open/close all folders
The Rock
Sasha Belov
Sasha Belov
Played by: Neil Jackson
- Dude, Where's My Reward?: Very silly version of this: After Sasha implies that whoever got the most applause for their routine at the open house gets something, all anyone gets is extra practice on Sunday "because you've been working on your silly routines all week."
- Heel Realization: He initially spent the beginning half of season two drilling it into Kaylie to be an example for everyone at the Rock now that she was the national champion. When he tells her that her rival, Genji Cho, could do a high level technique due to her being ten pounds lighter, he's horrified when he realizes he inadvertently drove her into an eating disorder and spends the rest of the season trying to get her to stop over-training.
- Team Dad: Sasha cares deeply for his gymnasts: he threatens to ruin Carter's career if he makes a move on one of his girls; he wonders if Lauren has someone to talk to the moment he sees her; when Emily's trust issues are revealed he promises her he's not going to leave; he punches Marty when Kaylie tells him Marty had an affair with her mother; he works closely with Payson in regards to her back injury, her rejection of her femininity, and her switch to an atristic gymnast; and he tends to go Papa Wolf if the girls' merits aren't recognized...
- Training from Hell: While this sort of thing is threatened frequently (everyone has to practice from 5 a.m. on! With no days off!), it doesn't seem to happen. In the real world the gymnasts would be training instead of standing around the gym talking. But then again, Sasha does get very pissy if he catches the girls standing around and talking.
- Underdogs Never Lose: After several Rock gymnasts are left out of international competition against China, Sasha Belov "goes rogue" and challenges the Chinese team to compete against the Rock.The Chinese team still wins but the Rock team wins more medals then the official United States team, proving Sasha's point. Also Emily is the underdog gymnast at the Rock and she barely makes national team by the skin of her teeth (had Payson not been injured she wouldn't have made it)
Summer Van Horne
Summer Van Horne
Played by: Candace Cameron Bure
- Embarrassing Nickname: Her nickname in high school? One Dirty Summer.
- Parental Substitute: Summer tries her best to do this for Lauren, who is totally ungrateful 95% of the time... until Summer has news about the whereabouts of Lauren's biological mother. Then she spends most of Season 2 trying to get Summer and her father back together.
- Really Gets Around: In high school, this gets her labeled as the school slut.
- Straw Hypocrite: Pretty much all the time. Special mention to "Like Mother, Like Daughter, Like Supermodel" where Summer criticizes Steve for not telling her the truth about Lauren's biological mother, while keeping her own relationship history from him in return.
Kim Keeler
Kim Keeler
Played by: Peri Gilpin
- Alliterative Name: Kim Keeler
- Happily Married
- Team Mom: Payson's mom Kim manages the gym.
Kmetko family
Emily Kmetko
Emily Kmetko
Played by: Chelsea Hobbs
- But I Can't Be Pregnant!: After learning of her unexpected Teen Pregnancy, she is in disbelief due to having sex only once and has had "one period her entire life". Based on this, she figured she didn't need to use protection and was unlikely to get pregnant. Her mother scolds her for her foolishness and the attending nurse tells her that she was just at risk for pregnancy as any other girl.
- Cool Big Sis: Is one to Brian, her younger half-brother.
- Disappeared Dad: Emily's father, whom she describes as "not the type who sticks around."
- Good Girls Avoid Abortion: After her fling with Damon and against the advice of the national chairman, she instead chooses to keep her baby and sacrificing her career as a gymnast.
- Going Home Again: Emily does this after getting kicked out of the gym.
- Informed Attractiveness: Emily seems to emit pheromones to attract every available male on the show, but given the casting and makeup standards of all the young actresses on the show it's hard to believe the idea that Emily stands out that much.
- Love Triangle: With Damon and Razor. And later seems to be heading towards one with Damon and Kaylie.
- New Transfer Student: To the Rock.
- Put Me In, Coach!: In the pilot, Emily has a very scary fall on vault thanks to Lauren moving the positioning of her springboard. But then, she's magically fine and repeats the vault.
