Charles Lakes

American gymnast (born 1964)

Charles Lakes

Full name| Charles Lakes
Born|  (1964-08-06) August 6, 1964 (age 60)
St. Louis, Missouri, U.S.
Height| 172 cm (5 ft 8 in)
Gymnastics career
Discipline| Men's artistic gymnastics
Country
represented| United States
College team| Illinois Fighting Illini

Medal record

Men's artistic gymnastics
Representing  United States
| Event  | 1st | 2nd | 3rd

|
|
|

Pan American Games | 1  | 0  | 0
Total  | 1  | 0  | 0
Pan American Games
| 1987 Indianapolis | Team

Charles Lakes (born August 6, 1964) is a retired American gymnast. He was a member of the United States men's national artistic gymnastics team and participated in the 1988 Olympics.[1][2]

## College career

[edit]

Lakes competed for the Illinois Fighting Illini men's gymnastics in college. He minored in Spanish. In 1984, he won the NCAA gold medal for the horizontal bar. He left college in 1986 to concentrate on making the Olympic team in 1988.

## Elite career

[edit]

Lakes was a member of the 1985 and 1987 World Gymnastics Championships U.S. teams.

In 1988, Lakes was criticized by some gymnasts, including Kurt Thomas for not training enough. However, Lakes won gold at Nationals on the floor exercise. At the Olympic Trials, Lakes finished first overall. At the Olympics, he was the highest-ranked American gymnast in the all-around finals and finished 19th.[1][2]

Lakes took 1989 off and then returned to competition in 1990. He attempted a comeback in 1992 but placed 18th and claimed the final spot in the US Olympic trials that year. He was inducted into the USA Gymnastics Hall of Fame in 2003.[2][3]

Lakes is a devoted Scientologist. During his Olympic career, he was quoted as crediting L. Ron Hubbard's system of Dianetics for his immense success and health, stating "I am by far the healthiest person on the team," he said. "They (other team members) are actually resentful of me because I don't have to train as long as they do."[4]

## Black athlete

[edit]

Lakes was the first black American gymnast to compete in the Olympics. (Ron Galimore was the first African-American selected for the Olympics, but because of the 1980 boycott, he never competed.)

In the Olympic runup, Lakes told Deseret News that he grew up around whites and idolized a white gymnast, Mitch Gaylord. He said that he had not had racial problems in the sport and that he was not black "in terms of separating myself or black pride", but that he did embrace being a role model for younger minority athletes.[5]

Lakes spoke to NBC in 1988:[6][7]

> I think of myself as a gymnast first. But I am black, and as a result I am a role model and I, I embrace that position. So if I can help other black kids, other minority kids, whatever, get to a level in something like gymnastics where they can have a quality of life, I think that would be great.

That same year, he told JET magazine, "I think Debi Thomas (Olympic skater) was wrong when she said she was not a role model for blacks. Whether she wanted to or not, she is a role model, and people were looking up to her."[8]

## References

[edit]

1. ^ a b Charles Lakes. sports-reference.com
2. ^ a b c "Biography: LAKES, Charles". usghof.org.
3. ^ "USA Gymnastics | USA Gymnastics Hall of Fame Class of 2003 to be Inducted August 23 in Anahe". USA Gymnastics.
4. ^ Sappell, Joel (June 25, 1990). "Courting of Celebrities". Los Angeles Times.
5. ^ "MEN'S GYM LEADER LAKES FEELS RESPONSIBILITY AS ROLE MODEL". DeseretNews.com. August 5, 1988.
6. ^ BLACK US OLYMPIC GYMNAST CHARLES LAKES PROFILED. NBC News. September 15, 1988
7. ^ Charles Lakes profile. youtube.com
8. ^ Jet. Johnson Publishing Company. 1988. p. 48.

## External links

[edit]

* Charles Lakes at the International Gymnastics Federation
* Charles Lakes at the USA Gymnastics Hall of Fame
* Charles Lakes at Olympics.com
* Charles Lakes at Olympedia

* v
* t
* e

1988 USA Olympic Gymnastics Team

Men's artistic gymnastics athletes|

| Team|

* Kevin Davis
* Scott Johnson
* Charles Lakes
* Dominick Minicucci
* Lance Ringnald
* Wes Suter

|

Alternates|

* Tom Schlesinger

Women's artistic gymnastics athletes|

| Team|

* Kelly Garrison
* Brandy Johnson
* Missy Marlowe
* Phoebe Mills
* Hope Spivey
* Chelle Stack

|

Alternates|

* Rhonda Faehn
* Kristie Phillips

Rhythmic gymnastics athletes|

* Michelle Berube
* Diane Simpson-Bundy

Coaches|

| Men's|

* Abie Grossfeld (Head coach)
* Yoichi Tomita (Asst. coach)

|

Women's|

* Béla Károlyi (Head coach)
* Donna Strauss (Asst. coach)

