In its hopes for advancement, the ASU gymnastics team added two new coaches last month.
Each has a very different background, but together they hold one extreme value: Olympic experience.
That arrives in the form of new assistant coaches Jean-Luc Cairon and Jamie Dantzscher.
Dantzscher was a member of the USA women’s team that competed in Sydney in 2000 and Cairon competed for France in the 1984 and 1988 games.
Head coach John Spini spoke highly of the new hires and said he expects his new assistants to help get the program back on track, first with recruiting and then in the gym.
ASU returns eight gymnasts from its disappointing 2008 squad.
The Sun Devils placed seventh at the Pac-10 Championships last season, far from what many, including the new coaches, expect to see for 2009.
Cairon, 46, started his gymnastics career at the age of seven. He did so in Forbach, which, at the time, was one of France’s roughest, poorest border towns.
“Gymnastics saved my life,” he said. “All my friends from my generation are dead or in jail.”
At that young age, Cairon said he saw a man from his neighborhood doing back flips in the gym.
“I thought the guy was freaking Superman,” he said.
One day, Cairon skipped school and followed the man to the gym. He stared at the different apparatuses and felt inspired to take the sport up.
Cairon said his eventual appearance in the Olympics was a unique life experience.
It wasn’t until Cairon landed in Los Angeles, Calif. for the 1984 Games that he realized how important his achievement was.
“When they called my name … that’s when it really got me,” he said. “The judges were there. The gym was packed.
“I grabbed the parallel bars, and I had a blank. I almost passed out.”
Cairon will oversee the uneven bars and vault for ASU. But he is, by no means, light on coaching experience.
Cairon was the co-owner of Krafft Academy in Tulsa, Okla., where he trained gymnasts in the elite division for 18 years.
Dantzscher, a native of southern California, also began her gymnastics dreams at the age of seven.
Her inspiration came from watching Mary Lou Retton on television.
As she grew older, night school was a must to fit two workouts per day into her busy schedule.
“Training for the Olympics was the hardest thing I’ve ever had to do in my life,” she said.
Dantzscher was a four-time individual NCAA National Champion during her time at UCLA.
Just before the 18-year-old Dantzscher was chosen to represent her country at the 2000 Games, she and other gymnasts were sent to a holding room for 20 minutes.
In retrospect, Dantzscher said the elapsed time in that room felt like two years.
“When they said ‘Jamie Dantzscher,’ I started crying,” she said. “That was the moment that made it all worth it.”
Dantzscher’s favorite memory from the Sydney games was the second day of team competition.
“I remember the little section of USA fans just chanting ‘USA’ over and over,” she said.
Ready to make her first appearance as a coach on the sideline, Dantzscher, 26, describes her teaching style as laid back.
Dantzscher will be in charge of the balance beam and floor exercises for the Sun Devils’ squad.
She believes in coaching the individual. First and foremost, Dantzscher said she expects her gymnasts to work hard.
“It’s like any type of relationship,” Dantzscher said. “Trust and communication is No. 1.
“I think what is unique about me coaching is being a student-athlete before. I have been through … everything they are going through right now.”
Her goals for the team this season are to keep it simple, encourage competition, and work to make the NCAA Championships in April 2009.
“I see the program heading [forward], and I don’t see any reason why we can’t be competitive with [last season’s national champion] Georgia and [contender] UCLA,” Dantzscher said.
Reach the reporter at emschimm@asu.edu.