- Put on a Bus: Literally. Emily gets pregnant, much drama ensues and she literally takes a bus herself near the end of season 2 while remembering fond memories of her brief yet significant time as a gymnast.
- Teen Pregnancy: After her fling with Damon, she's revealed to be pregnant.
Chloe Kmetko
Chloe Kmetko
Played by: Susan Ward
- Dating Service Disaster: An online one fixes up Chloe Kmetko with Steve Tanner. Their old/fake photos didn't help any. Surprisingly, they actually seem to hit it off.
- Hooker with a Heart of Gold: Although she is only a bartender at the strip club, Emily considers her job to be just as disreputable, even though she is only doing it to pay for Emily's training at the Rock.
Brian Kmetko
Keeler family
Payson Keeler
Payson Keeler
Played by: Ayla Kell
- The Ace: In Season 1, she was hands down the best gymnast among the girls, if not the entire gym. She was not only an idol for the younger girls, but she was the clear favorite to win Nationals.
- Break the Cutie: Depends largely on whether or not you regard Payson as The Cutie (she is, of all of them, the most idealistic of the girls and we later discover a penchant for lost puppies). The writers do seem to have it out for her: breaking up her family, monetary woes, public humiliation. And then they break her back at Nationals and her ankle at Worlds. Seeing a definite trend here.
- Brought Down to Badass: She's still a capable gymnast after her injury, but she's also not at the level she used to be, forcing her to essentially start from scratch.
- Career-Ending Injury: She fractures her back at Nationals. Fortunately, she gets better.
- Cheaters Never Prosper: Kelly badmouths Payson for taking cortisone shots (which technically are legal and not cheating), implying that they are cheating. And after listening to her, Payson forgoes one last shot and breaks her back.
- Childhood Friends: Payson became friends with Lauren and Kaylie when she was twelve and her family moved to Boulder.
- The Determinator
- Hollywood Healing: Averted when Payson goes to Los Angeles to meet with a specialist, who tells Payson that her back injury is inoperable. Then played straight when Swiss doctor who has a miracle experimental cure.
- Honor Before Reason: The main reason behind Payson's choice to not take the cortisone shot. As a result, she broke her back.
- I Coulda Been a Contender!: Payson after breaking her back.
- Just Friends: Payson and Nicky for now, though they both seem interested. However, Nicky leaves the gym because of too much drama at the Rock.
- Love Triangle: Arguably in one with Nicky and Kaylie, although maybe not as Nicky intends to leave the Rock because of all the distractions he sees there. And later seemingly heading towards one with Lauren and Max.
- New Transfer Student: At Taft High.
- Nice Girl: Not only was she by far the friendliest to Emily when she came to the Rock, but the two became very close to the point where Emily was the only one she was happy to see visit her after Nationals.
- The Only One Allowed to Defeat You: To Kelly.
- Put Me In, Coach!: After she, like Emily, injures herself on Vault at Worlds.
- Shout-Out: When Payson vaults on an injured foot in the Season 2 finale, it is an obvious homage to Kerri Strug's medal-winning vault in the 1996 Olympics. Explicitly.
- Team Mom: Payson starts out as this to the girls in Season 1, something that's lampshaded by Kaylie.
- Took a Level in Jerkass: Not for terribly long, but she treats Kaylie rather rudely after she wins Nationals, especially since Payson would have for sure won had she not gotten hurt. To her credit, she's ashamed of feeling that way, and she mends things with Kaylie pretty quickly.
Kim Keeler
See The Rock section
Mark Keeler
Becca Keeler
Becca Keeler
Played by: Mia Rose Frampton
- Child Prodigy: Seems to be one in regards to gymnastics, learning fairly advanced moves with ease at a young age.
Cruz family
Kaylie Cruz
Kaylie Cruz
Played by: Josie Loren
- Break the Cutie: In the span of only a day, her relationship with Carter is exposed and she finds out that not only did he cheat on her, but he did it with her childhood best friend, who lied to her about it and was also the one who exposed them in the first place.
