Danell Leyva

Danell Leyva
Danell Leyva at the 2016 Olympic Games
Personal information
Nationality:	United States
discipline	Apparatus gymnastics
Society:	Universal gymnastics
Trainer:	Yin Alvarez
Birthday:	October 30, 1991
Place of birth:	Cárdenas (Cuba)
Size:	170 cm
Weight:	72 kg
Medals
Olympic games bronze 2012 London All-around silver 2016 Rio de Janeiro Ingots silver 2016 Rio de Janeiro Horizontal bar  World championships gold 2011 Tokyo Ingots bronze 2011 Tokyo team silver 2014 Nanning Ingots bronze 2014 Nanning team silver 2015 Glasgow Horizontal bar Pacific Rim Championships gold 2010 Melbourne Ingots gold 2010 Melbourne Horizontal bar gold 2010 Melbourne team bronze 2010 Melbourne Rings American championships silver 2009 Dallas Ingots gold 2009 Dallas Horizontal bar silver 2010 Hartford All-around gold 2010 Hartford Ingots bronze 2010 Hartford Horizontal bar gold 2011 Saint Paul All-around gold 2011 Saint Paul Ingots gold 2011 Saint Paul Horizontal bar silver 2012 Saint Louis All-around gold 2012 Saint Louis Ingots gold 2012 Saint Louis Horizontal bar

Danell Johan Leyva Gonzalez (born October 30, 1991 in Cárdenas , Cuba ) is an American gymnast of Cuban origin. His greatest success to date was winning the world title on bars in 2011 . At a height of 1.70 meters, his competition weight is 72 kilograms.

Life

childhood and education

Danell Leyva was born in Cuba to the unmarried María González and Johan Leyva. His mother was also an apparatus gymnast. Maria Gonzalez graduated from the Cuban national gymnastics academy in her youth and was a member of the national squad as an athlete. She later worked as a youth coach for the Cuban Association in Havana. Leyva's father now lives separately from his family in Spain . Although he is in contact with his biological father, he has never met him personally. He has also never visited his home country Cuba.

Leyva grew up with an older sister who claims to work on a Spanish television show. At the age of five months he began to have severe breathing problems. He suffered from allergies and asthma and had to be hospitalized every few weeks. Due to his health and the inadequate medical treatment in Cuba, his mother decided to leave the country with the children in 1993, while the biological father Leyvas stayed in Cuba. Fled during a stay in Peru , the respected trainer traveled with her children through Venezuela , Ecuador and Nicaragua for several months . Eventually the family managed to move to the United States, where Leyva's maternal grandfather fled to Miami . In Miami, Leyva's mother met her former gymnastics colleague Yin Alvarez from his time at the Cuban gymnastics academy, who , according to his own account, fled to the USA via the Rio Grande during a stay in Mexico in 1992 and started a new life there as the operator of a gymnastics hall built up. The couple married in 2001 and raised Leyva together, who was on medication until he was twelve.

Initially, the mother did not recognize her son's talent, whom she described in retrospect as uncoordinated and overweight ( "He had flat feet , arms that were too long, breathing problems. He did not understand how to jump and looked funny when he ran. " ). Still, Leyva was allowed to start gymnastics between the ages of four and five after seeing video footage of his mother and stepfather. He was mainly promoted by stepfather Yin Alvarez. After Leyva exercised regularly, his mother took him out of school as a first grader and arranged private lessons so that he could spend more time in gym class with the advanced students.

Rise to the top of the world

Leyva is still coached by his stepfather, Yin Alverez, who runs the Universal Gymnastic sports club in Homestead, southern Miami. In the junior division, Leyva started for the first time in 2006 at the Winter Cup in Las Vegas . In the same year Leyva won the all- around, floor exercise and horizontal bar competition as well as a silver medal on parallel bars at the US Youth Championships in Saint Paul (Minnesota) . In the title fights a year later in Oklahoma City , he was able to defend the title in all- around and on the horizontal bar and won the exercise on parallel bars.

