Main:Elsa García

Elsa García
García at the 2019 World Championships
Full name	Elsa García Rodriguez Blancas
Country represented	Mexico
Born	February 8 1990 (1990-02-08) Nuevo León, Monterrey, Mexico
Years on National Team	2006-present
Club	Regio Club Gimnástico
Coach(es)	Jose Antonio Martinez Barraza & Teresa Lopez
Current status	Active

Elsa García Rodriguez Blancas (born February 8, 1990) is a Mexican artistic gymnast who competed at the 2012 Summer Olympics. She is the 2015 Mexican National Champion.

Career

2006

In March, Garcia placed fifth at the American Cup in Philadelphia, United States with a score of 57.050.

In April, Garcia competed at the Pacific Rim Championships in Honolulu, United States. She contributed a vault score of 14.650 toward the Mexican team's sixth place finish.

In July, Garcia competed at the 2006 Central American and Caribbean Games in Cartagena, Colombia. She contributed an all around score of 57.250 toward the Mexican team's first place finish. She placed first in the all around final with a score of 58.332. In event finals, she placed third on vault scoring 14.062, first on uneven bars scoring 15.150, and first on floor scoring 14.125.

In October, Garcia competed at the 2006 World Artistic Gymnastics Championships in Aarhus, Denmark. The Mexican team placed eighteenth and individually she placed thirty third with a score of 56.525.

2007

At the beginning of March, Garcia placed third at the American Cup in Jacksonville, United States with a score of 60.200. In March, Garcia competed at the Artistic Gymnastics World Cup event in Paris, France. She placed third on vault scoring 14.325, sixth on uneven bars scoring 14.425, and second of floor scoring 15.100.

At the end of March, Garcia competed at the Artistic Gymnastics World Cup event in Cottbus, Germany. She placed third on vault scoring 14.450, first on uneven bars scoring 15.250, and first on floor scoring 15.125.

In May, Garcia competed at the Artistic Gymnastics World Cup event in Ghent, Belgium. She placed second on vault scoring 14.463 and second on floor scoring 14.675.

In July, Garcia competed at the 2007 Pan American Games in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. She placed seventh in the all around final with a score of 56.200. In event finals, she placed fourth on vault scoring 14.462, fourth on uneven bars scoring 15.050, and fifth on balance beam scoring 14.525.

In September, Garcia competed at the 2007 World Artistic Gymnastics Championships in Stuttgart, Germany. The Mexican team placed twentieth and individually she placed seventy fourth in the all around competition with a score of 52.775. Prior to the competition she injured her Psoas muscle and based on her performances she did not qualify for the 2008 Summer Olympics. Garcia said, "2007 was a really special and contradictory year for me, because I achieved so much in the World Cup series and obviously because of my injury that left me out of Beijing."

2008

In June, Garcia competed at the Artistic Gymnastics World Cup event in Barcelona, Spain. She placed fourth on vault scoring 13.438 and third on uneven bars scoring 13.750.

Garcia hoped to earn a wild card spot for the 2008 Summer Olympics but did not. "2008 was kind of frustrating, mainly because I didn't know if I would get the wild card or not. Finally I got an answer to that, and, well, you know all about that." She added, "It was tough to continue knowing that my goal and dream was passing me by. It was hard seeing the competitions on TV in my house, but I wouldn't let myself quit. First of all, because I can't give up on something that fills me with happiness and that I still enjoy very much. Second, I know who I am, and what I am capable of doing if I set my mind to it, so there's nothing like keeping on training and setting new goals to keep myself motivated. Of course, not every day is a great day, but overcoming the hard parts is what makes us realize why we are doing this."

In December, Garcia competed at the Artistic Gymnastics World Cup final in Madrid, Spain. She placed fourth on vault scoring 14.400 and eighth on floor scoring 13.175. Garcia said, "The World Cup Final in Madrid came like a surprise for us, and it helped my coaches and me get the hang of things again, and to reassure me that I want to keep doing this for another four years."

