Taking flight

Last month, my editor asked me to head down to Champaign to check out two Olympic gymnast hopefuls.
“Male gymnasts,” he said, reading my mind.
But with the Summer Games just around the corner and the editor offering real money, off in my Ford Focus I went, in search of the Olympic dream.
The gymnasts in my sights were Paul Ruggeri, 23, and C.J. Maestas, 20, who had led Illinois to an NCAA championship in April. They will be in San Diego Thursday 28–Saturday 30 for the U.S. Olympic Trials with a ticket to London on the line.
For more of this story and other Chicago sports essays, visit chicagosidesports.com.



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