After Leyva failed to qualify for the US gymnastics squad at the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing, Leyva won the bar competition at the Winter Cup in 2009 , the US senior title on the horizontal bar and was promoted to the national level in the same year US senior team appointed. Internationally, Leyva appeared among the seniors in the same year at the World Cup in Montreal , where he achieved fourth place on the horizontal bar when the Chinese Zou Kai won. At the Gymnastics World Championships in London in 2009 Leyva reached the apparatus finals on the horizontal bar, in which he finished fourth. In 2010 the gymnast won the US championship on parallel bars and competed in all disciplines in the world championships in Rotterdam, with the exception of jumping. Leyva again reached the device finals on the horizontal bar, where he finished fifth and fourth with the team. In the all-around competition he reached 18th place.

In 2011 Leyva won the US all-around title against Jonathan Horton for the first time in Saint Paul (Minnesota) as well as the parallel bars and bars. At the following World Championships in Tokyo , he appeared again in seven of eight disciplines, except for the jump. With bronze in the team competition, he won his first World Championship medal, while in the all-around event after third place in the qualification he only finished 24th and last place in the final. Leyva had received a low score on the jump in the all-around final. On the horizontal bar, the last device from the competition, his chin hit the horizontal bar at the Liukin flight element and fell off the device. Slightly disoriented, he had to be led off the mat by his trainer Yin Alverez. The high point in Leyva's career so far followed a few days later with the device finale on parallel bars, in which he was the youngest participant at the age of 19. With 15,633 points he was world champion ahead of the Greek Vasileios Tsolakidis and the Chinese Zhang Chenglong (both 15,533 points each). He won the first gold medal at world championships for the USA since Paul Hamm's victories in 2003 in all-around and on the ground.

In 2012 Leyva defended the US title on parallel bars and horizontal bar in San José (California) , while he was relegated to second place in the all- around competition by John Orozco . In qualifying for the 2012 Summer Olympics in London, he again won the all-around, on parallel bars and bars. At the Olympics, he missed a medal with the US team and finished fifth. Leyva won the all-around qualification with 91,265 points and reached the device finals on the horizontal bar. The coach of the US men's Olympic team, Kevin Mazeika, particularly emphasized his aggressiveness, which would have distinguished him even as a young athlete. In the all-around final, Leyva achieved top marks on parallel bars and horizontal bar with 90,698 points, the bronze medal behind the favored multiple world champion Kōhei Uchimura from Japan (92,690) and the German Marcel Nguyen (91,031). He also reached the device finals on the horizontal bar, where he finished fifth with a score of 15,833 in the Olympic victory of Dutchman Epke Zonderland (16,533 points).

Danell Leyva lives in Miami, Florida. He counts the horizontal bar, the parallel bars and the floor to his favorite devices. Leyva, who speaks Spanish, mentions playing music, painting and drawing as hobbies. After his career as a gymnast, he plans to pursue a career as a musician or actor.

Web links

• Official website (English)
• Danell Leyva more than just gymnast - portrait of Bonnie D. Ford on ESPN.com, July 30, 2012
• Danell Leyva in the database of the Fédération Internationale de Gymnastique (English)
• USA Gymnastics Profile
• Profile ( memento from October 23, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) at nbcolympics.com (English)

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Profile ( Memento of the original from January 3, 2013 in the web archive archive.today ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. at london2012.com (accessed July 31, 2012).  
2. ↑ ^{a b} Danell Leyva in the database of the Fédération Internationale de Gymnastique (English) (accessed on February 9, 2016).
3. ↑ ^{a b c} Macur, Juliet: For a Gymnastics Family, A Long Time Vision Is in Reach . In: The New York Times , July 30, 2012, p. 7.
4. ↑ ^{a b c d e f} Shipley, Amy: Gymnast Leyva lives American dream his own mother couldn't have imagined . In: The Washington Post , September 15, 2011, p. D01.
5. ^ ^{A b} Armor, Nancy ( AP ): London next stop on journey for Cuban-born gymnast . May 8, 2012, 3:30 PM GMT (accessed via LexisNexis Business ).
6. ↑ ^{a b} biography ( memento of October 23, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) at nbcolympics.com (English; accessed on February 9, 2016).
7. ↑ ^{a b} Cuban-Born Gymnast Danell Leyva Qualifies for US 2012 Olympic Team . In: Hispanically Speaking News , Jul 10, 2012, 1:14 AM EST (accessed via LexisNexis Economy ).
8. ^ Ford, Bonnie D .: Danell Leyva more than just gymnast espn.go.com, July 30, 2012 (accessed July 31, 2012).
9. ↑ Profile at USA Gymnastics (English; accessed July 31, 2012).