I Have Cool Friends

Sam welcomes decorated gymnast, Jessica López. Jessica is an international gymnast who has represented her home country of Venezuela in three separate Olympic Games from 2008 through 2016. In 2016, she qualified for the uneven bars final, becoming the very first Venezuelan gymnast to do so. She also placed sixth in the all-around final, her country’s best all-around finish ever. She competed collegiately at the University of Denver from 2006 – 2009, earning five All-American honors across three NCAA national championship appearances. In total, she has won eighty-three individual titles during her career. Today, Jessica is a gymnastics coach at her alma mater, The University of Denver, and is mulling over the possibility of competing at a fourth Olympics! In this episode, Sam and Jessica talk about Jessica’s incredible career as a gymnast, from the Elite and Olympic levels to the collegiate level. Jessica shares how she has managed to stay motivated throughout a career of such longevity. She also recounts the