Resilient Athletes
Apartment training with NYC’s junior elite gymnast
This ongoing photo series examines the ways the coronavirus pandemic has upended and reshaped athletes' lives.
Annalise Newman-Achee competed in an unusually empty gymnasium in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, at the KPAC Cup in March. The four-day event, normally packed with competitors and their families, was abruptly canceled following Day 1. Equipment was disassembled around Newman-Achee, New York City's first junior elite gymnast, as she competed. The 14-year-old returned home with her mother, Wendy Newman, not knowing the abbreviated event would be her last for the foreseeable future. Their Brooklyn brownstone has been transformed into her personal gym, and Newman-Achee is challenged to replicate 32-hour training weeks meticulously designed to set her on a path toward the U.S. national team.
“[Annalise] was sliding down the banister like Mary Poppins and climbing between doorways like Spider-Man. I was always used to them being active.”
Written by Anthony Gulizia Additional reporting by Anna Watts
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