From The Washington Post

Friday, August 22, 2008; 1:00 PM

Washington, D.C.: If you wanted to get more American kids to do gymnastics, and to compete in these events, how would you go about encouraging them to do so? And if we did encourage more competition, should we recruit more Latinos, African Americans, Native Americans and other ethnic group members to enter the competitions?

Justin Spring: Gymnastics is such a tough sport it’s hard to get anyone to stay in it if they don’t want to. If we could make it more popular in the media I think more kids would join. It is such a great sport though because of what qualities it teaches the athletes. I think anyone from any race or ethnic background should be encouraged to try gymnastics. It’s a fantastic sport to help develop coordination and athleticism.

[excerpted from the Washington Post at the above link ]