El catorce de junio/June 14th

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Photo from speakerpedia.com. Click HERE. 
¡Feliz cumpleaños a ... Annia Portuondo Hatch! (1978-       )

A Cuban-American gymnast who won a silver medal on the vault (despite a recently torn ACL) and a team silver medal in the 2004 Summer Olympics in Athens, Hatch is now retired and living in Long Island, New York, where she runs a foundation, raises her children (Faith and Andron), and writes a fashion and wellness blog (click HERE). She was born in Guantánamo, Cuba in 1978 and started gymnastics when she was 4. When she was 10, she won the Cuban National Championships for the first time (she would win a total of 7 times during her career in Cuba). In 1993 she made her debut in the World Championships for Cuba, placing 10th all-around. She qualified for the 1996 Olympics, but Cuba ended up not being able to send her (either from a lack of funding, a failure of the government to hand in paperwork, or some other issue - different sources point to different reasons). This was a crushing disappointment for Portuondo, and she retired (for the first time) in 1997. Soon after she married American Alan Hatch (a coach she had met at the World Games) and moved to the United States. In 2001, she became a U.S. citizen and also resumed training at the elite level with her then husband as her coach (she is now married to Adam Wooten, a former college track athlete). She could not immediately compete for the U.S. (Castro refused to give the permission needed), but in 2003 she won the vault title at Nationals and was named to the World Championship team. Unfortunately, she tore her ACL a day before the competition began. My mid-2004 she resumed competing and managed to make the Olympic team despite her knee not being fully healed. It was at those games that she won silver in the team and vault competitions. She retired (for the final time) after these games. To see Hatch on the vault in 1996 (Worlds, competing for Cuba), click HERE. To read a 2004 New York Times article on her, click HERE.

For resources for teaching Spanish, Level 1 through AP, CLICK HERE.




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