Changing the world, one gymnast at a time

In a small, steamy gym, in the main training hall of the country's Olympic Complex, with equipment scattered about that looked like something constructed by an eighth-grade shop class, Jim Holt was speaking to a group of gymnastics coaches in Yemen.

Yes, that Yemen. The Recruiter of Terrorists Yemen. The U.S.S. Cole Yemen. The Underwear Bomber Yemen.

It was the fall of 1996 and Holt was on a trip sponsored by the International Olympic Committee. He asked the coaches what their goals were, and quietly they said that some day they hoped they could become a legitimate force in competitions held in the Arab world.

Holt looked around at the 30-some coaches and told them they were setting their goals much too low. He encouraged them to "shoot for the stars." In the closeness of that gym, Holt came across like a flash of sheet lightning.

Looking around for an example, he found a 10-year-old boy named Nashwan al-Harazi, who was standing next to a homemade vault board.

"This could be your guy," Holt told the coaches. "This could be the first Yemeni to compete at the worlds."

Little did Holt know how prophetic his words would become, or how passionately al-Harazi would shoot for those stars.

Ten years after that first meeting, al-Harazi made the world championships. He did it again in 2007. And in 2008, al-Harazi represented Yemen in the Beijing Olympics, finishing 16th in the vault.

After al-Harazi's first world-championship appearance in Denmark, it became obvious to Holt that his pupil needed to move to the United States for more intense training.

Considering the international climate, and the fact that in 2000 suicide bombers affiliated with al-Qaida attacked the U.S.S. Cole while it was harbored in Aden, Yemen, the idea of bringing al-Harazi to the U.S. seemed to be another one of Holt's impossible dreams.

But Holt helped get a visa for al-Harazi, who lived and trained with Jim and his wife in their Seattle home.

Jim and Hannah Holt, the co-coaches of the Bellevue High School gymnastics team, have fashioned careers as freelance international gymnastics coaches. They have coached in Zimbabwe, Nigeria, Egypt, Bolivia and Chile, to name a few countries.

Jim coached for the Iranian Gymnastics Federation. Yes, the Axis of Evil Iran.

The Holts traveled to some of the world's hottest spots to teach gymnastics and the value of chasing impossible dreams. Where others have found enemies, they have made friends.

"Why do we do this? Because it's fun," Holt said. "And we feel like we're making a difference."

Think of this story as a "Three Cups of Tea" for athletics.

Jim Holt says he works in the "toy store," but he has taught valuable life lessons in toy stores around the globe.

Nashwan al-Harazi, for instance, loves the United States. When he goes back to Yemen he tells his people about the great opportunities people from the U.S. have given him. There is no hate in him.

Holt's not-so impossible dream for al-Harazi is that he gets a college degree and eventually becomes the head of Yemen's Olympic Committee. Why not?

"Any traveler who stays awake to the possibilities of magic is going to find it around the corner," said Holt, who has written a book about his travels called "Chasing Impossible Dreams."

Incidentally — and Holt adamantly considers this incidental — he has had to overcome daunting personal challenges. He was born without the tibia, fibula or patella of his right leg. He had a small foot that was connected to the end of his femur.

He wore a small peg leg that was attached to the end of his foot until he was 9 years old. Then the foot was amputated.

"It's just one of those things," Holt said. "It's an incidental part of who I am."

He does, however, remember his first day of ninth-grade wrestling practice at Lincoln High School in Tacoma.

"It's not like I was totally unconscious of it" Holt said of his leg. "In early childhood, boys are like wolves. There's a pack and you establish a pecking order in the pack. That first day of practice, for everyone else was just everybody having a practice. But for me, it was that first encounter. For me, it was like a two-minute drill in the Super Bowl.

"I had to win that first day. So unfortunately, whoever that guy was across from me that day, he was running into a motivated tornado. I knew that I had to perform on that day for the rest of the team to accept me. If I did, I was OK."

Holt competed as a gymnast at Washington State, and was head coach at Washington and an assistant at Portland State. He has coached in 11 world championships for six different countries. He says being born without a lower leg is of almost no consequence to him.

He is a coach/diplomat. If he weren't so exceptional at his profession, Holt could work for the state department. His slogan could be something like, "Make Vaults, Not War."

For the past 20 years, Holt and his wife have been committed to developing their sport in the younger, smaller countries of the world. They have had the courage and the indefatigable energy to put their world politics into practice. They hope to do it for another 20 years.

"Doing this fits perfectly with my world view," said Holt, who was a political philosophy major at WSU. "Why can't we live in harmony? I realize there are competing interests for resources at every level of the human endeavor. But the fact that we have a disagreement or that we're competing shouldn't mean that we have to be enemies. Even if we have different political and philosophical views, how is the end result that we're enemies?"

Holt's message is especially resonant as the world turns toward Vancouver and the competition of the 2010 Winter Olympic Games. He believes sports are avenues for finding the similarities, not the differences, in people.

"When I go to these countries all I see are commonalities," Holt said.

We need more Jim and Hannah Holts in sports. We need more Jim and Hannah Holts in the world.

"We've left a footprint," Jim Holt said, "and it's a positive footprint."

Steve Kelley: 206-464-2176 or skelley@seattletimes.com