WORLD ACROBATICS SOCIETY

The World Acrobatics Society Legends

The World Acrobatics Society inducted its class of 2012 Gallery of Legends on September 20 at the Circus Circus Casino and Resort in Las Vegas during the WAS Congress. The Legends are elected annually in eight acrobatics categories or disciplines. The WAS has been making inductions since its first class in the year 2000. Standing from left to right are: , Lifetime achievement; Gary Smith, Trampoline & Tumbling; Jennifer Chandler, Diving; Jon Culbertson, Lifetime Achievement; Megan Neyer, Diving; Jack Miles, Artistic ; Stoyan Deltchev, ; Tory Sharpe representing his deceased father David Sharpe, Professional Performer; Matt Chojnacki, 2006 WAS Legend; and Linda Peterson representing Linda’s deceased son Jeret “Speedy” Peterson, Extreme Sports. Each Legend was introduced and eulogized by Master of Ceremonies Dick Albershardt, a 2003 WAS legend. Additionally, each Legend was presented in video that highlighted various accomplishments of their careers in acrobatic disciplines. Legends of earlier WAS classes stepped forward to hang a WAS medallion on each of the 2012 Legends. It was a memorable evening with good food, fun, and an opportunity to hear each Legend speak about their career in an acrobatic sport or discipline. Written by: Bruce Davis Page 1 of 11 Edited by: Don Leas

World Acrobatics Society 2012 Winter Newsletter The World Acrobatics Society Program Day Presentations

George Hery made a video presentation called “Acrobatics now and then.” Using videos spanning over many years, George pointed out how acrobats in the sports of artistic gymnastics, trampoline, and tumbling have improved their skills in their respective sports activity due to coaching, equipment improvement, and knowledge of performance. The video comparisons with George’s expert analysis demonstrated how much the modern acrobat has improved over the last half century. Thank you George!

Muriel Grossfeld, Artur Akopyan and Kelli Hill

The next presentation was a panel discussion featuring three of the United States foremost women’s gymnastics experts. Muriel Grossfeld, Artur Akopyan, and Kelli Hill explained “The ‘Way’ US Women’s Gymnastics Became a World Power.” Muriel explained how it was to compete in the fifties and then lead the WAS membership over the next few decades of US development in women’s gymnastics and into the modern era when the US began to win medals in international George Hery competition. Artur, a former world vaulting champion, is regarded as one of the finest uneven parallel bar technicians in the world. Kelli is Dr. Jon Culbertson was the next presenter. Jon took us from one responsible for several of the US’s international medalists most notably men’s Pan American Games gymnastics competition to the next in his Dom Dawes. Thanks Panel. You were really informative! presentation titled “The Pan American Games (Men) Retrospective: ‘1971-2007.’ He provided comparative judging data from each of the Pan Am competitions giving us a perspective of the political jousting that occurs during competitions. Jon interjected comments from his own experience in judging that gave the WAS membership insight into the battles that ensue between the countries of the western hemisphere when medals are at stake. This political jousting was particularly evident between Cuba and the United States. Thank you Jon!

Loren Janes and Jan Sanborn

Loren Janes, with his wife Jan Sanborn, took the WAS membership on a visit to Hollywood when he presented his video “How The West Was Won.” The video presentation gave the WAS membership an up close look at movie making at it’s finest. Loren was seen performing many difficult stunts throughout the movie that was shot at two different locations. The former pentathlete and WAS legend has been stuntman for many of Hollywood’s top stars such as Steve McQueen. Loren was also Muriel Davis Grossfeld’s double in El Coyote Rides in 1957. Thank Dr. Jon Culbertson you Loren for giving the WAS members some insight into what a stuntman does in the movies! Page 2 of 11

