| NCAA champion Kevin Tan was selected by USA Gymnastics to represent the United States at the 2005 World Artistic Gymnastics Championships yesterday. The event is scheduled for Nov. 21-27 and will take place in Melbourne, Australia at Rod Laver Arena at Melbourne Park. |
UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa.; October 18, 2005 - Penn State assistant coach Kevin Tan was selected by USA Gymnastics to represent the United States at the 2005 World Artistic Gymnastics Championships yesterday. The event is scheduled for Nov. 21-27 and will take place in Melbourne, Australia at Rod Laver Arena at Melbourne Park. Teams from 43 countries will participate in the championships.
Tan was chosen based on his performance at the World Championships Men's Team Selection Competition held at the U.S. Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs, Colo. on Oct. 14 and 16. Competing on the still rings, Tan posted scores of 9.75 and 9.8. His marks were not only the highest on the apparatus but the best scores recorded by any gymnast at the competition.
A member of Penn State's 2004 NCAA championship team, Tan was the Nittany Lions' first back-to-back NCAA champion on the still rings, earning titles in 2003 and 2004. A six-time All-American, Tan was named assistant men's gymnastics coach this summer after serving as an undergraduate assistant last season while completing his degree in finance.
During his senior year in 2004, Tan was one of the premier collegiate gymnasts in the nation, qualifying as a finalist for the Nissen-Emery Award. He was an all-conference selection, winning both the still rings and parallel bars crowns at the 2004 Big Ten Championships. His still rings title was his third-consecutive conference championship in the event. During his collegiate career, Tan never finished lower than third on the rings at the Big Tens.
Tan was one of six gymnasts named to the team. Also selected to represent the United States were Jason Gatson, a member of the 2004 Olympic silver-medal team, Sean Golden, Justin Spring of the University of Illinois, Todd Thornton, and Yewki Tomita. David Sender, who competes for Stanford University, is the alternate.