Help get me to the Olympics!

Michael Alexander Sloat
Target: The Olympics
        For those of you who dont know my story go ahead and give my bio a quick read and then share it with your friends!
       The 2016 summer olympics in Rio Brazil next year is my goal and below is the first step i have to take to get there:

TRIP #1 to the Bahamas:
I need to go to the Bahamas to appear in  person for my dual citizenship interview. Also need to meet with their olympic committee (which i hace been im communications with) to be come an official Bahamian National Team Athlete!




MY BIO:

I am the middle child in a family of 7 children. Raised in a Christian home by my Dad and Mom, I was taught at a young age the value of hard work and perseverance.

My name is Michael Alexander and I am a gymnast. My interest in this elite sport began at the early age of 3 when I first started taking recreational gymnastic classes at Northwest Aerials in Kirkland, WA. I continued recreational classes at the gym till I was 12 and then took a couple years off to pursue other sports  ― but I came back when I was 14 and this time I wanted to not just do gymnastics for the fun of it, but I wanted to compete! I was in the gym all the time learning and teaching myself new skills and trying to perfect the ones I already had.

At this point I was referred to a boys competitive gym, Cascade Elite in Mountlake Terrace, WA, where I worked on the competitive team as a Level 8 at age 15 and instantly fell in love with one event in particular: pommel horse. From there, the rest is history; my first year I ended up 5th on 3 events and in the all around at state. That put a fire inside me because I wanted a GOLD medal! I came back from that competition and worked harder than ever, but separated my shoulder in a gymnastics accident (doing a move called a gazogie) on rings, which ended up putting me out for a year. That was the most frustrating year of my life ― but every morning I’d get up early just to do extra shoulder rehab work my physical therapist assigned me and every week I’d ask my coach if I could start really training again (patience wasn’t/isn’t one of my virtues) and he kept saying no, I wasn’t ready. By the time I was ready I was 17 and had a job coaching gymnastics.

Gymnastics is an expensive sport so, being in a family of 7 children with everyone doing their own thing, I paid for my own training and worked hard to do so. Because I was working I had to cut back my training days to 3 and sometimes only 2 days a week, but the time I was in the gym I made every minute count ― and it paid off! I won gold on 3 events at the State Meet that year and took first in the all-around title. That was followed by winning gold on 3 events and gold in the all-around title at the Regional Championships. After regionals I was approached by Mark Russo of the University of Washington gymnastics team and asked to join them the following season.

Continuing my passion for pommel horse I became a specialist for UW and chose to focus on pommels, vault and high bar. My 2010 season I only competed at a few meets for them due to the fact I was working 2 jobs at this point and going to school, but I loved every second of time I was in the gym. I quit the UW team midway through 2011 because of my work load, but still went in and worked out with the team whenever I got the chance. Then in November of 2012 I couldn’t take it anymore and had to start competing again, this time however my sites were set much higher than just a gold medal at local events. Inspired by Alexander Artemev’s skill and “wow factor” in his pommel horse routine, I determined that I wanted to be that good ― if not better! And I wanted to do it for the Bahamas.

I was adopted at birth. My birth parents hail from the Bahamas and I, having never met them, saw this as a way to repay and thank them for giving me life, and providing the opportunity to be the best that I can be in life. Since I started training again that thought has always been in the back of my mind. In March of last year I moved to the Sparks/Reno area in Nevada with the purpose of furthering my training. I am coached by York Parris and train at a gym in south Reno owed by former olympian and world medalist Stoyan Deltchev (Deltchev Gymnastics Academy) and am yet another step closer to my dream: to not only compete at a national level and to “wow” people with my God-given ability on pommel horse, but to do that competing in the Olympics for the Bahamas.

Your sponsorship will help further me along in my goal of becoming an international elite athlete and an Olympian!