User:Theworldgymnast1/sandbox1

Background
Donna Marie Hicks was born on September 5, 1974 in Hattiesburg, Mississippi to David and Delia "Dee Dee" Hicks (née Barron). Born into a sporting family, her father was an assistant coach for the Ole Miss Rebels baseball team, her mother was a member of the Centenary College gymnastics team and second reserve for the 1964 U.S. Olympic team and her older brother Deacon was a member of the Clemson University men's soccer team who had a brief spell as a professional in the USISL for the Charleston Battery.

She began training in gymnastics at the age of two under her mother's tutelage at their family-owned gymnastics facility, the Hicks Academy of Gymnastics, in their hometown of Biloxi, Mississippi. Her mother, Dee Dee, was desperate for her daughter to become an elite gymnast like her and make it to the Olympic Games—a feat she came devastatingly close to, but never procured herself. While it was clear Donna had natural talent from a young age, she was never the top gymnast in her age group at the gym. As Donna approached her teenage years, Dee Dee became more stringent towards Donna, now a first-year Level 10 gymnast, and her training regimen—she was less lenient about socialising, and imposed a diet plan for Donna. It seemed to take positive effect; within a year, Donna had qualified to Junior Elite status in 1988 at the age 13. She competed at the U.S. Classic, but didn't advanced to U.S. Nationals. After graduating middle school, Dee Dee insisted Donna become homeschooled for secondary education due to the rigours of the elite gymnastics track. However, in her freshman year, she sustained a knee injury that sidelined her from competition for a whole season indefinitely.