World Acrobatics Society 2012 Winter Newsletter 2012 GALLERY OF LEGENDS JOHN “JACK” MILES Miles decided to leave FSU with his business degree and a masters and head to New York to try his hand at show business. Jack doubled for well known actors like Frank Sinatra, Tony Randall, Robert Shatner, Jamie Farr, Ray Bolger, and Andy Williams. Miles followed the film production crew to to Ivan Tours Studios and played small parts in Gentle Ben, Car 54, Flipper, and The Defenders. He had bit parts in Lady in Cement in Ft. Lauderdale and Tony Roma in Miami. Miles appeared in commercials for Nabisco Shredded Wheat, Perrier, Wrigley’s Gum, Coco Cola, and Florida Orange Juice. Jack made some stage, off- Broadway theatre, and road show appearances in Carnival, Jack & Annie Trampoline Comedy, and Los Domenech. Jack’s modeling and print-photo work includes Parade magazine, Sears catalog, and Hollywood Dog Track. Miles even had his hand in a unique entertainment venue. The traveling diving horse show played at Steel Pier in Atlantic, NJ, and in state fairs throughout the US and Canada. Miles took a special events position with the Ft. Lauderdale recreation department and eventually became the departments well-liked director. Jack ran a very successful gymnastics program at the Holiday Park Recreation Center that was the home of the USGF Eastern Gymnastics Clinic of the seventies. Miles was the founder of the Florida Gymnastics Association and provided the 2008 Legend Vitaly Scherbo presents gymnastics community with a from the heart Florida Gymnastics Miles with the WAS Legend Medallion Newsletter for ten years. Jack operated a private gymnastics school in Ft. Lauderdale and sold equipment for American Athletic John “Jack” Miles began his gymnastics competition career at Equipment Company. Germantown High School in Philadelphia coached by Dr. Leopold Jack was a mentor to many young male and female gymnasts Zwarg. He continued to improve his gymnastics during workouts at among which were Ron Galimore a 1980 Olympian and Carrie the Germantown YMCA and the Philadelphia Turners. Miles Englert Zimmerman a 1976 Olympian. would often spend time in high school daydreaming and drawing In later years Miles became the organizer and spokesperson for new gymnastics moves. Jack is an excellent graphic artist. a group of former Florida State University gymnastics alumnae Jack Sharpe, the 1952 NCAA ring champion and Jack’s friend, who continue to meet annually first at a series of different locations recommended that Jack attend Florida State University. Jack was a and more recently in Panacea, FL at Alligator Point. The group has big part of the FSU gymnastics dynasty that captured five national met with the FSU administration to determine a way that the AAU and NCAA championships during the 1950s.. Miles also gymnastics programs of the fifties and sixties will be remembered performed in Gymkana, a gymnastics performance show created and recognized on campus. A final decision was made to create a by Dr. Hartley Price. Miles even coached the team while Price was stained glass window in the graduate library building that is away from campus on a Fulbright Scholarship. representative of the FSU gymnastics programs. The building has Jack won the NAAU flying ring championship in 1951. In other stained glass windows that depict other historical programs at 1947, while still in high school, he was responsible for creating and FSU. In support of the annual reunions Jack began to write the performing the “whippet” on flying rings that would be performed FSU Gymnastics, Gymkana and Friends Newsletter. Over a span of four on the (still) ring event more than a score of years later and which is years Jack has produced nearly seventy newsletters that can be read now called a Homma. Miles continued to medal in regional and on the fsugymnastics.org. website. The newsletter has been national competitions and tied for first in the 1955 NAAU all- responsible for the reunion of many individuals who are in some around championship which lead to his top berth on the 1955 US way attached to FSU gymnastics from relationships that were Pan American games team to Mexico. The US team and Miles forged more than fifty years ago won the team gold medal. Jack also took silver on vaulting and Jack Miles has come full circle in his accomplishments as an horizontal bar and bronze on rings and the all-around. In 1956 athlete, performer, coach, teacher, mentor, artist, writer, director, Miles placed ninth in Olympic trials at Penn State and became a organizer, and friend. Now Jack can add Legend to his list. As the member of the 1956 Olympic squad but did not finish high enough FSU Gymnastics Gymkana Friends Newsletter heading states: to go to Melbourne for the games. “Once teammates, always teammates.” Jack Miles is a 2012 World Acrobatics Society Legend and his teammates are proud of him! Page 3 of 11

