Ivana Hong (born December 11, 1992, in

Worcester Worcester may refer to: Places United Kingdom * Worcester, England, a city and the county town of Worcestershire in England ** Worcester (UK Parliament constituency), an area represented by a Member of Parliament * Worcester Park, London, Engl ...

Massachusetts Massachusetts ( ; ), officially the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, is a U.S. state, state in the New England region of the Northeastern United States. It borders the Atlantic Ocean and the Gulf of Maine to its east, Connecticut and Rhode ...

) is an American former

artistic gymnast Artistic gymnastics is a discipline of gymnastics in which athletes perform short routines on different types of apparatus. The sport is governed by the Fédération Internationale de Gymnastique (FIG), which assigns the '' Code of Points'' used ...

. She was a member of the gold medal American team at the

2007 World Artistic Gymnastics Championships The 40th World Gymnastics Championships#Artistic, World Artistic Gymnastics Championships were held at the Hanns-Martin-Schleyer-Halle in Stuttgart, Germany, from 1 to 9 September 2007. Medal summary Men's results Qualification Oldest and ...

and the all-around bronze medalist at the 2007

Pan American Games The Pan American Games, known as the Pan Am Games, is a continental multi-sport event in the Americas. It features thousands of athletes participating in competitions to win different summer sports. It is held among athletes from nations of th ...

. Hong was named an alternate to the 2008 U.S. Olympic team and was a member of the U.S. Women's Team in the

2009 World Artistic Gymnastics Championships The 41st World Artistic Gymnastics Championships was held at The O2 Arena in London from 12 to 18 October 2009. Similar to the 2005 World Championships, there were no team competitions. Individual all-around and event finals were contested. C ...

in London. Hong is of

Chinese Chinese may refer to: * Something related to China * Chinese people, people identified with China, through nationality, citizenship, and/or ethnicity **Han Chinese, East Asian ethnic group native to China. **'' Zhonghua minzu'', the supra-ethnic ...

and

Vietnamese Vietnamese may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to Vietnam, a country in Southeast Asia * Vietnamese people, or Kinh people, a Southeast Asian ethnic group native to Vietnam ** Overseas Vietnamese, Vietnamese people living outside Vietna ...

ancestry. Hong lived in

Blue Springs, Missouri Blue Springs is a city in Jackson County, Missouri, United States. Blue Springs is located east of Kansas City. It is the 8th largest city in the Kansas City metropolitan area and 10th largest city in the state of Missouri. As of the 2020 cens ...

, and trained at

Great American Gymnastics Express Great American Gymnastics Express, known also as GAGE Center or GAGE, is an American artistic gymnastics academy, located in Blue Springs, Missouri. GAGE was founded in 1979 by its present-day owner and head coach, Al Fong. Notable alumni Amon ...

(GAGE) for four years. She also trained under

Valeri Liukin Valeri Viktorovich Liukin (; born 17 December 1966 in Aqtöbe, Aktyubinsk, Kazakh SSR, Soviet Union) is a Kazakh-American retired artistic gymnast currently working as a gymnastics coach. Representing the former Soviet Union, Liukin was the 1988 ...

at the

World Olympic Gymnastics Academy The World Olympic Gymnastics Academy (WOGA) is a two-facility gymnastics club located in Frisco, Texas, Frisco and Plano, Texas, Plano. In 1994, WOGA was established by Yevgeny Marchenko (gymnast), Yevgeny Marchenko, a World Sports acrobatic ch ...

(WOGA). She competed for

Stanford University Leland Stanford Junior University, commonly referred to as Stanford University, is a Private university, private research university in Stanford, California, United States. It was founded in 1885 by railroad magnate Leland Stanford (the eighth ...

from 2012 to 2016.

Gymnastics career

Hong became a junior international elite in 2004 and qualified to her first United States Junior National Championships at age eleven. She was named to the Junior National Team for the first time following the 2005 National Championships, a feat she repeated in 2006 after a fifth-place finish in the all-around. Podium of 2009WAGC Beam

Hong became a Senior International Elite in 2007. She was part of the gold medal-winning U.S. team at 2007 Pan-American Games and won the bronze medal in the all-around competition. This and a strong showing at the 2007 Visa National Championships assured her place on the U.S. World Championships team, which again won the gold medal. The following year, Hong was named to the 2008–2009 U.S. Senior National team, and was invited to the 2008 Olympic Trials. Hong's skill as an all-around athlete without a weak event enabled her to be named, along with Jana Bieger and Corrie Lothrop, as one of three alternates for the U.S. Olympic team. Following the Olympics, Hong left her former gym and moved to WOGA to train with

. Hong finished second in the all-around at the 2009 U.S. National Championships with a total score of 117.250 in

Dallas, Texas Dallas () is a city in the U.S. state of Texas and the most populous city in the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex, the List of Texas metropolitan areas, most populous metropolitan area in Texas and the Metropolitan statistical area, fourth-most ...

. She also won the national titles on the balance beam (with a combined score of 30.350) and the vault (combined score 29.950). At the 2009 World Championships in

London London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...

, Ivana scored a 14.550 on balance beam to win the bronze medal on that event. This made medalists of all four American gymnasts (

Bridget Sloan Bridget Elizabeth Sloan (born June 23, 1992) is an American artistic gymnast. She is the 2009 world champion in the all-around, the 2009 United States national champion, and a silver medalist with the American team at the 2008 Summer Olympics i ...

, Kayla Williams and Rebecca Bross in addition to Hong) in the women's competition. In early March 2010, Hong tore the anterior cruciate ligament in her right knee at the National Team training camp as she landed a vault. She subsequently spent several months out of training, recovering from surgery. She was inducted into the

USA Gymnastics United States of America Gymnastics (USA Gymnastics or USAG) is the national governing body for gymnastics in the United States. It sets the domestic rules and policies that govern the sport, promotes and develops gymnastics on the grassroots ...

Hall of Fame as a member of the class of 2024.

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Hong, Ivana 1992 births Living people American female artistic gymnasts American sportspeople of Vietnamese descent American sportswomen of Chinese descent Sportspeople of Vietnamese descent Medalists at the World Artistic Gymnastics Championships Sportspeople from Missouri Sportspeople from Worcester, Massachusetts World Olympic Gymnastics Academy Sportspeople from Blue Springs, Missouri U.S. women's national team gymnasts Gymnasts at the 2007 Pan American Games Medalists at the 2007 Pan American Games Pan American Games gold medalists for the United States in gymnastics Pan American Games bronze medalists for the United States in gymnastics 21st-century American sportswomen