Former Gopher men’s gymnast and 2006 U.S. all-around bronze-medalist Guillermo Alvarez will compete at the 2007 American Cup at the Jacksonville Veterans Memorial Arena in Jacksonville, Fla., on March 3 at 11:30 a.m. The American Cup will be televised live on NBC Sports at noon CT.
Alvarez, a Denver, Colo., native, will join defending American Cup champion Jonathan Horton of Houston, two-time world team silver-medalist Raj Bhavsar of Houston, and Alexander Artemev of Morrison, Colo., on the U.S. Men’s Team that will compete at the American Cup.
In addition to his bronze medal, Alvarez placed third in the all-around for two consecutive years at the Winter Cup Challenge (2006-07). The 2005 Nissen-Emery Award recipient, Alvarez was a member of the 2006 U.S. World Championships Team and won a team gold medal at the 2006 France/Switzerland/USA meet.
“Each of these men has considerable international experience and complete a strong U.S. Team,” said Steve Penny, president of USA Gymnastics. “Jonathan won the American Cup last year and all four have competed in a World Championships. We expect our men and women to make a strong showing against a very talented international field.”
The American Cup, features eight men and eight women, including two men and two women from the USA, in the all-around finals.
A strong international field has also been announced, headlined by 2006 all-around and vault world bronze-medalist Fabian Hambuechen of Germany and 2006 team world gold-medalist Zhou Zhuoru of China. Featuring seven world medalists and six Olympians, this year’s international field is comprised of gymnasts from Australia, Belarus, Canada, China, Colombia, France, Germany, Japan, Mexico, Puerto Rico, Romania, Russia, Switzerland and Ukraine.
Some of the sport’s biggest names are former American Cup all-around gold medalists, including: men – Jason Gatson, Blaine Wilson, John Roethlisberger, Vitaly Scherbo (Belarus), Tim Daggett, Peter Vidmar, Mitsuo Tsukahara (Japan), Kurt Thomas and Bart Conner; and women – Carly Patterson, Elena Zamolodchikova (Russia), Kerri Strug, Dominique Dawes, Shannon Miller, Kim Zmeskal, Kristie Phillips, Mary Lou Retton, Julianne McNamara, Stella Zakarova (USSR) and Nadia Comaneci (Romania). At last year’s event, Americans Jonathan Horton of Houston and Nastia Liukin of Parker, Texas, each earned the title of 2006 American Cup champion.
