News

By Sarah Firth, USAG Creator Program

In July, Lavi Crain won the junior all-around title at the U.S. Classic Presented by Saatva. Five months earlier, in February, her younger sister, Vivi, was named to the Junior National Team. Together, the Crain sisters are quickly making a name for themselves on the junior elite gymnastics scene as 2025 marches on.

This is the sisters’ first year training elite gymnastics together. Last year, Vivi competed level 10 while Lavi took on her second season as a junior elite. Although they were always in the gym at the same time, this year brings a whole new dynamic to training. Lavi and Vivi now make up two of their four-person training rotation group at Great American Gymnastics Express (GAGE) in Blue Springs, Missouri.

“We’re in the same group, so we’re always on the same events and working on the same things, doing all the same kind of routines, and we warm up together,” said Vivi. “In some ways,” said Lavi, “[training together] makes it easier because we push each other to do great all the time.”

Though sometimes mistaken for twins, Lavi and Vivi are a year and a half apart in age and one grade apart in school, with Lavi being 14 and Vivi celebrating her 13th birthday in June. And although much of the spotlight is on the sisters in the Crain family, there’s also a third gymnast in the mix: their 10-year-old brother, William, who also trains at GAGE and is currently level 6 in men’s artistic.

“He wants to be good, just like us,” joked Lavi.

The family’s journey to gymnastics came through an unlikely geography: the state of Idaho. Their mother, Chloe, came to the U.S. from Seoul, Korea, to attend the University of Nevada Las Vegas. Chloe later met the girls’ father, Rob Crain, and the two settled in Coeur d’Alene, Idaho.

Rob, a lifelong baseball lover and professional wedding photographer and videographer, had thought his daughters might play softball one day, but it seems they had a different calling. While filming commercials for a local gymnastics gym, he had noticed how much the kids there enjoyed the sport and thought his daughters might as well.

The sisters trained at Avant Coeur Gymnastics until Lavi reached level 9 and Vivi level 8. After attending a camp at GAGE and feeling an affinity with the gym, the family moved to Blue Springs, Missouri in March 2021.

Since then, the Crains have focused on growing as athletes and, like many others in the sport, have aspirations that extend through 2028.

“For [the] long term, I want to go to the Olympics and win gold medals for USA,” Lavi said.

In the immediate future, the sisters have been working on upgrades they hope to soon compete.

In her floor routine, Vivi Crain has become known for her Berar turn, a double turn with her back leg held in a scorpion position. And recently, she has been working to incorporate that scorpion turn into her beam routine as well.

“I’ve been working on triples [on floor], trying to do it, because someday at Worlds or Olympics, I want it to be named after me,” said Vivi.

Vivi has also been training a Yurchenko loop on beam, while her older sister Lavi has been training an Amanar on vault and a Silivas (tucked double double) on floor.

Even as they take on high-level skills at a young age, the Crain sisters stay grounded in habits that support long-term success with ample support from their parents.

“It’s always taking it one day at a time and just eating healthy, going to bed early, getting good rest,” said Lavi. “A lot of people say that being an elite gymnast is hard and I take the approach to make it the opposite of that,” added their father, Rob. “Let’s make it fun. Let’s make it something that everyone would want to do and that everyone’d want to enjoy.”

Outside the gym, the Crains enjoy mountain biking with their family – although their residence in Missouri is certainly flatter than their hometown in Idaho. They’ve also been learning to play the piano. Their uncle, Brian Crain, is a renowned composer and pianist.

Back in the competitive arena for the Xfinity U.S. Gymnastics Championships this weekend in New Orleans, Vivi’s goal is to make the Junior National Team again, while Lavi hopes to be selected later this season for the Junior World Championships team. Lavi has already been selected for the 2025 Junior Pan American Games August 19–22 in Asunción, Paraguay.

With the season’s biggest competitions on the horizon and their family in their corner, the Crain sisters continue to prove why they’re gymnasts to watch.