Stepping stone

He’s beaten both in the top tier of men’s gymnastics.

But as decorated of a gymnast as Wes Haagensen is, he still wants to compete on the Olympic stage.

One of the steps he is using to get there is a gym in Choctaw.

Haagensen, a seven-time event All-American at the University of Illinois and a three-time overall national champion on the collegiate level, is living in Midwest City and training at Action Gymnastics in Choctaw in a quest to compete in the 2012 Olympics in London.

He has dreamed of standing on the Olympic medal stand since he was child, he said.

“I just know my capabilities and potential,” Haagensen said. “There’s no question in my mind (I can make the Olympic team) when I reach my capability.”

The 5-5, 127-pound Haagensen did not make the U.S. Olympic team in 2004 held in Greece and was on the bubble to earn a spot in the ’08 games in Beijing. He just missed the opportunity to go to China.

An endless list of injuries has kept the renowned gymnast from making the cut, including numerous surgeries. He’s had his labrum cut on twice, along with his knee, bicep tendon, rotator cuff and meniscus.

“When I heal up, I think I can be an Olympic champion,” he said.

Haagensen, ranked in the top 20 in the world, is working hard and is on pace to run through the qualifying process starting with the winter cups in February. Then it’s onto the U.S. national championships and the Visa USA championships before the 2012 Olympics begin in August.

He grew up in McAlester and was coached by Jason Pearson.

It happens to be that Pearson is a coach at Action Gymnastics in Choctaw, the very reason Haagensen abandoned the luxury of the Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs to train in the confined corners of an Eastern Oklahoma County gym.

Haagensen reunited with Pearson on June 23 and is not slowing down.

“To reach the top, it isn’t the gym you train in,” Haagensen said. “(At the Olympic Training Center) they do your laundry, take out your trash. Support is what I need. What I get from Jason (Pearson) is what I need. In my eyes, this is the best situation I’ve been in.”

Pearson is from California, but moved to McAlester to get married. There, he bumped in to a youthful Haagensen. He has coached for 23 years and has been training young gymnasts at Action Gymnastics for the past two and a half years.

‘EYE TO EYE’
Haagensen said there were a couple of reasons why he left the Olympic Training Center to train in Choctaw.

“The biggest is the framework of support and comfort. My motivation is up and Jason knows me and we see eye to eye,” he said. “He was my first coach since I was 7. Me, personally, there’s not a coach who knows me like him.”

It didn’t take long for Haagensen to blossom as a gymnast after he began to be coached by Pearson. At age 11, Haagensen was one of the Future Olympic Stars at Colorado Springs; at 13, he was the junior elite national champion in Austin, Texas; at 18, he became the Elite national champion in Savannah, Ga.

Also when he was 18, he won the silver overall medal in the Pan-Am Games held in the Dominican Republic, all preceding his lustrous collegiate career at the University of Illinois.

“We’ve set our sights on winning an Olympic medal, not just making the team,” Pearson said. “It’s a lot of sacrifice. I care about him. It’s a big deal and the challenge: It’s a massive challenge.”

Pearson is amazed at the fortitude Haagensen exhibits in the gym on a daily basis.

“In 23 years, I’ve never seen a gymnast take pain like he does. He’s got the mental toughness,” Pearson said. “He works so hard on the details.”

For Haagensen and Pearson, the obscure gymnasium in Choctaw is the springboard for making it to London.

“We’re just putting it all together and (Pearson) can help me do it … he’s the guy,” Haagensen said. “I think I can do this. For me, now, it’s being comfortable. I think it’s a no-brainer: He makes me comfortable.”