Planning + Perseverance + Dedication = Olympic Dreams Come True

In all my years with Tumbl Trak I have had opportunities that have changed my life. I have learned to be a better coach, a better person. I have had moments of awe, been starstruck, and really come to love this sport from the inside out!  

My most recent experience, interviewing Houry Gebeshian, is one that I will cherish because it wrapped all these experiences into one. Here’s some of what I learned about this gracious, talented, dedicated young woman that changed my outlook on our sport forever.  

Houry’s Road to Rio

Houry Gebeshian is a 26 year old Physician’s Assistant who works at the Cleveland Clinic on the Obstetric Labor and Delivery floor AND also happens to be heading to the Rio Olympics to represent the country Armenia in Women’s Artistic Gymnastics.  

Houry was a gymnast at Massachusetts Gymnastics Center from age 5-18 where she learned to love her sport. Iowa came calling and her NCAA career began. She pushed herself to be the best she could be and very much had her eye on the Olympics.  

In just 3 months, Houry transitioned from NCAA gymnastics into the elite world, learning new skills, a new code, a new vault and bar settings and competed in the World Championships in 2011. Soon after, she suffered a stress fracture in her heel and failed to qualify for the Olympic Test event in 2012. Devastated, she walked away from this sport she loved. For more than 2 years she studied and diverted her determination into becoming a Physician’s Assistant.

But something was missing. The Olympic dream was calling again. Out of shape and without a coach, she set herself on a path to make the Olympic team.   She found a home at Gym World and secured a job that had a flexible schedule, yet provided her enough money to train. She created a huge spreadsheet of all her goals. She studied the code and taught herself new skills and prepared to begin the journey to making her dreams become a reality.  

Houry estimates that she has 20 years in this sport of pounding skill after skill, she now “soft trains” on the Tumbl Trak, resi pits and uses Pit Pillows. She is concentrating on the 90% mental game this is now. She trains about 16-20 hours per week, has a full time job at the hospital and is her own coach. Can you say determination?  

[What a story, what an inspiration...to chat with someone who mapped out her own path, set goals, worked through the struggles and made her dreams a reality! To read more about the incredible journey Houry has taken on her Olympic path, and her personal interview, click here.]