2009

At the beginning of the year, Garcia had surgery on her left hand. She said, "There was an abnormal bone growth due to hard impacts and over-training. So I had surgery, and then had to recover from it and start little by little again. So this year I haven't competed at all. This year is the first year in the Olympic cycle, so we're taking it slow, because next year will be a busy one."

In October, Garcia competed at the 2009 World Artistic Gymnastics Championships in London, United Kingdom. She placed twelfth in the all around final with a score of 54.875 and eighth in the vault final with a score of 13.287. At the World Championships, Garcia was awarded with the Longines Prize for Elegance.

2010

In March, Garcia placed eighth at the American Cup in Worcester, United States with a score of 53.900.

In July, Garcia competed at the 2010 Central American and Caribbean Games in Mayaguez, Puerto Rico. She contributed an all around score of 55.200 toward the Mexican team's first place finish. "Mexico really started well and ended well," Garcia said. "There were great performances from us and other countries, but in the end we got first." She placed second in the all around final with a score of 55.950. In event finals, she placed first on vault scoring 13.812, eighth on uneven bars scoring 11.275, second on balance beam scoring 13.675, and first on floor scoring 14.000. Garcia said, "I think that over the past four years, the technical quality of the gymnasts in this region has improved."

In September, Garcia competed at the Pan American Championships in Guadalajara, Mexico. She placed fourth in the all around competition with a score of 56.232. In event finals, she placed sixth on vault scoring 13.825, seventh on uneven bars scoring 13.300, fourth on balance beam scoring 13.625, and fifth on floor scoring 13.650. "It's a good place, but I know I can improve further," Garcia said. "The objective was met. We are very happy because we were fighting on each apparatus."

In October, Garcia competed at the 2010 World Artistic Gymnastics Championships in Rotterdam, The Netherlands. The Mexican team placed twenty first and individually she placed fifty first in the all around competition.

In December, Garcia had surgery to remove a Synovial cyst in her left hand.

2011

In February, Garcia resumed training. She said, "After surgery it was immobilized for a month with a splint. I am almost ending my second month that is filled with mobility, rehab and strengthening my hand. So I think I will be recovered completely in April, or maybe May. I am constantly visualizing myself doing the skills I do, and that makes me want to train more and more." Garcia later added, "It was a rough and slow beginning this year because of the operation; but my hand has been fully operational since May, so I've had the chance to slowly regain and really train all the apparatuses and skills. The only times it hurts a bit is when there is a change of climate or when I do lots of vaults, but nothing serious. After my hand operation, it took me a lot of out-of-the-gym training to regain all of my body strength. I did a lot of cardiovascular training and weight lifting, and went back to the basics in gymnastics. The skills I do were in my mind, and my body knew how to do them. I just had to regain control of my body."

In October, Garcia competed at the 2011 World Artistic Gymnastics Championships in Tokyo, Japan. The Mexican team placed seventeenth and individually she placed sixty third in the all around competition. Before the competition she said, "I can surely say that I am really excited about this year's world championships. I hope that we Mexicans show the world what we are capable of achieving, I think we can place in the top 18."

Later in October, Garcia competed at the 2011 Pan American Games in Guadalajara, Mexico. She contributed an all around score of 52.875 towards the Mexican team's third place finish and she placed fifth in the all around final with a score of 54.425. In event finals, she placed second on vault scoring 14.312, third on uneven bars scoring 13.625, and fifth on floor scoring 13.400.

2012

In January, Garcia competed at the London Prepares series in London, United Kingdom. She placed seventeenth in the all around competition with a score of 54.631. She injured her knee during warm-ups for the vault final. She said, "It was a hyperextension of the ligaments around the knee and connection between the bones, because as my knee went backward my bones crashed into each other. No surgery was needed, but I used a knee cast for a while and then pure rehab, slowly regaining mobility and strength."

