"FULLERTON, Calif. — The best work done this year by Jill Hicks, the Cal State Fullerton gymnastics coach, did not involve a balance beam, a pommel horse or uneven parallel bars. It entailed shoe shopping and a manicure. Hicks was out recruiting the Olympic all-around gold medalist Nastia Liukin to ask for her help in saving Fullerton’s program, which the university was threatening to eliminate to make its budget."
The two women, introduced by another college coach, hit it off well enough that Liukin donated her time and a leotard — the one she wore during the 2007 world championships — to a fund-raiser that helped generate close to $30,000 for Hicks’s program.
The $400-a-plate luncheon with Liukin followed by an exhibition with the Fullerton and U.C.L.A. gymnastics teams drew about 1,000 supporters, most of them little girls in pigtails and their parents.
The two women, introduced by another college coach, hit it off well enough that Liukin donated her time and a leotard — the one she wore during the 2007 world championships — to a fund-raiser that helped generate close to $30,000 for Hicks’s program.
The $400-a-plate luncheon with Liukin followed by an exhibition with the Fullerton and U.C.L.A. gymnastics teams drew about 1,000 supporters, most of them little girls in pigtails and their parents.