Raleigh gymnast Sydney Snead placed seventh in the nation this past weekend and earned a chance to work with one of the legends of gymnastics.

Snead competed in the Junior A all-around competition at the Level 10 Junior Olympic National Championships in Long Beach, Calif.

Level 10 is the highest level before Elite (Olympic) competition in gymnastics.

Competitors from the Raleigh School of Gymnastics spent a lot of time on the podium, building a collection of gold, silver and bronze medals at the Region 8 Prep Optional Gymnastics Championship held April 29-May 1 in Palmetto, Fla.    
 
One Raleigh School gymnast, Nhyla Bryant, 9, of Raleigh also represented the state on the North Carolina State Platinum Team. She earned individual first-place honors on bars (9.700) and second place all-around.

Raleigh School’s Platinum Level team took first-place honors in the all-around, on vault (28.350), on beam (28.500) and on floor (29.150).
 

More than 14,000 amateur athletes of all ages - including many from the Triangle - are expected to converge in and around Charlotte for the Powerade State Games of North Carolina.

Opening ceremonies take place at 8 p.m. Friday at the Paladium at Carowinds theme park, and competition ends June 27.

The Olympic-style festival will include a variety of age and skill levels in baseball, basketball, BMX, cycling criterium , disc golf, fencing, figure skating, golf, gymnastics, ice hockey, karate, lacrosse, mountain biking, soccer, softball, swimming, taekwondo, tennis, track and field and wrestling.

In gymnastics, the attention tends to fall on the female competitors.

In Raleigh on Nov. 21-22, the stage will be for male competitors only.

The third annual Boudreaux Classic boys meet is scheduled for Nov. 21-22 at North Raleigh Gymnastics.

Gymnast of the Year:              Kari Creech            (Smithfield-Selma)

American gymnastics Bridget Sload, Shawn Johnson and Nastia Liukin (left to right). AP photo

U.S. teammates Shawn Johnson and Nastia Liukin are 1-2 after the first day of the women's gymnastics team competition, but the question is, is the U.S. team deep enough to win gold? The Americans trail powerful team from host China entering the final, which will be broadcast live during NBC's 8 p.m. to midnight EDT show Tuesday.

Johnson and Liukin both qualified for the all-around final later in the Games. But the key might be Bridget Sloan, who had the 11th-best first-day score but must help make up for Samantha Peszek, who injured her ankle in warmups Sunday and was only able to compete on bars.

So, is American coach Martha Karolyi worried about the Chinese?

"I usually try not to pay attention to what other people are doing," she said. "I actually didn't watch China at all (Sunday) and made sure to keep my back to the TVs.

"We can't control anything but our own performance."

The question is, will it be enough?

— Mike Persinger, Charlotte Observer