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

Carly Patterson Carly Rae Patterson (born February 4, 1988) is an American singer, songwriter and former artistic gymnast. She was the all-around champion at the 2004 Olympics, the first all-around champion for the United States at a non-boycotted Olympics, an ...

to her gold medal, and Valeri Liukin, a

Soviet The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...

Olympic winner from 1988 who later worked as coordinator for 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 ...

women's national team. Edouard Larov, a former coach of Liukin and the

USSR The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...

and Canadian national teams, also trained gymnasts at the club. In 2003, WOGA gymnasts Patterson and Hollie Vise won two individual medals and contributed to the first team gold for the United States at the World Championships. In 2004, Patterson became the second American gymnast to become the women's Olympic all-around gymnastics champion, and the first American to do so in a non-boycotted Olympics. WOGA hosts an annual meet at the Comerica Center in

Frisco, Texas Frisco is a city in the U.S. state of Texas, located in Collin County, Texas, Collin and Denton County, Texas, Denton counties. It is part of the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex (DFW) and about from both Dallas Love Field and Dallas/Fort Worth In ...

, which has competitions from level 1 to 10 and an international elite competition that has featured competitors such as Mira Boumejmajen,

Marine Brevet Marine Grace Brevet (born 23 November 1994) is a French former artistic gymnast. She was a member of the team that won a bronze medal at the 2016 European Championships. She was supposed to represent France at the 2012 Summer Olympics, but a di ...

, Madeline Gardiner,

Laurie Hernandez Lauren Zoe Hernandez (born June 9, 2000) is an American retired artistic gymnast. During her debut year as a senior gymnast, she competed as a member of the U.S. women's gymnastics team dubbed the " Final Five" that won the team gold medal at ...

Katelyn Ohashi Katelyn Michelle Ohashi (born April 12, 1997) is an American gymnast who competed for the University of California, Los Angeles. She is a six-time All-American and was a four-time member of USA Gymnastics' Junior National Team, the 2011 junior n ...

, and

Jordyn Wieber Jordyn Marie Wieber Brooks ( Wieber; born July 12, 1995) is an American former artistic gymnast and current gymnastics coach. Since April 2019, she has been the head coach of the Arkansas Razorbacks gymnastics team. Wieber began competing in ...

Notable gymnasts

WOGA is home to four Olympic champions: Patterson ( Athens 2004),

Nastia Liukin Anastasia "Nastia" Valeryevna Liukin (; ; born October 30, 1989) is an Americans, American former artistic gymnast. She is the Gymnastics at the 2008 Summer Olympics, 2008 Olympic Gymnastics at the 2008 Summer Olympics – Women's artistic ind ...

(

Beijing 2008 The 2008 Summer Olympics (), officially the Games of the XXIX Olympiad () and officially branded as Beijing 2008 (), were an international multisport event held from 8 to 24 August 2008, in Beijing, China. A total of 10,942 athletes fr ...

), Madison Kocian (

Rio 2016 The 2016 Summer Olympics (), officially the Games of the XXXI Olympiad () and officially branded as Rio 2016, were an international multi-sport event held from 5 to 21 August 2016 in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, with preliminary events i ...

), and Hezly Rivera ( Paris 2024). Additionally WOGA is home to seven world champions: Patterson (

2003 2003 was designated by the United Nations as the International Year of Fresh water, Freshwater. In 2003, a Multi-National Force – Iraq, United States-led coalition 2003 invasion of Iraq, invaded Iraq, starting the Iraq War. Demographic ...

), Hollie Vise (

), Liukin (

2005 2005 was designated as the International Year for Sport and Physical Education and the International Year of Microcredit. The beginning of 2005 also marked the end of the International Decade of the World's Indigenous Peoples, Internationa ...

2007 2007 was designated as the International Heliophysical Year and the International Polar Year. Events January * January 1 **Bulgaria and Romania 2007 enlargement of the European Union, join the European Union, while Slovenia joins the Eur ...

Ivana Hong Ivana Hong (born December 11, 1992, in Worcester, Massachusetts, Worcester, Massachusetts) is an American former artistic gymnast. She was a member of the gold medal American team at the 2007 World Artistic Gymnastics Championships and the all-ar ...

(

), Kocian (

2014 The year 2014 was marked by the surge of the Western African Ebola epidemic, West African Ebola epidemic, which began in 2013, becoming the List of Ebola outbreaks, most widespread outbreak of the Ebola, Ebola virus in human history, resul ...

