Click the link and check out the pictures, they are pretty crazy!
http://www.desmoinesregister.com/apps/p ... /706110322
She's 54 and still famous for her flexibility
Acrobatics and athletics come naturally to the Hastings grandmother who lands a spot on NBC's "America's Got Talent."
By MARY CHALLENDER
REGISTER STAFF WRITER
June 11, 2007
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Hastings, Ia. - Kay Glynn can impress people just by standing still.
At 54, the mother of three and grandmother of one has the chiseled body of a 20-year-old Olympic sprinter with abs so sculptured they belong on the cover of a body-building magazine.
It's the things the southwest Iowa pole-vaulting, contortionist dance instructor can do with that body, though, that won her a spot on Jerry Springer's NBC show "America's Got Talent."
Glynn will appear as a contestant Tuesday at 7 p.m.
Although she can't say exactly what talent she'll show off, it's likely to be some version of the routine that already won her spots on "The View," "30 Seconds to Fame," "Jimmy Kimmel Live," "Late Show with David Letterman," "The Oprah Winfrey Show," "I've Got a Secret" and "Country Fried Home Videos."
"This is my trademark," she says, pointing at a snapshot of her doing the splits while balanced on the backs of two folding chairs.
"And this is my other trademark," she says, pointing at a shot of her standing on the same chairs and doing a backbend so deep, she picks a glass of cherry Kool-Aid off the ground and drinks from it upside down.
One person who plans to tune in is Brad Carr, director of student activities for Graceland College in Lamoni. He's seen Glynn and her daughter Sarah, a Graceland alumni and also a talented athlete, perform a similar routine for orientation activities.
"It's just amazing," he said. "It's incredible. What was amazing to the students is they didn't realize it was a mother-daughter team. They thought it was two sisters doing it. It will be a great show."
Glynn has always been athletic.
In high school at Nishna Valley, Glynn set the state long-jump record, which she held for 30 years.
When she was 15, she won a yellow 1968 Ford Mustang showing off her acrobatics talent and flexibility in the Bill Riley State Fair talent competition.
After high school, she studied business for a year, got married, had three children and her athletic endeavors fell by the wayside.
But she kept her body limber.
"I'd go to bed at night and the lights would be out and I'd do a backbend," she said. "My husband would say, 'What are you doing?' Oh, I'm just doing the splits, I'll be right there."
Glynn brought her old routine out of mothballs at the age of 33 when her daughter, then 4, tried out for the Bill Riley talent show.
The promoter knew of Glynn's skills and talked her into showing what she could do too. Glynn pulled out the chairs again and says she hasn't taken a break since.
Although it takes her longer to warm up these days, Glynn said maturity has its upsides. Today, she says, she's stronger and more flexible than she was at 15. She also works harder.
"I figured if I ever lost it, I'd be too old to get it back," she said.
Glynn didn't stop at acrobatics, though. At 48, she jumped back into track and field at the Iowa Games, competing in the 100, 200 and the long jump.
At 50, she took up pole vaulting.
It was an event in a women's indoor heptathlon she was competing in, Glynn explains.
Also, she'd watched her daughter do it and thought it looked fun.
Glynn found she fit right in with the pole vault crowd.
"Pole vaulters are a little bit of different type of individuals," she said. "They're not afraid. You can't be afraid and be a pole vaulter."
Glynn is so into the sport that she installed a pit in her front yard, right next to a cornfield. She's hit 9 feet 6 inches in competition. Her goal is 10 feet.
Glynn's TV career started in 1999 when her mother heard that "The View" was having a talent contest. Glynn sent in a videotape of herself and her daughter doing a strength-and flexibility routine, and they earned a spot on the show.
They ended up winning a cruise for four people to the Bahamas.
That audition tape must have made the rounds, because soon Glynn was getting calls from producers of other shows, including "Jimmy Kimmel Live."
"They always pay our way and usually a little more," she said. "It's not enough to make a living off of."
There's also a lot of work involved, Glynn said.
For the Oprah show, she had to send reams of photos and create a five-minute videotape. The background check for "America's Got Talent" ran 30 pages. She was also required to submit five music choices, including the names of the composers and producers.
The worst part, though, was when she got there and found the airline had misplaced her chairs - a pair of Target folding chairs she likes for their size and sturdiness.
"They (the producers) brought in a couple of chairs for me from who knows where," Glynn said. "I said, 'Would YOU trust your life with those chairs?' "
Eventually the airline tracked hers down.
Sometimes Glynn even surprises herself at her exploits.
One stunt she did for "Country Fried Home Videos" - which crowned her World's Bendiest Redneck - involved lying across two chair backs with 120 pounds of concrete blocks on her stomach.
Glynn wasn't sure how that would go when she could barely pick up one of the blocks to lug it outside.
"The first one I didn't even know it was on my stomach," she said.
"The second one was, oh, I have a concrete block on my stomach. The third one it was, this is really heavy. And the fourth one, you just hold your breath and don't move."
Despite her regular defiance of gravity, a pulled hamstring is about the worst injury she's suffered, Glynn said.
In pole vaulting, "I've done a couple of face plants where you land on your face. It doesn't really hurt, but it's not recommended."
Still, she knows her unusual hobbies make her mom and husband nervous.
"They think I shouldn't be doing the things with the chairs anymore," she said. "They worry and don't like watching me do it."
Glynn jokes her husband, Mike, an insurance agent who prefers to stay out of the spotlight, had his own midlife crisis when he bought a Harley.
His interests run more to gardening, she said.
"He does his gardening while I'm training," she said. "I'll say, 'Watch me do this,' and he says, 'Come look at my tomato.' "
Glynn, who in 2006 was named Female Athlete of the Year by the Iowa Games, knows that eventually age and gravity will win out.
When she was 50, she got out her chairs and glass and had one of her sons take photos of her doing her routine.
"I would be satisfied if I got up the next morning and couldn't do it anymore," she said. "I'm OK with that. There will be other things I can do."
She even has a plan.
She wants to be a trapeze artist next.
"My husband says it's too dangerous to try," she said. "I know I'm going to do it."
She's 54 and still famous for her flexibility
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rainbowgirl28
- I'm in Charge
- Posts: 30435
- Joined: Sat Aug 31, 2002 1:59 pm
- Expertise: Former College Vaulter, I coach and officiate as life allows
- Lifetime Best: 11'6"
- Gender: Female
- World Record Holder?: Renaud Lavillenie
- Favorite Vaulter: Casey Carrigan
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Hey dj--Just wanted to thank you once again for giving me all those tips as I made my way through the decathlon, and there's no way I'd have made that vaulting pr without your coaching! I have enough trouble just doing the vault without having to think about poles & standards & wind & grips & steps, etc!
And thanks to brother Joe for all his help & for letting me use his pole! I'll be bringing my new carbon & using it for the first time at the Gill vault--we'll see how that goes! Can't wait!!
And thanks to brother Joe for all his help & for letting me use his pole! I'll be bringing my new carbon & using it for the first time at the Gill vault--we'll see how that goes! Can't wait!!
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rainbowgirl28
- I'm in Charge
- Posts: 30435
- Joined: Sat Aug 31, 2002 1:59 pm
- Expertise: Former College Vaulter, I coach and officiate as life allows
- Lifetime Best: 11'6"
- Gender: Female
- World Record Holder?: Renaud Lavillenie
- Favorite Vaulter: Casey Carrigan
- Location: A Temperate Island
- Contact:
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