World Acrobatics Society 2012 Winter Newsletter JENNIFER CHANDLER

1976 Olympic gold medalist Jennifer chandler is presented her WAS medallion by Don Leas 2004 Legend and former WAS President 2012 Galley of Legends Jennifer Chandler was born June 13,1959, in a small Chandler made the USA Diving Team and Chattahoochee River town in Alabama. She is the oldest of three won the three-meter springboard gold medal by a fifty point girls. Chandler first learned to swim when her family moved to margin; however, she had to combat and overcome a serious case Athens, Georgia. She changed to diving from swimming after her of nerves during the competition. family moved back to a Birmingham, Alabama, suburb and her After the Olympics Jennifer completed high school in family joined the Mountain Brook Swim and Tennis Club.. Alabama. Then she took a diving scholarship at Ohio State Carlos de Cubas, the Mountain Brook diving coach and a University. Unfortunately, during practice Jennifer suffered a former swimming and diving coach from Cuba, noticed Jennifer’s serious back injury performing her back two and one half diving ability and persuaded her to make the change from somersault dive. She had to rehabilitate for some time. swimming to diving. Jennifer loved diving because it felt like flying. After returning to diving Chandler transferred to the Cubas continued to teach Jennifer more difficult dives. University of California at Irvine in 1978 again following O’Brien At age twelve she prepared for the Junior Olympics in who had taken a new position at Mission Viejo. Jennifer qualified Spokane, Washington. She not only won the competition, she was for the 1980 Olympic Games in spite of hurting her back again. selected the Outstanding Athlete of the event. Cubas moved to Once President Carter called for a US boycott of the Moscow Atlanta to coach and Jennifer commuted up and back to continue games in protest of the Soviet Union’s invasion of Afghanistan, her training with him. Chandler made the decision to retire. Soon it became apparent that Chandler needed a coaching Jennifer earned her bachelors degree in painting and drawing change to be able to excel to the next level. She settled on Ron from the University of Arizona in 1987. Returning to Alabama in O’Brien, the Ohio State University dive coach (2002 Legend). The 1993, Chandler became a Senior Affairs Liaison for HealthSouth coaching involved mailing O’Brien films of her dives that O’Brien Corporation. Next, she held an executive position with would analyze and critique. Birmingham Soccer, an organization that hosted eleven Olympic Chandler flew to Dallas, Texas, on weekends to train for the soccer matches at Birmingham Legion Field. She was an expert 1975 Pan American Games. The training paid off resulting in diving commentator on television. In 2003, she became the Jennifer winning the three-meter springboard in Mexico City. director of outreach programs for the Alabama Sports Hall of Jennifer’s next goal was making the 1976 USA Olympic Fame. Games Diving Team. Chandler moved to Ohio for daily practices Jennifer is married to John Wyatt Stevenson, publisher of The with O’Brien. Chandler followed O’Brien from Ohio to Ft. Randolph Leader newspaper in Randolph County, Alabama. Lauderdale where Jennifer would dive with six other Olympic Chandler is a member of the International Swimming and Diving caliber divers all working with Ron O’Brien. Hall of Fame, the Alabama Sports Hall of Fame, the Calhoun Page 4 of 11 County Sports Hall of Fame, and a 2012 WAS Legend!

World Acrobatics Society 2012 Winter Newsletter Matt Chojnacki & Linda Peterson

2012 GALLERY OF LEGENDS

JERET “SPEEDY” PETERSON DECEMBER 12, 1981-JULY 25, 2011 2002 Park City Winter Olympic games - ninth place 2006 Torino Winter Olympic games - seventh place 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympic games - silver medal 2000 FIS Junior World Championships - third place 2001 FIS Junior World Championships - Third Place 2003 FIS World Championships - Sixth Place 2005 FIS World Championships - Twelfth Place 2007 FIS World Championships - seventh Place 2009 FIS World Championships - Ninth Place Seven World Cup Wins Fifteen World Cup Podiums 2005 Overall World Cup Champion Three Seasons finishing Top Ten in the World Three - National Champion 1999 Junior National Champion United State Skiing’s Meeker Award Winner: 2005, 2007, 2010 Competed the ‘Hurricane” (full-triple full-full) five seasons Performed a Sextuple-Twisting triple somersault on water Posted a world record score for a single jump (140.38) Posted a world record for an overall event score (268.70)

