By Greg Hanlon
Wendy Hilliard, a former U.S. National team gymnast who served as the director of gymnastics and youth sports at Aviator Sports at Floyd Bennett Field, was recently inducted into the United States Gymnastics Hall of Fame. News of her enshrinement came via a letter from the Indianapolis-based USA Gymnastics. Her induction ceremony will be June 22 in Philadelphia at the end of the 2008 Beijing Olympic tryouts. Hilliard became a name in gymnastics circles in 1978, when she became the first African American woman to make the U.S. national rhythmic gymnastics team. She competed internationally over the next nine years, serving two years as team captain and accumulating several gold medals before retiring in 1988. Immediately after retiring, she spent four years as coach of the U.S. National team. During these years, the tireless Hilliard also did television broadcasting for a sport that was growing ever more popular since it first became an Olympic sport in 1984. (Hilliard was narrowly edged out for a spot on the Olympic team that year.) Rhythmic gymnastics is distinguished from the more well-known artistic gymnastics because it combines traditional elements of the sport with performance elements. Rhythmic gymnasts mix athletic maneuvers with the use of props such ribbons, hoops, and balls. All routines – which are usually a minute and a half long – are set to music. Hilliard was first smitten with the sport as a youngster. While practicing artistic gymnastics in her native Detroit, she noticed a team of rhythmic gymnasts using ribbons. Years of hard work later, after becoming the pioneering African American rhythmic gymnast, the Detroit native put her own stamp on the sport: While most routines are set to classical music, Hilliard would frequently perform to Motown. In addition to her coaching and broadcasting, Hilliard found time to throw herself headlong into advocacy both for her sport and women’s sports in general. She served for ten years as National Spokesperson for Rhythmic Gymnastics and chaired the Athletes Council of USA Gymnastics. From 1995 to 1997, she was the president of the Women’s Sports Foundation, an organization founded by tennis legend Billy Jean King whose mission is advocate for women’s sports. She was the first African American and the first gymnast to hold the position. In 1990, in an attempt to help fellow retired gymnasts struggling to find post-career options, Hilliard started a hybrid dance/gymnastics company called AntiGravity, serving as one of the New York-based group’s primary choreographers throughout the 1990s. “Unlike skaters who have always had tours to fall back on after they competed, gymnasts never really had anything,” she said of AntiGravity. But perhaps Hilliard’s biggest post-career contribution came with the creation of the non-profit Wendy Hilliard Foundation in 1995, a free program in New York City designed to give inner-city children a chance to access gymnastics. “Kids see it on TV and they like it, but it’s an expensive sport,” said Hilliard, who moved to New York in 1986 to complete her college degree at New York University. “Individual sports are always expensive because of the one-on-one coaching. And in New York City, it’s especially tough to have a big enough space [for gymnastics]. And insurance always costs a lot,” she continued. But Hilliard found that the rigorous discipline and concentration required in gymnastics was particularly beneficial for inner-city children craving structure. Since she founded the organization, 5,000 children have taken gymnastics classes free of charge. “Kids really take to the discipline and individual attention,” she said. “You have to work really hard to get the simple little things right. When you appreciate the repetition needed to make things happen, you can apply it to other things. Gymnasts tend to be really good students.” Another of Hilliard’s many causes was trying to bring the 2012 Olympics to New York. She served as the Director of Sports on the New York Olympic Committee. Although New York’s Olympic bid was ultimately unsuccessful, Hilliard’s work dovetailed into her next cause: getting better youth sports facilities in New York. When Aviator Sports opened in 2006, Hilliard was tapped to be program director of both gymnastics and youth sports. She held that position until recently, when she scaled back her work at Aviator to become a consultant. Her next project is improving youth sports programs in Riverbank State Park in Harlem. She remains involved in Antigravity and the Wendy Hilliard Foundation. “It’s nice to be able to be involved in youth sports and to give kids an opportunity,” she said. “It gives me a lot of satisfaction. Everybody needs an advocate at one point. Sports gives young people skills they can use later in life.”