2015 2015 was designated by the United Nations as: * International Year of Light * International Year of Soil __TOC__ Events January * January 1 – Lithuania officially adopts the euro as its currency, replacing the litas, and becomes ...

Alyssa Baumann Alyssa Lyn Baumann (born May 17, 1998) is a retired American artistic gymnast, and has competed for the United States at international events as well as for University of Florida team. Baumann is the 2014 and 2015 United States silver medalist ...

(

), and

Skye Blakely Skye Amiel Blakely (born February 4, 2005) is an American artistic gymnast. She was a member of the teams who won gold at the 2022 and 2023 World Championships, silver at the 2022 Pan American Championships, and bronze at the inaugural Junior ...

(

2022 The year began with another wave in the COVID-19 pandemic, with SARS-CoV-2 Omicron variant, Omicron spreading rapidly and becoming the dominant variant of the SARS-CoV-2 virus worldwide. Tracking a decrease in cases and deaths, 2022 saw ...

2023 Catastrophic natural disasters in 2023 included the Lists of 21st-century earthquakes, 5th-deadliest earthquake of the 21st century 2023 Turkey–Syria earthquakes, striking Turkey and Syria, leaving up to 62,000 people dead; Cyclone Freddy ...

). Other notable artistic gymnasts include Irina Alexeeva,

Vanessa Atler Vanessa Marie Atler (born February 17, 1982) is an American former elite gymnast. She is the 1997 U.S. national all-around champion, the 1998 Goodwill Games gold medalist on the floor exercise and Vault (gymnastics), vault, and a four-time natio ...

, Rebecca Bross, Briley Casanova, Madray Johnson, Brenda Magaña, Grace McLaughlin,

Konnor McClain Konnor McClain (born February 1, 2005) is an American artistic gymnast and a member of the United States women's national gymnastics team. She is the 2022 U.S National Champion and was the 2019 City of Jesolo Trophy and the 2019 U.S. Classic ...

, Ohashi, Levi Ruivivar, McKenzie Wofford, and Glenn McCuen. A notable acrobatic gymnasts is Axl Osborne.

Sexual assaults and alleged abuse

Sexual assaults

In 2003 and 2004, WOGA coach Christopher Wagoner fondled and raped 14-year-old Natasha Crabb. Police launched an investigation in 2005 after Wagoner had left the gym. He pleaded guilty to two counts of sexual assault and was sentenced in 2006 to 15 years in prison. After Wagoner pled guilty, Crabb and her family sued WOGA's owners, alleging that the gym had failed to properly screen and supervise the coach. The suit did not seek a specific amount of money from the academy owners and did not accuse them of abuse. Bill Boyd, the gym's attorney, said all instructors receive a criminal background check and that the gym was not aware of any accusations until after Wagoner had left. In 2008, WOGA and Crabb settled the lawsuit for an undisclosed amount.

Alleged abuse of gymnasts

In 2022, the U.S. Center for SafeSport launched an investigation into allegations of abuse of gymnasts by WOGA founder Liukin. "Multiple gymnasts allege Liukin routinely berated, belittled, and screamed at them, that he forced them to compete and train on broken bones or when they were ill, and in some cases they were fat-shamed daily," wrote the ''

Orange County Register ''The Orange County Register'' is a paid daily List of newspapers in California, newspaper published in California. The ''Register'', published in Orange County, California, is owned by the private equity firm Alden Global Capital via its Digit ...

'', citing a

Southern California News Group The Southern California News Group (SCNG), formerly the San Gabriel Valley News Group and the Los Angeles News Group, is an umbrella group of local daily newspapers published in the greater Los Angeles area of southern California by Digital Fir ...

investigation published in March 2022. Liukin remained under investigation as of January 2023.

References

External links

* * {{cite web, url=https://turismoesalute.it/combattere-lansia-lo-stress-e-la-paura-dellacqua-con-il-woga/, title=Combattere l'ansia, lo stress e la paura dell'acqua con il Woga, archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171005050830/turismoesalute.it/combattere-lansia-lo-stress-e-la-paura-dellacqua-con-il-woga/, archive-date=2017-10-05, url-status=dead] World Olympic Gymnastics Academy, American companies established in 1994 Gymnastics clubs in the United States Gymnastics venues in the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex 1994 establishments in Texas Sports clubs and teams established in 1994 Sports in Frisco, Texas Companies based in Frisco, Texas