Gymnast awaits news for a spot on Olympic team

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The young gymnasts focus on their balance beam, floor and vault routines, spinning and tumbling with intense concentration at Sport Seneca.

But all stops when Elyse Hopfner-Hibbs mounts the uneven bars; the gymnasts turn their attention to the 18-year-old and cheer on the Olympic hopeful.

Hopfner-Hibbs, fresh from a second place win on uneven bars at a World Cup competition in Tianjin, China May 14 and 15, will find out soon if she secured one of two spots representing Canada at the Beijing Olympics this summer.

The announcement will be made following the Canadian National Championships in Calgary, Alberta June 2 to 7.

Though Hopfner-Hibbs is considered an Olympic favourite, she faces competition from Oshawa's Kristina Vaculik and Nansy Damianova of Montreal.

"It does make it tough (being favoured) but I have to stay focused on doing my job," Hopfner-Hibbs said following morning training Thursday, May 22 at Seneca College's Newnham Campus. Hopfner-Hibbs, who brought home a bronze medal on the beam at the 2006 World Championships - the only Canadian female gymnast to ever win a medal at the world-class competition - won't allow added Olympic pressure to affect her game.

"It's always going to be back there," she said of the talk of Beijing. "But the added pressure I don't need. I haven't been training 15 years for one competition."

Aside from a one and a half twisting Urchenko vault she just learned, Hopfner-Hibbs said she's busy fine-tuning her usual routines, spending up to five and a half hours a day, five days a week in the gym.

Beijing-bound or not, Hopfner-Hibbs will find herself in sunny California come the fall as she's accepted a full five-year scholarship to UCLA and will be competing for the Bruins.

"I look forward to it, I look forward to change," she said.

Hopfner-Hibbs' coach, Carol-Angela Orchard, said the six-time World Cup medallist was ready for the 2004 Olympics but was too young to compete.

"She's now older and wiser," Orchard said, adding Hopfner-Hibbs has trained at Sport Seneca for eight years. "She's so normal, a hard-working kid, and has persevered. I'm trying to get her to enjoy the process. You can't let the stress get to you."