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Page 6 of 11 2012 GALLERY OF LEGENDS GARY H. SMITH 2012 WAS LEGEND. GARY IS AT HOME IN A HANDSTAND ON A LEDGE AT THE GRAND CANYON OR IN THE COMPANY OF HIS COACH JEFF HENNESSY AND JEFF’S spouse RUTH AND GARY’S spouse MARY EILEEN. TRAMPOLINE SKILLS PIONEERED QUADRUPLE TWISTING DOUBLE BACK [ONE AND A HALF IN - TWO AND A HALF OUT] THREE AND A HALF TWISTING DPUBLE FRONT [FULL IN - TWO AND ONE HALF OUT] RUDY OUT TRIFFIS [TUCKED POSITION HALF IN HALF OUT TRIFFIS [HALF IN, FRONT, HALF OUT

LIST OF ACCOMPLISHMENTS GARY H. SMITH RECEIVED HIS BACHELORS 1969 UNDEFEATED USA SYNCHRONIZED TEAM DEGREE FROM THE UNIVERSITY OF LOUISIANA IN 1970 NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIPS [SILVER] 1974. HE EARNED HIS MASTERS DEGREE FROM 1970 NATIONAL SYNCHRONIZED CHAMPION NORTHWESTERN STATE UNIVERSITY IN 1977. 1971 NAAU JUNIOR CHAMPION [INDIVIDUAL] GARY HAS LECTURED ON ADVANCED TWISTING 1971 USTA CHAMPION [INDIVIDUAL] TECHNIQUES AT THE USA GYMNASTICS 1971 USTA CHAMPION [SYNCHRONIZED] CONGRESS SEVERAL TIMES. HIS MASTERS 1972 WORLD INVITATIONAL CHAMPION DEGREE THESIS IS A MECHANICAL ANALYSIS OF 1972 NATIONAL SYNCHRONIZED CHAMPION TRAMPOLINE SKILLS. GARY SERVED AS A 1972 WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS [SILVER IND] MEMBER OF THE ORIGINAL USGF 1972 WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS [SILVER SYN] BIOMECHANICAL TASK FORCE. SMITH’S ARTICLES 1970 SULLIVAN AWARD NOMINEE HAVE BEEN PUBLISHED IN NATIONAL AND 1974 USA JUDGE WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS INTERNATIONAL GYMNASTICS JOURNALS. SMITH 1970 & 1972 USA TEAM MEMBER IS THE OWNER OF ACADIANA GYMNASTICS OF MID-WINTER NATIONAL CHAMPION LAFAYETTE SINCE 1977 SPENDING OVER FORTY TWO TIME NORTH/SOUTH CHAMPION YEARS AS A TRAMPOLINE AND GYMNASTICS MEN’S & WOMEN’S JOHANNESBURG SA INSTRUCTOR.

WORLD ACROBATICS SOCIETY 2012 WINTER NEWSLETTER

Courtney Kupets

Elise Ray

Corrie Lothrop kelli hill Corey Hartung

Kytra Hunter

Glyn Sweets

Raegan Tomasek Erinn Dooley 2012 gallery of legends

ACCOMPLISHMENTS

Jennifer Iovino COACH 2000 OLYMPIC GAMES SYDNEY COACH 2003 WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS COACH 2004 OLYMPIC GAMES ATHENS COACH 2008 OLYMPIC GAMES ALTERNATES IN JAPAN

LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT A DOZEN TIMES OVER Britney Ranzy

Larissa Fountaine Page 7 of 11 WORLD ACROBATICS SOCIETY 2012 WINTER NEWSLETTER 2012 GALLERY OF LEGENDS STOYAN DELTCHEV

