Caquatto sisters making strides as elite gymnasts
Both have shot at U.S. Olympic team in 2012

By Philip Hersh // Sept. 11, 2009

Ten months ago, when Mackenzie Caquatto had her first invitation to the elite athlete camps at the Karolyi ranch outside Houston, it would be one of the rare times her gymnastics career would be separated from that of her younger sister, Bridgette.

“Mackenzie was so looking forward to just going down there on her own,” said the girls’ mother, Lin. “When she came back, she said, `You know, I really missed Bridgey being there.’ That was very telling.”

It tells of a bond between the Naperville teens that has grown as they did, despite natural tensions that might develop between any two athletes who have spent 36 hours a week together in the gym and many more hours together getting to and from the gym, let alone living under the same roof.

And now, for the first time, that bond includes each having made a national team based on the results of the U.S. Championships, where Mackenzie, 17, finished fifth in the all-around and third on uneven bars at the senior level and Bridgette, 15, was second in both all-around and vault at the junior level.

That means Mackenzie is spending this week back at the ranch, as one of 12 national team members at the first of two selection camps for the U.S. team that will compete at October’s World Championships in London. After the camp ends late Friday, a minimum of eight will be invited back for the second camp Sept. 30.

Bridgette will go to Camp Karolyi in November for the Pan American Junior Championships team selection.

The Caquattos, both full-time students at Naperville Central High School, already are among the relatively few sets of sisters to make U.S. national teams. The most recent were two such pairs, the Kupets and the Schwikerts, in 2002.

“We bounce ideas off each other and comfort and encourage each other,” Bridgette said. “We know what the other person is going through.”

Mackenzie echoed that in a separate interview a few minutes later.

“It’s nice to go home and have someone to talk to who understands everything,” Mackenzie said. “My parents try, but it’s not always easy for them.”

It has helped, of course, that the age difference means the sisters have competed against each other infrequently. When they did, Mackenzie would be better all-around, but each would be superior in two events: bars and floor for Mackenzie, vault and beam for Bridgette.

“If one is having a really good day, and one is having a really bad day, it’s not good for either of us,” Mackenzie said. “So we have learned when not to say anything to the other one.”

Beginning in January, both will be senior level gymnasts who presumably would be looking toward the 2012 Olympics.

“They will be an asset for USA gymnastics,” U.S. women’s national team coordinator Martha Karolyi said. “They have a chance for the next Olympics Games.”

In Mackenzie’s case, that goal could change, depending in part on whether she is among the four chosen for the upcoming worlds. She has made an oral commitment to enter the University of Florida on a gymnastics scholarship next year.

Jiani Wu, who coaches the sisters at Naperville Gymnastics Club along with her husband, Li Yuejiu – both were Olympic medalists for China in 1984 – thinks going to Florida likely would take Mackenzie out of the Olympic track because the training level is so different.

“I think about the decision every day,” Mackenzie said. “I think you could still do [the Olympic track], but it’s a lot harder.”

That former Karolyi student Rhonda Faehn, a 1988 Olympic team alternate, is Florida’s head coach means Mackenzie could count on support if she tries to remain an international competitor.

Mackenzie was on track toward becoming one of the surprises of the 2008 Olympic selection process when she injured a hamstring and had to withdraw from the Olympic trials after one day.

“It was pretty devastating for her,” Lin Caquatto said. “You get close and you get just one shot, pretty much.”

Mackenzie nearly missed this year’s nationals after breaking a leg bone just below the knee. She takes great pride in having placed fifth despite routines watered down to protect the leg.

“She is ready for college but it is important for her to end her gymnastics career on a good note,” Bridgette said of her sister. “It doesn’t matter how much you want to do it but if your body can hold up for another three years.”

The timing seems better for Bridgette, a high school sophomore, who jumped 19 places at junior nationals from 2008 to 2009.

Lin Caquatto admits imagining both her daughters in the 2012 Olympics.

“But in this sport, there is so much that can happen,” she said.