Vanessa Atler

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Vanessa Marie Atler (Born February 17, 1982 in Valencia, California) is a retired American gymnast.

Atler had a fruitful career as a junior. She first made her mark at the now defunct Olympic festival in 1995, placing third all-around behind Kerri Strug and Dynamo's Heather Brink. She continued to make her presence known in the upcoming years, competing well in several important international meets from 1995 through 1997 and winning the junior all-around title at the 1996 U.S. National Championships. Like many of her competitors, Atler was too young to try out for the coveted 1996 Olympic team, so she set her sights on 2000. She seemed well on her way to accomplishing that goal, as she just barely missed winning the 1997 American Cup, and later tied with Kristy Powell to win the 1997 Senior National Title. However, due to a rule change, she was still too young to compete at that year's World Gymnastics Championships despite being the national champion. Thus, Vanessa had to wait once again for her chance to compete at a major international competition.

1998 got off to an inauspicious start for Vanessa. This year marked the beginning of a string of competitions in which she suffered unusual mistakes and misses on bars. In her very popular online diary, she once referred to the bars as "the devil--testing my will and my patience, even my love for the sport." Bars became a mental block for the young athlete who time after time failed to put together a mistake-free routine in the heat of competition. Such mistakes cost her all-around titles at the 1998 American Cup, and the 1998 Nationals. However, she was able to show her proficiency on other events at the 1998 Goodwill Games. Choosing to only compete in the event finals, Atler stunned the competition and won vault and floor.

1999 seemed to mark Atler's downfall. Her problems with bars once again cost her the title at the 1999 Nationals, and she finished second again to Kristen Maloney. She bounced back during the event finals and displayed some of her sharpest gymnastics en route to the vault and beam titles. She finally earned the chance to compete at the 1999 World Gymnastics Championships in Tianjin, China. However, Atler was clearly out of shape and unprepared for the competition, and had just left her longtime coaches Beth and Steve Rybacki. The stress proved to be too great as she only hit one clean routine throughout the team competition, and scored in the low 8's on bars and beam.

Atler moved to Texas to train with Olympic Champion Valeri Liukin for the 2000 Olympic season. Still struggling with her bars performances, she performed respectably at Nationals and finished 4th. It seemed as though Vanessa was on her way back up. However, at the Olympic Trials a few weeks later, she experienced a complete meltdown. She was unable to hit even one clean routine over the two days of competition, and botched moves that she rarely ever missed. The newly appointed selection committee for the U.S. left Vanessa off the team, and did not even list her as an alternate. She retired soon after. In 2005, she appeared on the television show Starting Over.

Atler was known for her explosive, difficult vaults and tumbling skills. She was the first female American gymnast to perform a Rudi vault, which she debuted at the 1999 American Cup. On floor, Atler had a large repertoire of tough elements. For several years, her first tumbling run on floor was a double layout-punch front-stag leap combination.

[edit] Appearances in other media

Stunt double for the Lifetime Television film Little Girls in Pretty Boxes, 1997.
Commercial for Reese's Peanut Butter Cups, 1999
Starting Over, 2005 [1]