A Good Memory

Growing up, my sisters and I loved to watch every competition of gymnastics that would come on TV. We knew just about every name of each international gymnast and loved to critique like a judge with their routines. When they were finished we could pretty much guess what their score would be before it was even posted. We really knew our gymnastics. I still love to watch it even today but it's not the same. Not just because of the lack of originality but because the sport is missing two people: Bela Karoli the coach and John Tesh the commentator.

John Tesh, the musician, was really the man for me. In ways he was so bad of a commentator that he would tell the same background story of a gymnast, forgetting that he had just mentioned it in the competition the day before. You never got the feeling that he was letting people know what happened who didn't see day one of the competition. You would feel that he was repeating the story for sympathy for the gymnast being so poor back at home. He was so dramatic when great things would happen in the sport, even letting out tears when Shannon Miller stuck her vault in 1992. I always had a good laugh as I would listen to him name the nicknames of the gymnasts, i.e. Goddess of gymnastics and Belorussian Swan.
For years I knew that if I could meet any celebrity it would be him. Well, one day back in 2004, I was working behind the counter at Starbucks, thinking nothing of the people in front of me. Then suddenly my eye caught someone. IT WAS JOHN TESH! I could not believe it! I didn't know what to say at first. Then I thought of a gymnast's last name who I know was one of his favorites. I said (as I remember), "Do you remember Boguinskaya?" He looked at me in utter shock. "Wow! I can't believe you know about that part of my life!" He said.

"Are you KIDDING??" I said laughingly, "My WHOLE family has watched you for years covering gymnastics. My older sister would die if she knew that I spoke to you."

He was so thrilled that I remembered him from that part of his past that he asked me for my sister Julie's number so that he could call her right there in front of me to say hello. When he got a hold of her on his cell phone she didn't believe it was him when he first called. But the more he spoke the more convinced she was that it was him. She practically screamed on the phone in laughter and was in shock that she was talking to the man we laughed about for years, in a real humorous way.

When I asked him what his favorite moment was of gymnastics I expected him to say some moment where a Russian didn't let down her country by winning gold. But instead he said that it was the moment when Kerri Strug landed the vault for team USA back in 1996.

I've posted a link to a video, which shows Tesh talking about a gymnast barely hanging onto the balance beam. I laugh every time!

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-7311703611214346121&q=amanda+borden&ei=GCtrSL3qE4yErgOHjY2bDw