Here are some of the questiosn we're most commonly asked and the answers!

Sierra, it seems like you just came out of nowhere this year. What happend to make you come to this level so fast?
Sierra has been dealing with injuries for the past year and a half. This was the first time she was healthy for a long time. It is like she came from no where. She had two surgeries. One on her ankle and the other on her knee. She was a junior elite team member in I think it was 1992.

What levels have you competed in?
Sierra competed for Rohnert Park Gymnastics in Rohnert Park, California, which is 1 1/2 hours north of San Francisco. She lived in a little town called Sebastopol, about 1/2 hour from Rohnert Park, and it was the only gym in the area for high-level gymnstics. In 1993, she competed at Level 8. She improved so much during that summer and fall, that her coach (Ben Corr) decided to petition her up so that she could attempt to qualify as a junior national elite in 1994, which she did. She also qualified to be on the junior national elite team that year. During the 1995 competitive season, she was intransition, because she needed to switch gyms, but her family couldn't move to Cincinnati that fast. So she worked out on a temporary basis from March-July at Golden gate Gymnstics, with Mike Lynch and Tracee Talavera, in Concord California, which was a three hour round trip commute!! Sierra did come to Cincinnati in August of 1995. During the 1996 competitive season, she only competed inthe Winter Holiday Classic in San Diego, which was an open invitational and she did great, placing 3rd AA, 2nd in bars, and won beam. She did qualify to go to American Classic, but she and I were in a car accident one week before the meet, and she had a whiplash injury that kept her home. So went the 1996 season.

What are your start values right now?
Right now, my start values are: 9.6 and 9.8 on vault, 10.0 on bars, 10.0 on beam, and 10.0 on floor.

Why did you take the 2.5 front twist out of your floor routine?
The skill was submitted for valuing in 1998, since it had never been done before. It was given a tentative "E" value. So Sierra competed it through the '98 season. When the US delegation arrive at the PAC in July '98, they were informed the move had been devalued to a "D" the day before the meet. Sierra and her coaches then did some quick rearranging to have her floor routine back up to a 10.0SV by the Goodwill Games, two weeks later.

Thanks to Sierrra's parents for answering these questions for us!