FilAm teen gymnast Levi Jung Ruivivar eyes Olympic berth through World Cup event | TFC News USA
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00:01.0
Fresh from three competitions representing the Philippines, 17-year-old Los Angeles-born Olympic hopeful Levi Jung-Rubivar is hoping her performance on the bars at next week's World Cup in Doha, Qatar can raise the bar when it comes to Philippine gymnastics.
00:15.0
I'm excited about the rest of the season. I'm really hopeful that I'll get to qualify to the Olympics.
00:21.3
If I don't get that spot in Doha, there's also another opportunity for me to qualify during Asian Championships.
00:30.6
When she first picked up the sport at two years old and began excelling, the Rubivar family knew that representing the Philippines was a strong possibility.
00:38.3
After training in the U.S. system her whole life, and after signing to Stanford University for this fall, the Filipina team joined the Philippine team last year.
00:46.5
I just always had a really strong affinity for the Philippines.
00:51.3
And I guess it was just something like I kind of had my heart set on.
00:56.3
We always talked about it as a family and I just felt like it felt right in my heart and I just felt that I wanted to be surrounded by the Filipino community.
01:10.3
The Rubivar family is no stranger to the spotlight. Levi's grandfather is none other than the late Tony Rubivar, founding member of the iconic band the Society of Seven.
01:20.3
Her father Anthony is a Hollywood actor.
01:22.3
Starring on the early 2000s hit Third Watch, recently appearing in the Disney Plus adaptation of Turner and Hooch, he's now working on NCIS Hawaii.
01:30.3
It was definitely something that we were always, it was always in the back of our minds.
01:35.3
And you know, I don't know, it's, I guess it was just more accessible, like Levi's Filipino roots, you know, through me, through the Society of Seven, my dad, and the whole community.
01:46.3
It was just a big, you know, it was always just a big community that, you know, Levi was raised in.
01:51.3
And I think that maybe tipped the scales a little bit.
01:54.3
The Rubivar family is looking beyond Levi's Olympic dreams.
01:58.3
The sport can be costly, so along with other families, they set up the non-profit Himnastica to help support Filipino-American gymnasts.
02:05.3
Our hope was to try to help, you know, subsidize some of those costs for the Phil-Am athletes and help them in that way.
02:14.3
And at the same time, also, you know, start to look forward to like really kind of,
02:18.3
kind of getting behind the fact that, you know, look, the Philippines hasn't sent a women's gymnastics team to the Olympics.
02:27.3
And so, you know, our hope is that we change that.
02:30.3
Rubivar isn't the only Filipino-American looking for a spot in the Olympics.
02:35.3
Current UCLA junior Emma Malabio is also in the running to represent the Philippines at the Paris Games this summer.
02:41.3
2020 Olympian Carlos Yulo and Phil-Am Alea Finnegan-Cruz have already qualified for the Paris Games.
02:46.3
It would mean so much to make the Olympics and just like win some medals for the Philippines and get to like raise the Filipino flag.
02:58.3
It would be amazing. And it also would mean a lot to inspire future generations of Filipino athletes in gymnastics
03:06.3
because that is like one of the goals of Himnastica as well is we're trying to really help build the program
03:13.3
and do anything that we can to like get as many people involved as possible.
03:20.3
Rubivar, who's currently training in Texas, will be heading for Doha later this week
03:25.3
where she will practice leading to the bars competition on April 17th and the floor on April 18th.
03:30.3
The finals are set for Friday, April 19th.
03:33.3
Steve Angeles, ABS-CBN News.
03:43.3
We'll be right back.
