World Championships Changes Wieber's Life

Ever since 16 year old Jordyn Wieber returned home from Tokyo, Japan with 3 world medals her life has been a roller coaster ride. Her face was on the cover of almost every newspaper and she headlined every local news station for days! She even had a world class welcome home at her high school. Students lined the halls chanting her name and "Wieber Fever" as she entered.

(Photo belongs to Jordyn Wieber)

Things never quite settled down because soon after her world championships success, Jordyn made the decision to turn pro, which means she cannot compete in college gymnastics, but she can accept all prize money from competitions and sign with endorsement deals. Although the Wiebers won't tell how much money Jordyn took home from worlds, her mother says its enough to pay for her in state college tuition.

(Photo belongs to Jordyn Wieber)

Since Worlds the media and sponsors have been rolling in like crazy! Jordyn is now apart of the Kellogg's Company Olympic Promotion where she'll do photo shoots, appearances, and maybe appear on some products. She also signed with 2 other well known companies that have not been named yet, but according to her mother one of them is Michigan based. ESPN and Sports Illustrated have also made visits for upcoming pieces and she is set to do a photo shoot with Vogue Magazine in March. But it doesn't stop there, Jordyn recently graced the cover of Women's Lifestyle Magazine and appeared on the Ellen show on January 6th.

(Photo Belongs to Womens Lifestyle Magazine)

Jordyn was included in the Red Pages "Hot 100 for 2012" and is running for the United States Sports Academy 2011 Athlete of the year. Even Jordyn's mother Rita can benefit from her daughters success, as she'll have plenty to write about for her book called "Gym Mom's" which should be published next summer.

With all the publicity and media, Jordyn continues to train for her next competition (The American Cup- March 3rd) and attend public school. How does she maintain it all? "We set a window of opportunity for the media to have access to Jordyn now, in a combined effort with the national office, the door is somewhat closed. We will now be focusing on training and getting ready for the American Cup in March. We have learned that dealing with media is part of the game, most of it is positive and the experience thus far has not been overwhelming. Jordyn is very grounded and humble so I do not foresee a major problem." says her coach John Geddert. She might also compete at the 2012 Pacific Rim on March 16-18 which is sponsored by Kellogg's. "Pac Rim is certainly a consideration at this time. It fits our plan, but it is too early to make that call... Besides that is an event that we would have to qualify to through verification and we never take anything for granted or consider it a given automatic." John said. This will all of course lead up to the 2012 Olympic Trials on July 1st where the Olympic team will be announced. But for now she's taking it one day at at time and continues to train.

(Photo Belongs to the Detroit Free Press)

Since we live in Michigan we have always been Jordyn's biggest fans. We can't believe how much she's grown! At the 2008 Tour of Gymnastics Superstars everyone came to see the stars, Nastia Liukin and Shawn Johnson. Jordyn and her teammate Kamerin Moore performed their floor routines, but many people didn't even know who they were... they were just "the local girls." They both signed autographs after the show, but surprisingly their lines were pretty short. People didn't even consider that they could be the future of gymnastics one day! When the show was over, we ran out and were the first one's in line at the Gedderts Twistars table to meet Jordyn and Kamerin. We have been big fans from the very beginning and always will be! We have a feeling at the next Tour of Gymnastics Superstars, she will be more than just the "local girl"...

(Photos belong to us)