News

INDIANAPOLIS, Feb. 14, 2013 – Reigning British junior all-around champion Gabrielle Jupp has been added to the 2013 American Cup field, scheduled for 11:30 a.m. ET on March 2 at the DCU Center in Worcester, Mass.

The American Cup, a part of the International Gymnastics Federation’s all-around World Cup series, kicks off the road to the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, and the field features many of the top athletes from last summer’s Olympic Games in London.

Currently, the field is as follows.

Women:
Kyla Ross of Aliso Viejo, Calif./Gym-Max
Vanessa Ferrari of Italy
Gabrielle Jupp of Great Britain
Victoria Moors of Canada
Elisabeth Seitz of Germany
Asuka Teramoto of Japan
Koko Tsurumi of Japan

Men:
Jake Dalton of Reno, Nev./University of Oklahoma
Danell Leyva of Miami/Universal Gymnastics
Hiroki Ishikawa of Japan
Jorge Hugo Giraldo Lopez of Colombia
Marcel Nguyen of Germany
Sergio Sasaki of Brazil
Kristian Thomas of Great Britain
Oleg Verniaiev of Ukraine

An additional U.S. woman will be named closer to the event.

Tickets for the American Cup range in price from $39.50-$150 and may be purchased by phone at 800-745-3000; online at www.ticketmaster.com; at all Ticketmaster outlets; through participating gym clubs; or at the DCU Center Ticket Office. Ticket prices include facility fees and taxes but do not include convenience fees.

The American Cup, one of the most prestigious international invitationals, features many of the world’s top all-around gymnasts. The reigning champions are Jordyn Wieber of DeWitt, Mich./Gedderts’ Twistars USA, who was a member of The Fierce Five (2012 Olympic team champion), and Leyva. The American Cup was held in Worcester in 2010 when Rebecca Bross of Plano, Texas/WOGA, won the women’s title and Russia’s Maxim Devyatovskiy took top honors for the men.

The list of former champions comprises some of the sport’s best-known names, including Bart Conner, Paul Hamm, Shawn Johnson, Nastia Liukin, Shannon Miller, Carly Patterson, Mary Lou Retton, Peter Vidmar, Leyva and Wieber.

Scheduled for March 1, the Nastia Liukin Cup showcases some of the USA’s top Junior Olympic gymnasts. The participants for the Nastia Liukin Cup qualify through 19 of the country’s top invitationals that are included in the Nastia Liukin Cup Series, which runs from January through February. The Nastia Liukin Cup is held the night before the American Cup, and its proceeds benefit the Nastia Liukin Fund, a charitable fund within the National Gymnastics Foundation. Tickets for the Nastia Liukin Cup will go on sale at a later date.

The City of Worcester and the SMG-managed DCU Center, in conjunction with Destination Worcester, worked together to attract the American Cup and the Nastia Liukin Cup to central Massachusetts.

Past sites for the American Cup include: New York City (1976-80, 1982-84, 2004, 2008, 2012); Ft. Worth Texas (1981, 1996-98); Indianapolis, Ind. (1985); Fairfax, Va. (1986-90, 2003); Orlando, Fla. (1991-94, 2000-02); Seattle, Wash. (1995); St. Petersburg, Fla. (1999); Uniondale, N.Y. (2005); Philadelphia (2006); Jacksonville, Fla. (2007, 2011); Hoffman Estates, Ill. (2009); and Worcester, Mass. (2010, 2013).

Background Information

• DCU Center. A multi-purpose arena and convention center uniquely designed to accommodate the needs of any size group from 15 to 15,000, the DCU Center is owned by the City of Worcester and managed by SMG, the world’s leading private management and developing firm for public assembly facilities. Headquartered in Philadelphia, SMG provides management services to over 200 public assembly facilities internationally and also offers food and beverage operations through SAVOR… Catering by SMG. For more information, please visit www.dcucenter.com.
• Destination Worcester. Destination Worcester is a destination marketing organization whose primary focus is on selling the City of Worcester as a destination to meeting and convention planners, and event and sports organizers. Acting as a single point of contact, Destination Worcester provides enhanced communications and a streamlined process for booking events in Worcester.
• International Gymnastics Federation (FIG). The International Gymnastics Federation is the governing body for gymnastics worldwide. It is the oldest established international sports federation and has participated in the Olympic Games since their revival in 1896. The FIG governs seven disciplines: gymnastics for all, men’s artistic, women’s artistic, rhythmic, trampoline, aerobic and acrobatic. It counts 133 national member federations and boasts a 27-person staff at its international seat in Lausanne, Switzerland, host city of the International Olympic Committee (IOC).