- Season 2 also isn't kind to her. After winning Nationals, the pressure from the media, gymnastics community, and Sasha to lead by example - not to mention her parents divorcing - drives Kaylie into an eating disorder.
- Calling the Old Man Out: She fires her dad from being her manager at the end of Season 1, stating she wants him to actually be her father for once.
- She also makes it clear how angry she is at her mother when finds out about her and Marty's affair.
- Childhood Friends: Her and Lauren. They've known each other since they were six (both of their dads founded the Rock) and have been on the same team since they were eight. Though their friendship ended, Kaylie stated that she saw Lauren as a sister.
- She (and Lauren) has been friends with Payson since they were twelve.
- Dark Horse Victory: Kaylie somehow manages to defeat Kelly Parker and win Nationals after Payson is out of the competition, something nobody would have expected unless they picked up on the hints the writers were dropping all episode.
- He Is Not My Boyfriend: Kaylie is forced to say this about Carter repeatedly, given their Secret Relationship.
- Love Triangle: With Carter and Lauren and arguably in another one with Nicky and Payson, although maybe not as Nicky intends to leave the Rock because of all the distractions he sees there. And later seems to be heading towards a third one with Damon and Emily.
- Nice Girl: Was pretty quick to befriend Emily when she came to the Rock - to the point of smugly rubbing it in Lauren's face that Emily beat her on the vault - and was enraged on her behalf when she was deliberately shunned from the National Team (like with Kaylie herself).
- No One Gets Left Behind: The girls all risk not making it to Nationals in order to get Kaylie on that bus.
- Team Mom: Becomes this to the group after Nationals.
- "The Reason You Suck" Speech: Kaylie gives Lauren a very short but scathing one when she finds out about her and Carter having sex at the keggar.
Ronnie Cruz
Ronnie Cruz
Played by: Rosa Blasi
- Alpha Bitch: Shows some shades of this in regards to the condescending way she can treat Emily and Payson's mothers.
Alex Cruz
Alex Cruz
Played by: Jason Manuel Olazabal
- Jerk Jock: A minor example compared to most, but he's not only overbearing in regards to Kaylie's gymnastics career, but Mark Keeler mentioned being highly annoyed with him bragging about his sports accomplishments to him.
- Stage Dad: Oh yes. He tended to use both of his children (but primarily Kaylie) to re-live his past sports glories.
Leo Cruz
Leo Cruz
Played by: Marcus Coloma
- Big Brother Instinct: Not only took care of a drunk Kaylie, but was enraged when he found out about Carter cheating on her.
Tanner family
Lauren Tanner
Lauren Tanner
Played by: Cassie Scerbo
A gymnast at The Rock, nicknamed "The Queen of the Beam".
- Alpha Bitch
- Calling the Old Man Out: When she learns that her dad kept her mother from her, in her fury she leaves him and temporarily stays with Summer.
- Childhood Friends: Kaylie and Lauren have known each other since they were six (their dad's founded the Rock) and been on the same team since they were eight.
- Payson became friends with the two of them when she was twelve and her family moved to Boulder.
- Daddy's Girl
- Disproportionate Retribution: Lauren seems to be a huge fan of this.
- She changes the equipment settings on Emily's vault out of feelings of jealousy, not seeming to care that Emily could get paralyzed due to this. Later on, she gets her father to hire a private investigator to try and get Emily kicked out of the gym for the same reason.
- She nearly exposes Kaylie's relationship with Carter and nearly gets the two of them expelled from the gym after Kaylie points out that Emily beat Lauren fair and square on the vault.
- She steals Emily's dress in the fashion show because she was angry at Summer for not letting her wear something revealing.
- She steals Emily's choreography and ruins her custom made leotard in season 2 because she was jealous of her sponsorship.
