Two Brothers, One Olympic Spot

Two Trampoline Brothers, One Olympic Spot

By Elizabeth Grimsley

One goal. One dream. One spot. Two brothers. It just doesn’t add up. 

That’s what trampoline brothers Steven and Jeffrey Gluckstein are up against as they head towards the final Olympic Trials this week in San Jose, Calif.

But although there may only be one opening on Team USA for a male trampolinist, it’s not something the pair think about on a regular basis. 

“We’ve come over the fact that there’s one spot,” Jeffrey said. “It’s kind of a bittersweet moment that’s going to happen. One of us is going to go and– probably– the other one is going to be in the stands. So either way, we’re hoping to have us both go to London.”

They may not talk about it with each other, but in their minds, the situation is the worst thing in the world.

“Oh god! I want to go, and he wants to go so bad,” Steven said. “And to know that only one of us can go is hard.”

The final destination for the Gluckstein brothers may be London, but that hasn’t always been the case.

“I started in Taekwondo when I was younger,” Steven said. “I received my black belt. I was really set on pursuing my taekwondo career but, unfortunately, the school shut down.”

Being short and flexible from Taekwondo, there were a couple of different paths he could take.

“My mother said, ‘Okay. You can either do cheerleading or gymnastics,’” Steven recalled. “And I said, ‘Well, all right. Gymnastics it is.’ So we went to our local gymnastics facility, and [after a few years] my coach Tatiana Kovaleva– who is the 1996 World Champion for trampoline– was starting a trampoline program. She asked me to join– that’s where it all started.”

For Jeffrey the path to the trampoline was slightly different.

He grew up watching his older brother in gymnastics classes and naturally started himself. “I started getting into trampoline a little bit after I was doing gymnastics,” Jeffrey said. “I wasn’t progressing fast enough in gymnastics, and I saw my brother in a program, and he was already up to double flips and full flips. I saw that and was like, ‘Alright… well, I don’t think gymnastics is for me. I think my calling’s trampoline.’ So I switched over a year later.”

 Kovaleva groomed the Gluckstein brothers into the elite athletes they are today, and neither brother has looked back since.She has four World Championship titles under her belt, and her experience is what drew fellow owner of Elite Trampoline Academy– where Steven and Jeffery, among other, train– Kyle Bowen to her side.“Our experience definitely makes us better coaches, but I think it's more than that,” Bowen said. “It's an understanding of the individual that's important. Steven and Jeffrey are so very different in so many ways. You have to know what to say and what not to say. But like I said, Tatiana is great and I continue to learn from here everyday. There is not another coach in the world I have more respect for.”

 The brothers, like their coach Kovaleva, have endless amounts of international experience.Steven has been competing internationally since 2003, and in 2009 finished in first with his syncro partner Logan Dooley for the seven-event World Cup series. He believes that this experience will help him come time for the final Olympic Trial.“All the experience really helps me learn to handle my pressure and my nerves,” he said. “As talented as my brother is, he’s still young, and he’s still doesn’t have as much international experience.”

 Jeffrey has been on the international scene since 2006– just three years less than his brother– but doesn’t feel like that will be a disadvantage.“I feel like once you hit a certain point of international competitions, you kind of plateau. You know what the deal is,” Jeffrey reasons. “When you’re younger, it’s different, but once you reach a certain point– like where I am– you get used to it.”

 They may not see eye to eye on this particular concept, but both Steven and Jeffrey agree on their mindset going into any competition.“I try and compete every competition the same, but sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn’t.” Jeffrey said. “The real focus right now is to try not to get too excited or too nervous– just stay in the same mindset as training.” “I come in and I work my very hardest every day whether it’s the day before [a big competition] or the day after [a big competition],” Steven added. “I’m always working my hardest. My focus is to just try and take it day by day, step by step, doing what I always do, trying not to make anything out of the ordinary.”

 Although the Olympics is the obvious goal, the duo isn’t just in it for the medals and the glory.“The sport allows me to see places all over the world,” Steven said. “It allows me to have friends all over the world, especially since it’s such a tight knit community.”And since the discipline of trampoline and tumbling has a much smaller pool than artistic gymnastics, “everyone pretty much knows everybody.”“We’re like a family,” Jeffrey explained. “We’re so close together. We spend numerous hours training together, and it just works out well for us in the end because it makes us stronger competitors and a stronger team.”

 Travel isn’t the only thing Steven and Jeffrey look forward to about trampoline-“The feeling of hitting the right bounce on the trampoline– it feels almost like flying– and there’s nothing really much more that can top that,” Steven said. “When you hit a routine almost perfect, with every bounce hitting the correct angle and the feeling of flying, there’s not much more that can get better than that.”

 That feeling of flying will become a reality when one of them is handed a plane ticked to London. However, as much as he wants his brother to make the team, Steven feels like it’s his time now.“I tried in 2008, and I fell in the final Olympic Trial,” he said. “So this is my time now, and he’s still young. It’s not quite his time– maybe in another four or eight years.”

San Jose will be the third of three trials that will determine who goes on to London in a few weeks. The winner of this meet books their plane ticket across the Pond. One would think that such competition between family would put a strain on their relationship...

Look for part two of the Glucksteins' story tomorrow morning--also the day that the men's trampoline Olympic berth will be decided! 

Join the conversation on Facebook: www.facebook.com/insidegymnastics and Twitter @insidegym ! We’ll be bringing you all the action from San Jose this week! 

Photos Courtesy: USAG, Jeffrey above, Steven below

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