Early doubts forgotten, gymnasts take hopes to Olympics trials

A natural? Perhaps. But in the beginning, Randy Stageberg's mother wondered whether her family's deep athletic heritage had skipped a generation.

"When Randy was 5, I remember watching her and thinking, 'Oh, no; she's terrible,' " Susan Conkwright Stageberg said. "She can't even do the splits. No flexibility at all."

For a young Britney Ranzy, the passion for gymnastics was buried so deeply that many wondered if it was really in there at all.

"Her coaches used to wonder if it was me, not Britney, that really loved the sport," Donna Ranzy said.

Now, both young athletes are just one step from a trip to the Beijing Olympics.

But as Stageberg and Ranzy prepare for the U.S. Olympic Trials beginning Friday in Philadelphia, both insist that the pressure is off. The hard part, they say, was just getting to this point.

"I think it's actually going to be fun," Stageberg said. "I mean, this is what we've been working for."

Only 17 other women will join the two stars of Excalibur Gymnastics in Virginia Beach at the trials, which will yield Olympic team-berth guarantees only to the top two all-around finishers. The remainder of the team will be chosen after a series of in-house competitions and tests in July.

Stageberg, a 17-year-old Chesapeake native whose arsenal includes a can-you-believe-this floor routine, earned an invite to the trials - and a spot on the U.S. Senior National Team - by placing ninth overall at the Visa Championships in Boston this month.

It marks the second appearance on the national team for Stageberg, who was a co-champion in the floor exercise at the U.S. National Championships in 2006.

Ranzy, an 18-year-old now living in Virginia Beach, was invited largely because of her standing as one of the nation's best in the vault. Hers has been a career marked by some near-misses. In 2005, Ranzy was leading the vault and in the top 10 of the all-around at the U.S. National Championships after one day, only to dislocate her elbow on Day 2. The following year, Ranzy missed qualifying for the national team by one spot.

For all of their accomplishments, neither Stageberg nor Ranzy has been assigned a favorite's role heading to Philadelphia. But Ranzy points out that neither of them is saddled with the expectations that come with that.

"I'll just do the best I can, and at the end, just hope that my best is enough," Ranzy said.

Her initial struggles in gymnastics aside, it's hardly surprising to see Stageberg excelling in sports. Athletic success runs throughout her family.

Her mother was a state champion field hockey player at Cox; her father a two-time state wrestling champion in Texas. Older brother Michael Martin was a four-time state wrestling champion at Great Bridge. Her younger brother, Cody, is already a two-time state middle school wrestling champ. And that's just her immediate family; aunts and uncles accumulated a host of gymnastics and wrestling honors, too.

So no one was surprised when Randy was walking at 7 months old or that she was so determined to do flips and handstands that her mother put her in gymnastics class at age 3 "just to get her out of my hair."

The phenom tendencies of Ranzy were also on display early. Her father, Charles, insists his daughter could curl a 5-pound dumbbell at 8 months old.

"I was like, 'Man, this girl is strong!' " he said.

But natural ability isn't nearly enough to vault a young gymnast to elite status. Both have spent years enduring twice-a-day training schedules that add up to more than 35 hours of practice per week. Both are home-schooled to maximize workout opportunities.

"Not going to high school, not hanging out with friends, there's a lot of sacrifice," Ranzy said.

Stageberg said she came to "hate" gymnastics at age 11, before becoming re-invigorated by the move to Excalibur. And Ranzy's quiet, laid-back demeanor continually left her open to charges she didn't care enough to excel.

"I know Britney loves the sport; she just didn't show it," Donna Ranzy said.

Even so, Britney herself acknowledges that it wasn't until last year that she truly understood how much of herself she had to pour into the sport.

"I had to change some not-so-good habits, get tougher skin and learn how to give 110 percent," she said. "But finally, it clicked in."

Just in time, too. Given their ages, the two are taking what figures to be their most realistic shot at the Olympic dream. Both are targeting college next fall. Stageberg has already committed to the University of Florida, while Ranzy is considering Georgia and UCLA.

But no matter what happens this weekend, Stageberg said she's determined to enjoy the accomplishment of merely making it to the trials.

So is her mother. While waiting for her plane in the Boston airport after Randy qualified, Susan Stageberg said she began to cry. Two hours later, the tears were still flowing.

"You doubt yourself constantly as a parent, wondering if the home-schooling, the money you spend, the traveling, is all worth it," she said. "But at that moment, the look on Randy's face, it all hit me. It has been worth it.

"And everything that happens now is just icing on the cake."

 Paul White, 757-418-1447, paul.white@pilotonline.com