Kyle Gayner, Millennium Hall of Fame

If one of your goals for throwing a birthday party for kids is to

tire the tots out, Kyle Gayner’s mobile gymnastics could be the perfect

entertainment.

“I go everywhere,” said Gayner, who travels to locations such as

schools and birthday parties, while training kids on the bars, vault,

trampoline and balance beam, and incorporating face painting and balloon

making.

“I do not coach serious, competitive gymnastics,” she added. “My work

is with the little guys and give them strictly a lot of love, guidance,

motivation and fun. That’s how I teach. If you want your child to go to

the Olympics tomorrow, you need a big gym.”

Long before Kerri Strug and Mary Lou Retton captured the hearts of

America during the 1996 and 1984 Summer Olympics, respectively, Gayner

was competing against international stars Olga Korbut of the Soviet Union

and Nadia Comaneci of Romania, winning the U.S. national championship in

the balance beam in 1974 and a silver medal at the ’74 World Games in the

same event.

Gayner, a 1976 Estancia High graduate, was the first to perform two

front aerial walkovers in 1972, when the balance beam was wooden. Today,

gymnasts perform on padded beams with safety cushions below them.

She was the youngest competitor that year at the U.S. Olympic

gymnastic trials in Long Beach and finished first in the balance beam,

but fell short in her quest to make the team for the Munich Games, when

Korbut was the darling of the floor exercises, using her smile and

charisma to elevate the sport to another level.

Gayner appeared on “The Tonight Show” with Johnny Carson and ABC’s

“Wide World of Sports,” including once with Korbut, but, after eight

years of competing -- and training eight hours a day, six days a week --

she injured her back in 1976 and could not compete in the U.S. Olympic

trials.

“They said (my back injury) was from constant landing on the front of

my legs,” said Gayner, who retired that year.

These days, following a teaching career, Gayner is back on the beam.

“I never got on Cheerios or any (television) commercials, but I’ve got

my mobile gymnastics and I love it,” said Gayner, who said her thin body

could not longer take the competitive pounding when she retired. “When

you can go and make a living by doing what you love to do, then you’re a

success, because your happy.”

Gayner, who refers to herself as “Coach Kyle,” was named in Los

Angeles magazine in the Best of LA special collector’s issue as the best

party entertainer for kids. She shows up at your fete with all the gear

necessary to creat mini Rettons and Comanecies. There are uneven parallel

bars and tumbling mats, springboards and “gold” medals. Parents are only

required to press firmly on the camcorder’s record button.

“I’m booked until the next millennium,” said Gayner, a member of the

Daily Pilot Sports Hall of Fame, celebrating this millennium.

Gayner, 41, started her business five years ago when she moved back to

the area from Los Angeles, where she’d been a teacher at Marlborough High

School. She also operated a YMCA program, but she returned to her first

love -- gymnastics.

“It’s so exciting when I go to schools, because the kids just love

it,” said Gayner, who has performed at several local Montessori schools,

preschools and parochial schools.

“It’s not just hitting a ball over the fence. It’s like ballet

training and (for serious gymnasts), you need to be physically strong and

very flexible. You need strength, balance, coordination and you’ve got to

have charisma. Nadia Comaneci didn’t have that, but Olga had that. She

smiled and played to the audience. She was an actress.”

Gayner, who lives in Newport Beach, competed in Japan, Germany, Africa

and the Soviet Union, as well as throughout the U.S. Now, with all

politics aside, she’s happier than ever.