Oct. 23, 2012

STANFORD, Calif. - On Sunday, we asked the question, Who Am I? Today, the identity of the mystery Stanford gymnast is revealed: It's Stanford sophomore Alex Archer.

In a poem posted Sunday on gostanford.com, Archer gave some clues as her identity. Among the characteristics she revealed: "I want to make a difference in the world," and "I try to live my life to the fullest."

Enjoy the video introduction and the Q&A with Alex:

Q: How are midterms going?
A: Midterms are going great. I just had my first one in ENGR 14, which I thought went really well.

Q: Is there anything you're particularly looking forward to academically this year?
A: All of my classes because they are courses centered around my major, Product Design. Although some of them are time consuming, it is time that I spend enjoying the material, making it much easier to dedicate my efforts towards.

Q: Do you have a favorite memory from SWG so far?
A: Picture day. Every year we take pictures around campus, but the best part is that we are biking around in our leotards. I always love seeing the looks on people's faces as we casually bike by them in our competition wear. It's a great bonding experience for the whole team and is usually filled with ridiculous jokes and poses in our pictures.

Q: What's your funniest SWG story?
A: After practice one day, we were all sitting around the coaches discussing some after thoughts. My teammate Pauline, had a spider crawling up her arm, but because she loves all insects and animals, she refused to kill it, so she quietly placed it about 3 feet away from her on the ground. A couple minutes later, my other teammate, Taylor, jumped up and started screaming, yelling that a huge spider was on her. So much for saving the spider.

Q: The team's motto this season is "All in. Every Moment." Is there a particular time that that really resonated with you?
A: At our team retreat this year, as part of an activity, one of our coaches laid down a baby towel on the ground. She told us that all 15 of us had to stand on the towel at the same time and hold it for 10 seconds. When we finally figured out a way to stand on it without falling over, we were literally all in for every second. The team motto really stuck at the moment, knowing that we would have to be "all in, every moment", both physically and mentally, in order to reach our full potential this year.

Q: What are you looking forward to the most about the upcoming season? A: Competing in the bar line-up.

Q: What should we expect from SWG this year?
A: Expect the best because we do. We all hold each other to the highest expectations and push each other everyday to be the best at the end of the year.