Schwikert meets President

Victoria Sun

Friday, Dec. 1, 2000 | 12:44 p.m.

As a member of this year's U.S. gymnastics team that competed at the Olympics in Sydney, 16-year-old Tasha Schwikert has gotten to do a lot of things she wouldn't ordinarily have done.

Schwikert has been invited to fancy dinners, special parties and asked to speak at local elementary schools and boys and girls clubs.

On Wednesday, Schwikert experienced the biggest thrill of all when she shook hands with President Clinton at the White House.

"I found out I was going to meet him about two weeks before we left," she said. "I was really excited.

"Not a lot of people get to meet him. I thought it was an honor to get to meet him. It was pretty cool."

Schwikert, Las Vegan Lori Harrigan -- a two-time gold medalist on the softball team -- and hundreds of other U.S. Olympians and para-Olympians were invited to Washington to celebrate their achievements and meet the President.

It was a short trip for Schwikert, who flew east on Tuesday and returned home to Las Vegas Wednesday night.

So what did Schwikert think of the White House?

"It was neat, I got to look around a little bit downstairs," she said. "I will definitely remember it for a long time."

Next up for Schwikert is training camp at Bela Karolyi's gym in Houston from Jan. 6-11.

She is starting to learn the code of points (new routines with different point values) and preparing for training camp.

"It'll take me a while to learn it because it's a lot harder," Schwikert said.

If she masters the code of points her goal is to be one of only two Americans to be chosen to compete in the Visa America Cup in February. The decision will be made after the camp.