The Wolverine

June-July 2012

The Wolverine: Covering University of Michigan Football and Sports

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INSIDE MICHIGAN ATHLETICS Sitting Down With Olympic Gymnast Syque Caesar Syque Caesar, an outgoing senior on the Michigan men's gymnastics team, may be done with his Maize and Blue career, but he is headed to an even bigger stage — the 2012 Lon- don Olympics. Caesar will be compet- ing for Bangladesh, his father's native country. to be going to the Olympics? Caesar: "To be able to go to the Olympics is a dream come true. Every young, aspiring gymnast goes into the sport thinking that they can go to the Olympics, and when you tell some- one, 'I'm a gymnast, The Wolverine: How excited are you they ask is, 'Are you competing in the Olympics?'" The Wolverine: What's your relation- ship with Bangladesh? Caesar: "My dad is a former profes- ' the first question sional soccer player for the Bangla- desh National Team. When he got mar- ried and moved to the United States, he kept in contact with people from Bangladesh. Some of his teammates and family members have pretty high positions within the sports realm in the country. They have a lot of pull with the sports federation. "My dad is a permanent citizen of the United States under a green card, and my mom got her citizenship. I was able to get dual citizenship through my dad. That was almost a two-year process. The first real break in terms of getting into the Olympics was com- peting in the 2011 World Champion- ships in Tokyo last October. One thing led to another, with a lot of hard work and a lot of political conversations, and I got the word a couple weeks ago. here? Caesar: "I will be the only gymnast The Wolverine: What happens from " competing for Bangladesh. In total, we'll only have four to six athletes that go to London. Because the average amount of athletes for Bangladesh has been six or less, they have the ability to qualify athletes in any sport, be- cause the International Olympic Com- mittee wants as many athletes as pos- sible, so this is a good opportunity to send more athletes. "I'll be training in Ann Arbor all sum- mer, with the Michigan coaches. I'll 14 THE WOLVERINE JUNE/JULY 2012 Caesar will be competing in the Olympics for Bangladesh, his father's native country. PHOTO COURTESY MICHIGAN ATHLETIC MEDIA RELATIONS be taking [U-M assistant coach] Geoff Corrigan with me to London. He'll be my coach there. competing for Bangladesh, do you have a sense of the support you're go- ing to receive? Caesar: "Every time the Olympics The Wolverine: With so few athletes " come around, my family and I look to see what Bangladesh has. We're always really excited to see that, even though it's never many athletes. Now that I've won a few medals for the country, I've gotten the word out; people are talk- ing about it, and my name is in the papers over there. The word has even been spread to the Prime Minister, which is exciting. There's definitely a lot of support. I think all the people in Bangladesh will be happy to see someone representing their country. — Andy Reid "

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