World Record Turns Giving on its Head

Two firmly planted hands at a time, more than 20,000 gymnasts across the country smashed the world record for the most simultaneous handstands on Saturday. More than 130 of those tumblers teetering at exactly 1 p.m. on Saturday were at Hills Gymnastics outside Gaithersburg, the metro region’s premiere training facility for competitive gymnasts, founded by two-time U.S. Olympic coach Kelli Hill.

The 20,478 handstands shattered the previous record of 2,402 as part of the build-up to the 2005 World Gymnastics Championships in Melbourne, Australia.

"Bringing the title back to the USA is a great way to celebrate National Gymnastics Day across the U.S. and help build awareness and support for gymnastics," Steve Penny, president of USA Gymnastics, said in a statement.

The feat coincided with National Gymnastics Day—commemorated jointly by a proclamation from the City of Gaithersburg—which USAG uses to build awareness of the sport and to support Children’s Miracle Network Hospitals, which raises funds for 170 children’s hospitals across North America. Over the past decade, gymnastics clubs have raised more than $1.4 million for the Utah-based charity.

Hills Gymnastics took it another step further on Saturday with a "Cartwheel-a-Thon" in which gymnasts got cash pledges from their friends’ parents according to how many cartwheels they could do in five minutes.

Fifteen-year-olds Natalie Livingston of Rockville and Sydney Greene of Germantown started orchestrating the drive a month ago, which is still collecting pledges through the end of the week. (To donate, call Hills Gymnastics at 301-840-5900.)

"We’re really fit, and there are other children who can’t even be active, so we want to do what we can to help them out,"  Sydney said.

All told, 42 girls—and one boy—did a total of 5,127 cartwheels on the afternoon, with Natalie and Sydney tying for the most at 159 each, a dizzying rate of nearly three cartwheels every five seconds for five minutes straight.