Wedding bells for Olympic gymnast, Kerri Strug

Former gold medal gymnast Kerri Strug just got married. Nice story in Sunday's New York Times.

She's 32 and a project manager for the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention in Washington. Her new husband, Robert William Fischer III, is a lawyer in the Washington Congressional office of Representative Lamar Smith, a Republican from Texas.

The couple met two years ago through a mutual friend.

The article tells of the couple's courtship. It also touches on the tough choices - uneven bars, yes; boys, no - that Strug made to become a champion.

From the Times:

Ms. Strug, who acknowledged “not dating much and living a sheltered life” during her gymnastics career, said that she felt an immediate connection with Mr. Fischer.

“I don’t believe in love at first sight, but I was very attracted to him,” she remembered. “My entire adolescence was geared toward one thing: gymnastics. It’s like I was living in this big gymnastics bubble. I never went to my high school dance, and didn’t date much, so my criteria for dating men was really just put together in theory, not practice.”

To pursue a child's dream, how far would you go?

A hypothetical. You live in Turkey. You own a successful restaurant in Ankara. You make a comfortable living.

Your daughter begins skating. She's talented with the potential to be a champion, maybe an Olympian. But not if you remain in Turkey.

The way to nurture her ability is to move halfway around the world to Canada so she can be around the best skaters and coaches. You can't take your restaurant with you. Your friends and extended family either. You have limited command of English. So you're likely to end up in some menial job. A year after you arrive, your daughter might decide she really prefers to study the violin. She might meet a boy.

What would you do?

Tugba Karademir's father and mother moved. Last night,13 years later, she competed in the figure skating finals in Vancouver. Her goal was the top 10. She finished 24th.

Tugba's mom says, "It was a big decision. We never regretted it."

"My mom thinks I can do anything"

Notable sports parenting commercials airing during NBC's Olympic coverage:

The real Olympic trial - being away from their kids

For AOL's parenting Web site, I just interviewed five U.S. Olympians who're headed for Vancouver. The hook is that, in addition to being on Team USA, they're all parents. That's somewhat unusual for Olympic athletes. The first interview to post is with Christian Niccum, a luger. Niccum and his wife have an 18-month-old daughter Hayden. The Niccum family has a blog and you can see family pictures there.

One thing that came up over and over in the five interviews is how much time these athletes are away from their families and how rough that is on all involved. When we spoke, Niccum was in Germany. He'd been out of the country a lot in the last year.

Niccum said being an Olympian was selfish. I asked why. He said, "It's a lot of sacrifice on the part of my family. Since October 25, I've been home seven days -- for Christmas. My relationship with my wife and daughter right now is pretty much on Skype. I think my daughter thinks of me as another face on a computer screen, the way she thinks about Sesame Street. I look at Elmo as my competition."

He told a good story about his wife and kid. At a race in Norway recently, he tucked pictures of them in his racing helmet before a run. He and his partner did well, qualifying for the US team. So the photos will be in his helmet again in Vancouver.

"I'm looking for the best location, in a place where they're not going to fall out."

Required reading this weekend

Olympic and Paralympic Athletes at Risk for Overtraining, Excessive Mental Demands.
Who's pushing them beyond physical and emotional limits? The grownups.

PIAA needs to get on its game over officials with criminal past
The Harrisburg Patriot News urges background checks for school sports officials in Pennsylvania. A followup to last week's Youth Sports Parents post.

A soccer mom packs a loaded handgun at her 5-year-old's games
And it's not Sarah Palin.