Whatever Happened to
Katie Teft?

Teft's Competitive Results: 1993 J.O. National Championships (children's division): 1st AA, 6th V, 8th UB, 1st BB, 2nd FX 1993 US Classic (junior division): 4th AA (junior division) 1993 Jr. US. Championships: 4th AA 1993 Catania Cup Classic: 9th AA, 1st FX 1994 American Classic (junior division): 1st AA (tie) 1994 U.S. Classic (junior division): 1st AA 1994 Hilton Challenge: 1st T, 5th AA 1994 Joaquim Blume Memorial: 3rdAA 1994 Jr. US National Championships: 8th AA 1995 American Classic/Pan American Games Trials: 5th AA, 5th UB, 5th BB, 6th FX 1995 Pan American Games: 1st T, 4th BB 1995 Visa Challenge: 1st T, 3rd AA, 6th V, 4th UB, 6th BB, 3rd FX 1995 US National Championships: 9th AA 1995 Atlanta Gymnastics Invitational: 13th AA 1996 US Classic: 8th AA, 8th V, 1st UB 1996 US National Championships: 10th AA, 2nd UB, 3rd BB, 5th FX 1996 Senior Pacific Alliance Championships: 1st T, 4th AA, 5th V, 3rd UB, 2nd FX 1996 US Olympic Trials: 8th AA 1997 Go-for-it Classic 1988 MSHAA State Championships: 1st AA, 1st UB, 1st BB These results are available on Katie Teft's official USA Gymnastics biography

Photo used with the expressed permission of Shanfan. Check out Shanfan's gymnastics site!

Born in Grand Rapids, Michigan, Katie Teft was able to achieve a high level of gymnastics without leaving her home state or moving far from home as many elite gymnasts often do. Nevertheless, many club changes plagued Katie's career. Katie trained in several gyms in her hometown, before settling with John and Kathryn Geddert at Great Lakes gym club. Unfortunately, just prior to the 1996 Nationals (a qualifying event to the Olympic Trials), the Gedderts left Great Lakes due to differences with the owners. Katie followed, but due to NCAA eligibility rules, finding a place to train with the Gedderts was difficult. One of the few suitable places left for her to train was the University of Michigan, but Katie could not train here and still maintain her NCAA eligibility if she lived outside a 50 mile radius. Katie's house was 54 miles away. Finally, the Twisters gym opened up and Katie and the Gedderts were able to resume training there.

Despite a break from training, Katie placed in the top 14 at the 1996 Nationals and qualified to the 1996 US Olympic trials. Despite earning the highest AA score of her career at the trials, Katie finished 8th and failed to make the US Olympic team. As one of the youngest athletes at the trials, making the age requirement by just three months, Katie used and thought of the trials as a great experience on her road to the 2000 Olympics.

Katie pressed on with elite gymnastics, but in 1997 injuries caught up with her. Injuries were nothing knew to Katie. Prior to turning elite, she broke her ankles three separate times, and was later diagnosed with a calcium deficiency. In 1995, Katie suffered a herniated disc, and she reinjured the disc in 1997 on a fall from bars (ironically, bars is her best and favorite event). Due to her back injury, Katie took some time off the sport, returned to high school at Forest Hills Central High School, and began diving (a sport which did not aggravate her back injury like gymnastics).

Later in 1997, with her back injuries healed, Katie competed as a high school gymnast and won the Michigan state AA title, as well as the UB and BB titles. She recently returned to club competition, competing as a level ten at the Twistars Invitational. Katie has no intentions of returning to international elite gymnastics. Instead, she is setting her sights on college gymnastics, a more realistic goal due to her past back injuries.

Katie enrolled at the University of Massachusetts on a gymnastics scholarships in the fall of 1999. She competed for the U of M for three years, until they dropped their women's program. She then transferred to the University of Central Michigan for her senior year. Competing for CMU, she qualified to the NCAA Championships as an individual qualifier on bars.

To read more about Katie, please visit her official website!

Katie Teft was born on September 2, 1981

. This page was created on April 28, 1999 and last updated on September 30, 2003.