- Face–Heel Turn: Lauren is constantly lying and blackmailing people and trying to steal Carter from Kaylie. She pretends to repent but then goes back to her dishonest ways.In Season 3, it's revealed that she has a heart murmur.
- Karma Houdini: Lauren always seems to bounce back somehow, no matter how atrocious her behavior is.
- As of Season 2, Lauren has gotten away with changing the equipment settings before Emily's vault and risking her getting paralyzed, breaking up Chloe and her father's relationship, manipulating Summer into breaking up with Steve and Sasha, getting Emily benched in France so that she could compete, stealing Kaylie's boyfriend and lying about it, stealing the necklace Carter gave Kaylie (a gift from his deceased mother), deliberately exposing Kaylie's relationship with Carter to Marty and Kaylie's parents, humiliating Payson and ruining Sasha's career by sending the kissing video to Ellen Beals, ruining Emily's custom leotard, stealing Emily's dress in Season 1, and stealing Emily's floor routine in Season 2, just to list a few. She does something every episode that in Real Life would almost certainly make her friends openly wonder why they keep hanging out with a complete sociopath.
- Hand waved in one episode in which Summer asks Sasha if he will discipline Lauren for stealing Emily's dance routine for worlds. Sasha responds "No, I think it's pretty clear who won that battle, I think she's learned her lesson." She didn't.
- Karma Houdini Warranty: In season two, Carter gradually begins getting fed up with Lauren's behavior, finally breaking up with her after unsuccessfully trying to call her out on her actions multiple times.
- Lingerie Scene: Lauren has one, in keeping with her being as close to a Ms. Fanservice as the show gets.
- Love Triangle: With Kaylie and Carter. Later seemingly heading towards one with Max and Payson.
- Manipulative Bastard: Oh, Lauren. Try drinking every time Lauren plays head games with one of her supposed best friends or her father's romantic partners. You will black out.
- Missing Mom: Lauren's mom is a drug addict who abandoned the family years ago due to Steve threatening her with an arrest if she kept trying to see Lauren. Lauren claims she's in Darfur.
- Parental Issues: To say that her parents don't get along would be quite an understatement.
- Put Me In, Coach!: After her heart surgery.
- Rich Bitch: Her father's a wealthy lawyer who was also a co-founder of the Rock.
- Spoiled Brat
- Taking the Heat: Does this to save Kaylie.
- What the Hell, Hero??: Gets multiple ones from Carter in season 2, one of them being how he can't tell her that he loves her when she keeps doing horrible things to people.
- Yandere: towards Summer to devastating extremes.
Steve Tanner
Steve Tanner
Played by: Anthony Starke
Lauren's father and former manager of The Rock.
- Dating Service Disaster: An online one fixes up Chloe Kmetko with Steve Tanner. Their old/fake photos didn't help any. Surprisingly, they actually seem to hit it off.
- Manipulative Bastard
- Parent with New Paramour: Steve Tanner proposes marriage to his assistant Summer. He kept their dating a secret from Lauren, then after promising her he wouldn't propose, immediately proposed to Summer. Later dates Chloe and Lauren continues to make with the drama about it.
Leslie Tanner
Leslie Tanner
Played by: Katherine LaNasa
Lauren's mother and Steve's ex-wife.
- Killed Off for Real: Dies in Season 2 after a car accident occurred when she tearfully drove away from the Rock, fighting her urge to see Lauren.
- Parental Abandonment: She abandoned Lauren twice as a child.
The Pizza Shack
Damon Young
Damon Young
Played by: Johnny Pacar
- Love Triangle: With Emily and Razor. And later seems to be heading towards one with Emily and Kaylie.
- Put on a Bus: Leaves to go tour in Europe.
Razor
Razor
Played by: Nico Tortorella
- Love Triangle: With Emily and Damon.
- Put on a Bus: Razor leaves Boulder to go work as a roadie.
Others
Austin Tucker
Austin Tucker
Played by: Zane Holtz
- The Ace: 2 time Olympic gold medalist. It's why Sasha has him start training at the Rock - so he can give direction and inspiration to the others there.