In May, Garcia competed at the Mexican Championships. "My performance was exactly as planned," she said. "It was the first competition after my injury so it was to get back in competition form but without doing very difficult skills — letting myself know that I was back in the game. (I did) only bars and beam with full difficulty skills, vault all I did were Yurchenko layouts and on floor I did my first two passes with my coach spotting me, and the rest were very simple tumbling passes."

In June, Garcia won the all around competition at Mexico's National Olympiad with a score of 56.300. In event finals, she placed third on vault scoring 13.762, third on uneven bars scoring 13.075, first on balance beam scoring 14.200, and second on floor scoring 14.600. "I recently competed at our country's National Olympiad doing four full routines packed with almost every difficulty I will be showing in London," she said. "Hopefully just missing an upgrade to a double-twisting Yurchenko on vault and a Patterson dismount on beam."

London Olympics

At the end of July, Garcia competed at the 2012 Summer Olympics in London, United Kingdom. She injured her hand prior to qualifications and was only able to compete on two events. She scored 12.400 on balance beam and 13.733 on floor.

In November, Garcia performed at the Mexican Gymnastics Gala.

2013

Garcia competed at the Universiade. She placed seventh in the all-around and tied for silver on floor with Ellie Black of Canada. She'd also qualified for vault and uneven bar finals but withdrew to rest herself for floor.

2014

Garcia returned to international competition at the Pan American Senior Championships in August, winning bronze with her team and placing eleventh in the all-around. She competed at the World Championships in October. The Mexican team finished fourteenth in qualifications, qualifying a full team to the next World Championships, and Garcia finished twenty-third in the all-around. In November, she competed at the Central American and Caribbean Games, winning team gold, all-around silver, and placing fourth on bars, fifth on floor, and seventh on beam.

2015

Garcia started off the season by sweeping the Mexican National Championships in April. In May, she placed fourth on bars at the São Paulo World Cup. In July, she competed at the Pan American Games in Toronto, Canada. She contributed to the Mexican team's fifth place finish in the team final and placed fourth on uneven bars. She was named to the Mexican team for the World Championships in Glasgow, Scotland, but sustained an injury in training and withdrew.

2019

Garcia returned to competition at the Mexican National Championships in early June, placing an impressive fourth in the all-around in her first competition in four years. She returned to international competition at the Guimaraes World Cup in Portugal in September, winning silver on uneven bars. In October, she competed at the World Championships in Stuttgart, Germany, but didn't make any individual events or qualify as an individual to the 2020 Olympics.

Medal Count

Year	Event	TF	AA	VT	UB	BB	FX
2004	Pacific Alliance Championships	6	9	1st	5	7	3rd
2005	Leverkusen Cup	3rd	3rd
2006	Tyson American Cup		5	3rd
2007	Tyson American Cup		3rd	2nd	2nd	3rd
	Paris World Cup			3rd	6		2nd
	Cottbus World Cup			3rd	1st		1st
	Ghent World Cup			2nd			2nd
2008	Barcelona World Cup			4	3rd
	Madrid World Cup Final			4			8
2009	London World Championships		12	8
2010	Tyson American Cup		8	5	7	8	7
2011	Guadalajara Pan American Games	3rd	5	2nd	3rd		5
2013	Kazan Summer Universiade		7				2nd
2014	Pan American Senior Championships	3rd	11
	Nanning World Championships		23
	Veracruz Central American and Caribbean Games	1st	2nd		4	7	5
2015	Mexican National Championships		1st	1st	1st	1st	1st
	São Paulo World Cup				4
	Toronto Pan American Games	5			4
2019	Mexican National Championships		4
	Guimaraes World Cup				2nd

Floor Music

2012-14 - "Zelda Medley" by Lindsey Stirling

2019 - "Overture" from Andrew Lloyd Webber's Jesuschrist Superstar