Local gymnast needs help to get two coaches to London Olympics

BLUE SPRINGS, Mo. - A gymnast who trains in Blue Springs, Mo., needs help getting her coaches to the Summer Olympics in London.

USA Gymnastics will only pay for a gymnast and one coach to send to the Olympics. But Sarah Finnegan has two coaches at Great American Gymnastic Express (GAGE) in Blue Springs. They are Al Fong and his wife Armine Barutyan.

The coaching duo has produced several Olympians, including Terin Humphrey and Courtney McCool.

The Gage Gym is asking for donations to help send a second coach with Finnegan to London. Finnegan, a St. Louis native, and the coaches would travel to London on July 19 after a week-long camp at The National Training Center in Houston, Texas.

Finnegan and her coaches left Wednesday to train in Houston.

The gym needs to raise $5,400 for the expense of the additional coach. They started fundraising on Monday.

You can donate by going to www.indiegogo.com/gagecenter. This is set up through a PayPal account.

As an alternate for the U.S. Olympic gymnastics team, Finnegan is required to be in London and will replace an injured gymnast at the Olympics.

A spokesman from Gage Center said it took both coaches to get Finnegan where she’s at today, so it’s very hard to pick just one of the coaches.

They would like to have these funds in one week, and there are perks for donating.

If you give $25, you get a picture autographed by Al, Armine and Sarah.

A $50 donation gets you a t-shirt that can be autographed. A $500 donation gives free admission to a dragon camp (dragon is the name of the gymnastics teams at GAGE center) which is a $400 value.

Donating $1,000 donation gets you two entries into dragon camp next summer and a free one-on-one with Al Fong.