- Belligerent Sexual Tension: He and Kaylie had this since his first episode... which is why absolutely nobody was surprised when the two later became a couple.
- Big Brother Instinct: He tells Kaylie in Season 2 that ever since his little sister was hospitalized due to anorexia, he can't stop worrying about her.
- The Cassandra: Tries warning Kaylie's parents about her anorexia but is met with denial and dismissal.
- Hidden Depths: Far from being the cocky 2 time Olympic medalist he presents himself to be, he's surprisingly insightful:
- The real reason he decided to train at the Rock was because he was inspired by how motivated and driven the girls were, while he was having a crisis of direction.
- He realizes that Kaylie's new attitude is coming from immense stress due to feeling pressured by Sasha to be a good team captain, and he gives her a rather nice pep talk, telling her that he can empathize with the pressure from being at the top.
- He's also the first person to figure out that Kaylie was struggling with anorexia, all from seeing her hands trembling and reluctance to eat.
- Stepford Snarker: It's heavily implied that his attitude is a facade to hide the stress he feels from the pressure to not only maintain his Olympic record, but to be an example to everyone around him.
Max Spencer
Max Spencer
Played by: Joshua Bowman
- Just Friends: With Payson.
- Love Triangle: Seemingly heading towards one with Lauren and Payson.
- No Bisexuals: Averted with Max. Bar Max's assumed absence from Season 3.
Marty Walsh
Marty Walsh
Played by: Erik Palladino
- Papa Wolf: Absolutely lays into Ellen Beals for her antagonistic treatment of Emily and Kaylie while coaching them for World's.
Carter Anderson
Carter Anderson
Played by: Zachary Burr Abel
- Forbidden Fruit: To Lauren.
- Love Triangle: With Kaylie and Lauren.
- Missing Mom: Due to his mother passing away due to unknown circumstances when he was still a kid.
- Taking the Heat: Does this to save Kaylie.
Nicky Russo
Nicky Russo
Played by: Cody Longo
- Love Triangle: Arguably in one with Payson and Kaylie, although maybe not as he intends to leave the Rock because of all the distractions he sees there.
- Put on a Bus: Leaves to train at another gym.
Kelly Parker
Kelly Parker
Played by: Nicole Anderson
- Arch-Enemy
- Manipulative Bastard: It's a wonder anyone has time to practice with all the scheming.
- Straw Hypocrite: In the extended eleventh episode, Kelly "Say No To Drugs" Parker is shown getting a cortisone shot of her own. "We all lie sometimes."
MJ Martin
Ellen Beals
Ellen Beals
Played by: Michelle Clunie
- Manipulative Bastard
- Screw the Rules, I Make Them!: Oh SO much. "Oh, btw, I'm gonna fire your coach so I can take over as coach!" is particularly outstanding.
- Tyrant Takes the Helm: She apparently now runs every Olympic committee in existence and throws her power around constantly so she can dictate the lives of all gymnasts, coaches, parents, etc.
Coach MacIntire
Jordan Randall
Jordan Randall
Played by: Chelsea Tavares
- Dark and Troubled Past: She was molested by a camp director as a child.
- The Mole: Or so the girls think.
- Suspiciously Similar Substitute: She is pretty much the new Emily Kmetko.
Wendy Capshaw
Wendy Capshaw
Played by: Amanda Leighton
- Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: She ends up revealing that her entire perky attitude is all an act as she plans to "take those Rock girls down" and be a champion on her own.
- Cheaters Never Prosper: Wendy tries to sabotage Kaylie's bid for the Olympics team by giving her drugged smoothies and almost succeeds. In the series finale, Wendy is disqualified.
- Genki Girl: At first. It turns out to be an act.
- Hoist by Her Own Petard: All of her shenanigans she pulled to try and sabotage the team eventually ends up with her getting kicked off the team never to be heard from again.
- The Mole: It turns out to be her.
Jake
Rigo
