “She is a joy to work with and her radiant smile has a heartwarming impact on the people around her,” he said, adding that his new gymnast is “unquestionably one of the most talented senior-level gymnasts in the country.” Marchenko still has Catherine Nguy?n — busy combining training with studying for the upcoming SAT exam — as his student. “She was in the shadows of her sister for a while, and she slowly but steadily pursued her dream to be a national team member,” he said. Now that she’s on that team, Catherine is practicing to represent the U.S. at international competitions. Next year, she will be a senior-level gymnast and eligible for competitions such as the World Championships and the Olympics. “I can say she has potential to be at the top of the nation,” he added, “in the top five if she stays healthy and continues to work as hard as she does right now, which I know she will.”
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