The Mystery of the Missing Torch: A Stretchy Clue. Part 3

Are we in the right place, jem nay, gymnasium, we made it.

Wow, that's a really long word.

Gymnasium is a long word, but it's really just a fancy way to say jim oh, like a.

Gym where you practice in pasteboats exactly, Billy says, gymnasium comes from an ancient Greek word.

That means naked, naked like no clothes yep. In ancient Greece where the Olympic Games began, all the athletes competed without clothes on. That is so silly.

Well, I hope the athletes inside this gymnasium are wearing clothes.

Don't worry, Lisa, that was quite a long time ago. Let's go in. Welcome to Stories for Kids by Lingo Kids, where we discover fascinating facts about the world around us and the fun of play learning. Today is part three of our Olympic Mystery series. The Lingo Kids' friends are trying to track down the thief who stole the Olympic torch. Last episode, they found a new clue, a chalk handprint that led them to the gymnasium, where there are plenty of gymnasts with chalk on their hands. Do you think

I don't see the torch anywhere, do you tell me now? But I do see you love flipping and balancing and balancing. Wow, that's the biggest.

Trampoline I've ever seen. Its like so fine it is.

Want to give it a try?

Really? I mean, is it okay? It's okay with me? Thank you?

Miss excuse me?

But who are you? Elliott? This is laur Hernandez, Olympic medalist in gymnastics. You should have seen Lauri on the balance beam at the twenty sixteen Olympic Games. She was part of the Final five that's the nickname for the US women's gymnastics team that won the gold in Rio, Brazil.

Wow, a real Olympic gymnast, Laurie.

I tried doing gymnastics, but it was so hard. Is gymnastics ever hard for you?

I think the hardest part growing up as a young gymnast was figuring out how to go backwards.

I was stuck.

I couldn't wrap my head around it.

It terrified me.

This idea that I would just do a flip and I would go backwards. So that was something that I struggled a lot with as a kid. But once I got over that fear and I figured out what my body does when I'm going backwards, then it became a lot more fun.

Again. How did you know you wanted to be a gymnast?

Well, I just remember watching two gymnasts on the balance beam and thinking, Wow, this isn't something that I see people do every single day. How cool would it be if I could be like them? And I thought about what it might be like to flip into be upside down and to enjoy being in the air and that freedom you might get, and that seemed like a lot of fun to me.

What was your favorite part of being in the Olympics.

The most special moment would probably be, Well, there's the feeling after team finals when we realized that we did it. We were looking at the score and some mobiles had just competed on the floor exercise, and we knew we needed a certain score to win, and we knew she

That sounds amazing but also scary.

Were you nervous?

I remember as a young kid not understanding what was happening, and I would get so nervous and I would cry and my hands would shake and I couldn't figure out what was happening. But my mom, she's a social worker and a therapist, and she was always telling me that if I pretended my.

Finger was a candle and I blew on it.

Not enough to blow the candle out, but I blew on it, just enough to watch the fire shake a little bit, that it might help me calm down a bit. So if you ever get nervous and you're feeling like your tummy is doing its own flips and your hands are shaking, just blow gently on your little birthday candle on your finger and everything should be okay.

That's amazing.

I have one more question. Can we still try jumping on the big trampoline?

Sure? Just don't forget to stretch.

I'm good, I don't need stretch. Let's go, Lisa, Stretching is one way athletes take care of their bodies. It's really important to stretch your muscles before you work them so hard. Lingo kids, listeners, you can stretch out too, ready. Yeah, you reach.

Up high, touch your toes, stretch to the side, stretch.

To the other side.

Check it out.

Woo, that did feel good?

No, next jump you there?

Whoa look at Laurie jump.

She looks like she's flying.

Billy says he can fly too. Watch Billy should be in the Olympics.

Yeah, but the gymnast doesn't have wings like Billy.

How does she do it? Lots of practice? Now?

What are you on the tripoline at the Olympics?

Thank you? But I wasn't actually competing in tripoline. It's just a great way to practice tricks. I was a part of the artistic gymnastics team.

Oh, I love arts. Do you use paints? Tali? The women's artistic gymnastics team puts gymnastics tricks together in an artistic way to make routines. They don't use paints, but they compete on the balance being the uneven bars, the vault and the floor mat. That's right.

Even though I'm not competing anymore, I can't wait to cheer on the gymnasts at the Paris Olympics. I can't believe it's almost opening day.

Opening day the doors you find it?

Excuse me, Laurie, but did you see anyone with a torch in here?

Maybe someone with chalk on his hands?

No, I didn't see a torch. But something kind of strange did happen this morning?

What?

Someone came into the gym and asked if he could take some chalk.

To go that see.

Oh, he didn't steal the chalk.

I told him he could take as much as he wanted. We have a lot of chalk at the gymnasium.

Billy is asking what he looked like. Ooh, sorry, I'm not sure.

I was upside down on the uneven bars. He was gone before I flipped down.

He's so sleeky.

Billy says, to check the chalk bucket. Maybe there's a clue, good idea.

Look what is it?

I don't know.

He's covered.

Blow it off. Looks like crumbled up paper. Uncrumble it, uncrumple it. Billy says, it looks like a map. It's a clue. It is a map, Billy, It's a map of Paris. Woo and look, something is circles. Good eye, Lisa. It looks like someone circled the Louverra the loo.

Maybe the thief has to go to the bathroom, not.

The lou Elliott, the Louverra. It's one of the most famous art museums in the world and it's right in the center of Paris. I don't get it.

Why would the deep want to go to an art museum.

Billy says that maybe he is going to steal art next Oh.

No, we better go to the loo, I mean the louver Let's go, Alonzi.

Good luck. Today the Lingo Kids friends met Olympic medalist Bory Hernandez. She taught them that it is very important for gymnasts and all athletes to stretch their muscles so they don't get hurt. They also discovered another clue buried in a bucket of chalk, a map of Paris with a circle around the Louverra. What is this thief up to join us? Next week, as Cowie, Billy, Elliott, and Lisa make their way to Paris in search of the