Rhythmic|

* Irina Vdovets

* v
* t
* e

United States Champions in Artistic Gymnastics – Men's Floor Exercise

* 1963: Tom Seward
* 1964: Rusty Mitchell
* 1965: Rusty Mitchell
* 1966: Dan Millman
* 1967: Katsu Kanzaki
* 1968: Katsu Kanzaki
* 1969: Steve Hug
1969  Dave Thor
* 1970: Makoto Sakamoto
* 1971: John Crosby Jr.
* 1972: Yoshi Takei
* 1973: John Crosby Jr.
* 1974: John Crosby Jr.
* 1975: Peter Kormann
* 1976:
* 1977: Ron Galimore
* 1978: Kurt Thomas
* 1979: Ron Galimore
* 1980: Ron Galimore
* 1981: Jim Hartung
* 1982: Jim Hartung
* 1983: Mitch Gaylord
* 1984: Peter Vidmar
* 1985: Mark Oates
* 1986: Robert Sundstrom
* 1987: John Sweeney
* 1988: Mark Oates
1988  Charles Lakes
* 1989: Mike Racanelli
* 1990: Bob Stelter
* 1991: Mike Racanelli
* 1992: Gregg Curtis
* 1993: Kerry Huston
* 1994: Jeremy Killen
* 1995: Daniel Stover
* 1996: Jay Thornton
* 1997: Jason Gatson
* 1998: Jason Gatson
* 1999: Jason Gatson
* 2000: Blaine Wilson
* 2001: Sean Townsend
* 2002: Morgan Hamm
* 2003: Morgan Hamm
* 2004: Paul Hamm
* 2005: Guillermo Alvarez
* 2006: Jonathan Horton
* 2007: Paul Hamm
* 2008: Morgan Hamm
* 2009: Steven Legendre
* 2010: Joshua Dixon
* 2011: Jake Dalton
* 2012: Jake Dalton
* 2013: Steven Legendre
* 2014: Jake Dalton
* 2015: Steven Legendre
* 2016: Jake Dalton
* 2017: Yul Moldauer
2017  Eddie Penev
* 2018: Sam Mikulak
* 2019: Sam Mikulak
* 2020: No competition
* 2021: Eddie Penev
* 2022: Brody Malone
* 2023: Paul Juda
* 2024: Fred Richard

NCAA Championships for Charles Lakes

* v
* t
* e

NCAA Gymnastics Championships – Men's Horizontal Bar

* 1938: Robert Sears (Army)
* 1939: Adam Walters (Temple)
* 1940: Norm Boardman (Temple)
* 1941: Newt Loken (Minnesota)
* 1942: Norm Boardman (Temple)
* 1948: Joe Calvetti (Illinois)
* 1949: Bob Stout (Temple)
* 1950: Joe Kotys (Kent State)
* 1951: Bill Roetzheim (Florida State)
* 1952: Charles Simms (USC)
* 1953: Hal Lewis (Navy)
* 1954: Jean Cronstedt (Penn State)
* 1955: Carlton Rintz (Michigan State)
* 1956: Ronnie Amster (Florida State)
* 1957: Abie Grossfeld (Illinois)
* 1958: Abie Grossfeld (Illinois)
* 1959: Stanley Tarshis (Michigan State)
* 1960: Stanley Tarshis (Michigan State)
* 1961: Bruno Klaus (S. Illinois)
* 1962: Robert Lynn (USC)
* 1963: Gil Larose (Michigan)
* 1964: Ronald Barak (USC)
* 1965: Jim Curzi (Michigan State)
1965  Mike Jacobsen (Penn State)
* 1966: Rusty Rock (CSUN)
* 1967: Rich Grigsby (CSUN)
* 1968: Makoto Sakamoto (USC)
* 1969: Bob Manna (New Mexico)
* 1970: Yoshi Hayasaki (Washington)
* 1971: Brent Simmons (Iowa State)
* 1972: Tom Lindner (S. Illinois)
* 1973: Jon Aitken (New Mexico)
* 1974: Rick Danley (Indiana State)
* 1975: Rich Larsen (Iowa State)
* 1976: Tom Beach (California)
* 1977: John Hart (UCLA)
* 1978: Mel Cooley (Washington)
* 1979: Kurt Thomas (Indiana State)
* 1980: Phil Cahoy (Nebraska)
1980  Darrell Kerbe (LSU)
* 1981: Phil Cahoy (Nebraska)
* 1982: Peter Vidmar (UCLA)
* 1983: Scott Johnson (Nebraska)
* 1984: Charles Lakes (Illinois)
* 1985: Dan Hayden (Arizona State)
1985  Wes Suter (Nebraska)
* 1986: Dan Hayden (Arizona State)
* 1987: David Moriel (UCLA)
* 1988: Vacated
* 1989: Vacated
* 1990: Chris Waller (UCLA)
* 1991: Luis López (New Mexico)
* 1992: Jair Lynch (Stanford)
* 1993: Steve McCain (UCLA)
* 1994: Jim Foody (UCLA)
* 1995: Rick Kieffer (Nebraska)
* 1996: Carl Imhauser (Temple)
* 1997: Marshall Nelson (Nebraska)
* 1998: Todd Bishop (Oklahoma)
* 1999: Todd Bishop (Oklahoma)
* 2000: Michael Ashe (California)
* 2001: Michael Ashe (California)
* 2002: Daniel Diaz-Luong (Michigan)
* 2003: Linas Gaveika (Iowa)
* 2004: Justin Spring (Illinois)
* 2005: Ronald Ferris (Ohio State)
* 2006: Dylan Carney (Stanford)
2004  Justin Spring (Illinois)
* 2007: Jonathan Horton (Oklahoma)
* 2008: Paul Ruggeri (Illinois)
* 2009: Paul Ruggeri (Illinois)
* 2010: Ryan McCarthy (Michigan)
* 2011: Alex Buscaglia (Stanford)
* 2012: Sam Mikulak (Michigan)
* 2013: Sam Mikulak (Michigan)
* 2014: Jordan Valdez (Illinois)
* 2015: C. J. Maestas (Illinois)
* 2016: Alex Johnson (Ohio State)
2016  Akash Modi (Stanford)
* 2017: Robert Neff (Stanford)
* 2018: Robert Neff (Stanford)
* 2019: Brody Malone (Stanford)
* 2021: Brody Malone (Stanford)
* 2022: Brody Malone (Stanford)
* 2023: Fred Richard (Michigan)
* 2024: Tate Costa (Illinois)
* 2025: Emre Dodanlı (Oklahoma)

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