Very few international gymnasts from small European has two bronze medals from the 1978 World Championships in countries have become well known in the United States Strasbourg, France. He won the European Championships in especially when their greatest competition accomplishment 1979 in a pinnacle performance. In all, he performed in two occurred in the 1980 Olympic games that American athletes Olympic Games and three World Championships in an were forced to boycott. Their name usually goes unnoticed but international career that covered the years 1975 through 1983. not in the case of Stoyan Deltchev. His flyaway half turn Deltchev’s straddle split above the rings is also in the FIG regrasp on horizontal bar in the straddle position has become Code of Points. It is probably on of the few skills on rings that one of the most popular movements in the FIG Code of Points. demonstrates leg flexibility as well as strength and balance. It It is performed by men and women alike on the bar and the could be considered Deltchev’s photographic trademark. uneven parallel bars. His basic skill became a stock movement Stoyan owns and operates his own gymnastics school in leading to more complex and difficult movements on three Reno, Nevada. different apparatus. Well-known in Bulgaria, Stoyan is “the Gymnast of the Twentieth Century” of his native country. Stoyan is the 1980 Olympic games gold medalist on the horizontal bar. He earned a bronze medal in the all-around. He

Page 8 of 11 WORLD ACROBATICS SOCIETY 2012 WINTER NEWSLETTER MEGAN NEYER 1980 OLYMPIAN 1982 SPRINGBOARD WORLD CHAMP 15 US NATIONAL DIVING WINS 8 NCAA DIVING CHAMPIONSHIPS

1996 “Gator Great” at the 2012 GALLERY OF LEGENDS Dr Megan Neyer receives her WAS medallion from 1997 International Swimming Hall of Fame . Tom Gomph, Legend of the first WAS class of 2000 NCAA’s Outstanding Diver of the last 25 years

Megan Neyer, a relatively unknown diver, surprised the diving community by winning the three meter springboard and ten meter platform in the 1980 US Olympic Trials. President Carter’s boycott of the Moscow Olympic games made Megan one of the many ‘Forgotten Olympians.’ Megan took a scholarship at the University of Florida and competed 1982-1986 winning eight NCAA one meter and 3 meter championships. Neyer placed third in the US Olympic Trails and failed to make the 1984 US Olympic Diving Team and took some time off diving, missing the 1985 college competition season. Shortly after winning her first two NCAA titles, Megan won the 1982 women’s springboard World Aquatics Championships in Guayaquil, Ecuador. Megan amassed fifteen US Diving Championships (8 outdoor & 7 indoor) Titles between 1981 and 1988. She won a silver medal in the three meter springboard at the 1987 Pan American Games in Indianapolis. Megan retired from diving after she failed to make the US diving team to the 1988 Seoul Olympic games. Megan was recognized twice at Florida as an Academic All- American making “bookends” in athletics with her eight All-American diving certificates. Neyer posted a 3.5 cumulative grade point average while earning her bachelor’s degree in psychology. After retiring from diving in 1988 she earned her master’s degree in sports psychology in 1990, and her doctorate in the field of counseling in 1994 while on a postgraduate NCAA scholarship. Megan was honored in 1997 as the University of Florida Alumna of Outstanding Achievement. Professionally, Neyer worked as the director of performance and wellness counseling at the Homer Rice Center for Sports Performance at Georgia Tech University in Atlanta, Georgia. Neyer is the President of Neyer Performance Strategies, LLC, a company that specializes in individual, team and organizational performance with businesses and athletic teams. Neyer personifies what it means to be a WAS Legend! Page 9 of 11 WORLD ACROBATICS SOCIETY 2012 WINTER NEWSLETTER 1955-56 NCAA Champion-1960 Olympic Team Alternate-1962 World Championships Jon Culbertson is a 1952 Illinois State High School Gymnastics Champion. At the University of Illinois, Culbertson helped lead the Illini to three Big Ten Championships and two NCAA National Championships. He was an MVP, scoring points on pommel horse, horizontal bar, and the now extinct rope climb event. Jon was a member of three US international teams. He was the alternate to the US Rome Olympic team, the Canadian National Exhibit 1960-62 to Toronto, and the 1962 US World Championship Team to Prague. Jon competed in numerous US National Championships in a competitive career spanning the years of 1958 through 1964, regional competitions like the Peachtree Open, and winning the all-around in a seniors dual meet with Great Britain in Orlando in 1993. Culbertson has had an extensive career in judging. He was the Technical Director of the National Gymnastics Judges Association from 1973 through 1977. Jon served as Chair of the Southeastern Gymnastics Judges Association from 1969 through 1973, and again, 1980 through 1987, conducting gymnastics judging courses more than numerous times. Jon judged the NCAA Championships, the USGF Championships, the SIGL Championships, the Championships of the USA, the Olympic Trials, the American Cup, the Pan American Games, the Junior Pan American Games Championships, and the Illinois High School State Championships, each many times. Culbertson was the Meet Referee/ Technical Director for the Junior Olympic National Championships for the years 1997 through 2008. Jon judged the Five Continents Junior Elite Championships in France, the Pacific Alliance Championships, and was an 1996 Olympic Games auxiliary judge. Jon served as the Technical Director for the National Future Stars Evaluation for more than ten years. Jon directed Culbertson Gymnastique of Sarasota for s quarter century and coached many of the top male gymnasts in the State of Florida and USAG Region Eight . Jon served as President of the Florida Gymnastics Association from 1974 through 1976. Jon also served as the Program Director for the Woodward Gymnastics Camp in Pennsylvania in the mid-seventies. Culbertson is a graduate of New Trier Jon Culbertson Culbertson served as President of Planned Township High School of Winnetka, Illinois. Parenthood of Southwest Florida. He was a He received his bachelor’s and master’s dealer for Resilite Sports Products. Jon was degree from the University of Illinois in a professional adviser to the West Coast Zoology. He earned his PhD. in Biological Gymnastics Foundation, Inc. He is a Sciences from Northwestern University of CoDirector of Healthsource. Jon served as Evanston, Illinois. Culbertson worked as a the Chairperson of the Substance Abuse teaching assistant both at the U of I and at Committee of (PATCH) Planned Approach Northwestern Universities. He was a to Community Health and a member of the National Science Foundation Fellow, an PATCH Data Committee. Culbertson Abbott Lab Research Fellow, and a NIH continues to serve as an SAT Instructor for Microbiology Trainee all at Northwestern. the Princeton Revue from 2003 on. Jon taught biology at Kendall College. Jon became a research associate and postdoctoral Fellow and a biology instructor at Florida State University during 1964 through 1966. Later, Culbertson became an Assistant Professor of Biology and a Student Chair at New College of Sarasota, FL. Jon was a science teacher at Prew Preparatory of Sarasota and an Adjunct Professor at JUDGING Manatee C.C. Page 10 of 11 2012 gallery of legends

