Olympic Gymnasts Visit Patients At CHOP
by Kim Glovas
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) - On Friday, the Pro Gymnastic Challenge takes place at Lehigh University. On Monday afternoon, some of those elite athletes visited Children's Hospital of Philadelphia. KYW's Kim Glovas has more.
Four past, present and future Olympians visited patients at CHOP via Galaxy 51, the in-house TV station. They did not perform any gymnastic feats, but Jessica Schmidt of International Gymnasts, says they were there to inspire those patients with their own stories.
"One of the themes that makes Olympic elite athletes perform so well is that idea of working hard, and I think that that theme really resonates with kids that are going through challenges or in their own training to sort of battle an illness," said Schmidt.
One of the gymnasts is home-grown. Brandon Wynn of Cherry Hill is an All-American and 2016 Olympic hopeful.
He talked about Friday's event.
"It's similar to "horse" for basketball," said Wynn. "It's a skill-for-skill battle. One team goes and does a skill, the next team goes and actually interacts with the crowd, they get to pick which skill that they're going to do, and whoever does it better, they get a point, so it's a fun way to show our sport to everyone."
The others were 3-time Olympic medalist Svetlana Boguinskaia, 3-time world champion Jana Bieger, and Alex Naddour, a world champion and alternate for the 2012 Olympics team.
