{"id":349,"date":"2016-03-18T23:02:24","date_gmt":"2016-03-18T23:02:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/usc2016.nextgenradio.org\/?p=349"},"modified":"2016-03-19T20:33:16","modified_gmt":"2016-03-19T20:33:16","slug":"349","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/usc2016.nextgenradio.org\/index.php\/2016\/03\/18\/349\/","title":{"rendered":"This gymnast holds world records &#8212; for hula hoooping"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" style=\"background-color: transparent; display: block; max-width: 700px;\" title=\"audioBoom player\" src=\"\/\/embeds.audioboom.com\/boos\/4321983-hoop-dreams-and-world-records\/embed\/v4?eid=AQAAAI9r7Fa_8kEA\" width=\"100%\" height=\"300\" frameborder=\"0\" scrolling=\"no\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_267\" style=\"width: 760px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-267\" class=\"wp-image-267 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/usc2016.nextgenradio.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/33\/2016\/03\/Hoopurbia_slide_1.jpg\" alt=\"Marawa the Amazing at the Echo Park Recreation Center warming up. \" width=\"750\" height=\"500\" srcset=\"https:\/\/usc2016.nextgenradio.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/33\/2016\/03\/Hoopurbia_slide_1.jpg 750w, https:\/\/usc2016.nextgenradio.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/33\/2016\/03\/Hoopurbia_slide_1-300x200.jpg 300w, https:\/\/usc2016.nextgenradio.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/33\/2016\/03\/Hoopurbia_slide_1-508x339.jpg 508w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 750px) 100vw, 750px\" \/><p id=\"caption-attachment-267\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Marawa the Amazing has &#8220;hooped&#8221; professionally for more than a decade.<\/p><\/div>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Marawa the Amazing holds multiple world records &#8212; for hula hooping. The Australian native has traveled six continents to perform at events ranging from bar mitzvahs to product launches. Still, she says only one thing makes her <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">really <\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">nervous.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s live TV so you only get one shot,\u201d Mawara says. \u201cYou only get one shot in front of 20 million people.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Last year, the 33-year-old rhythmic gymnast and showgirl set a Guinness Book world record, spinning 162 hoops live on the<\/span><a href=\"http:\/\/www.today.com\/video\/watch-woman-attempt-world-record-for-hula-hoops-spun-simultaneously-522916419616\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> T<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">o<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">day Show<\/span><\/a><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">.<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> She outdid herself a month later, managing to spin 200.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Marawa spent this past week at the Echo Park Recreation Center teaching classes and running workshops for <\/span><a href=\"http:\/\/www.latimes.com\/health\/la-he-hoopurbia-20160312-story.html\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Hoopurbia<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, an arts festival dedicated to the round plastic dance ring.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>Hula hooping is global, but she says LA is its cultural home base.<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>\u201cIt&#8217;s kinda like the mecca for hoops, this is where it all comes back to.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">She would know. Marawa has performed in countries most travelers will never get to see. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cIn North Korea they used to do a thing called the mass games,\u201d she says. \u201cI got in the last year of it, it was worth the trip.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Marawa majored in circus arts in college and thinks that this type of performance is more appreciated in Asia and Europe than in the United States. She believes this could be related to a culture of coddling in the U.S.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cPlaygrounds are a joke now there&#8217;s nothing challenging in there,\u201d Marawa says. \u201cYou look at kids in other parts of the world, they&#8217;re much tougher.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The hula hoop has existed in one sort or another since ancient times, but its current incarnation came about when toy company Wham-o introduced the first plastic hoop in 1958. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">At Hoopurbia, however, Wham-o is something of a dirty word. Enthusiasts\u00a0like Marawa don\u2019t think of their hoops as toys but as essential equipment. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cTheir hoop is their baby,\u201d she says. \u201cThey keep it in a special bag, they make sure that it doesn\u2019t have any scuff marks or anything.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">And it makes sense, Marawa says some specialized hoops such as those equipped with LED lights can cost as much as $600.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&nbsp; &nbsp; Marawa the Amazing holds multiple world records &#8212; for hula hooping. The Australian native has traveled six continents to perform at events ranging from bar mitzvahs to product launches. Still, she says only one thing makes her really nervous. \u201cIt\u2019s live TV so you only get one shot,\u201d Mawara says. \u201cYou only get [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":358,"featured_media":359,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,25,11],"tags":[26,68,67],"coauthors":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/usc2016.nextgenradio.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/349"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/usc2016.nextgenradio.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/usc2016.nextgenradio.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usc2016.nextgenradio.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/358"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usc2016.nextgenradio.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=349"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/usc2016.nextgenradio.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/349\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usc2016.nextgenradio.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/359"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/usc2016.nextgenradio.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=349"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usc2016.nextgenradio.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=349"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usc2016.nextgenradio.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=349"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usc2016.nextgenradio.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=349"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}