WORLD ACROBATICS SOCIETY 2012 WINTER NEWSLETTER 2012 GALLERY OF LEGENDS Born Fe David Sharpe Born: February 2nd 1910 Died: March 30th 1980 David Sharpe appeared in over 5,000 Hollywood films. Everyone got excited when John Wayne exceeded 200 film appearances. Sharpe certainly is the all time leader with over 5000. Sharpe made his first appearance in Douglas Fairbanks’ Robin Hood in 1922 and continued to make B westerns for Republic Pictures during the 20’s and 30’s. Douglas Fairbanks liked Sharpe and helped him with his tumbling passes that he used when he went east in 1925 and in 1926 to win the national tumbling championships twice. It was unusual for someone from the West to compete let alone win the national tumbling championship. During his tenure with Republic Pictures Sharpe met the Yakima Canutt, the great stuntman. He became a stuntman himself doubling for all the leading mean and some of the women. As World War II broke out, Sharpe joined the Army Air Corp and became a fighter pilot and the rank as captain. He shot down several enemy aircraft during his service. Returning to Hollywood, Sharpe doubled for Douglas Fairbanks, Jr. and Tony Curtis. Sharpe also branched out from films to television. He doubled for lead stars in the “Adventures of Wild Bill Hickok,” “The Red Skeleton Show,” and “The FBI.” It was not uncommon for Sharpe to do “double duty” playing his part and doubling for others in the production. During his career Sharpe was a double for Marlon Brando, Alan Ladd, Tyrone Power, and John Derek. Early in his career, Sharpe had a rehearsal scene printed by a producer without his knowledge. David began rehearsing with a cigar clenched in his teeth to stop producers from filming scenes for which he wasn’t paid. David Sharpe was inducted into the Hollywood Stuntman’s Hall of Fame in 1970. Loren Janes says: “There was none better or more respected than David Sharpe. He was the ultimate stuntman.” David Sharpe is a 2012 WAS Legend.

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WORLD ACROBATICS SOCIETY 2012 WINTER NEWSLETTER