Trabanino competed in more than 30 international events representing his home country, including three World Gymnastic Championships in the 1990s in Australia, Puerto Rico and Switzerland, before he retired as a gymnast.
“As I started to improve more, I really loved it so much I knew I wanted the sport to be part of my entire life,” he said.
Over the years, Trabanino has been recipient of numerous prestigious decorations and awards. In 2000, he was named the “Gymnast of the Century” by the President of El Salvador.
“That was a huge honor,” he said. “It was not only about results, it was about community work and what you’ve done for the new generation.”
Trabanino earned a business administration degree from Jose Matias Delgado University, San Salvador. Between 1997 and 2001, he worked for the El Salvador Gymnastics Federation as executive director in charge of technical and administrative aspects, as well as serving as National Team coach.
But with gymnastics viewed in his homeland as more of a recreational activity than a sport, like soccer, Trabanino knew he would have to look elsewhere to make competitive gymnastics a part of his life.
Trabanino moved to the United States in 2001 to do that, working for an area gymnastics club before starting his own gymnastics school in 2010.
In 2011, he was on the USA Women’s National Team coaching staff and has traveled through most of the United States teaching gymnastics clinics to coaches and athletes. In his time in the United States, he has helped to produce elite gymnasts and National Team members who have competed at the USA Gymnastics Visa Championships, as well as internationally.
Gymnastics, Trabanino said, has always been a passion, but teaching it is even more fulfilling.
“I just love what gymnastics does for kids, especially because I lived it,” he said. “I know the amount of life skills that it can give you. If you work hard and become a high level athlete in this sport, like any other sport it provides you with so many skills about handling frustration, winning and losing and learning how to cope and deal with all the things that come with being a competitive athlete.”
More than the competitive part of being an athlete, Trabanino said he loves how gymnastics builds a person as a whole.
“You cannot make a great athlete without having a great person,” he said. “The best athletes you’re ever going to meet are those who are good as a whole. Excellent students, excellent brother, sisters, sons, daughters. Kids who eventually will be … leaders in whatever part of life they choose to do.”
His ultimate goal is to not only develop a child’s athletic skills, but their character.
“To me, that’s the most important part of what I do,” Trabanino said. “In 20 years, very few people are going to remember what some of my gymnasts achieve, but they’re going to see in that moment what kind of person they are.”
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