Born December 19, 1988, Kristina Jane Coccia was first entered in gymnastics class by her mother when she was 3 years old at a local dance school. When she was 6 her instructors there suggested she go elsewhere, she had out grown their program. She then went to Gymnastrum (now Lehigh Valley Sports Academy), and lasted only 3 months their. The gym was going through many changes, and it was starting to affect the kids. She then made the transition to the prestigious gym club, Parkettes. She was placed on the Level 5 team, and started competing soon after her 7th birthday. Since then, she has continued to improve and progress. In 1999 Sharky competed at the Level 9 Nationals, placing 4th on vault. 2000 saw Sharky compete as a Level 10 and qualified to the Junior Olympic Nationals in Lansing, MI. She came home with the gold medal on vault! In 2001, Sharky competed again at the Junior Olympic Nationals, and the day before the competition during training, disaster struck! As she dismounted the beam, Sharky caught her toe on the end of the beam and broke it. The second brake in the same toe in less than 6 weeks. Despite the pain, Sharky competed and did amazingly well under the circumstances. In the AA she was the highest placed Parkette and came in 6th on floor. In the summer of 2001, Sharky successfully tested elite. She competed at the National GymFest, the national Elite part of the US Classics. Sharky was successful and came home with the vault gold and a 4th AA placement. 2002 was somewhat of a disappointing year for Sharky, she started off the year with the Maryland Classic and the Parkette Invitational, but slight errors kept Sharky out of the medals This only inspired Sharky to upgrade her routines and start values and prepare for the two chances of qualifying to the National Championships. During the first test, the American Classic Sharky performed cleanly but low start values kept her scores down and out of qualifying. However, Sharky had another chance, the US Classics in Virginia Beach in June. Sharky started on bars and incurred a small penalty for her coach touching her during her geinger. Then on to beam - a cautious yet major error free routine and then on to her best event - floor. As Sharky began her routine her bad luck struck again and another disaster. As she completed her first tumble Sharky felt a searing pain in her foot and was unable to go on. In tears because of the pain, Sharky was carried off and taken to see the doctor. The diagnosis - ripped tendons in her feet, and a near miss on a torn achilles. Rest and rehabilitation followed and after a few weeks on crutches and training only bars, Sharky was able to regain full training. After a nice summer vacation in the Dominican Republic, Sharky was back in the gym and preparing for her first international competition, to Marseilles, France. International competition suited Sharky well, she enjoyed competing with gymnastics 'stars' and enjoyed visiting a different country. The Parkettes girls all had fun touring Paris after the meet, where Sharky and her team mates Alex Brockway and Geralen Stack-Eaton came 3rd in the team. Sharky was glad to be back in action and was looking forward to 2003, where she hoped to make her first National Championships. The year started off badly for Sharky, with a disastrous competition at the WOGA qualifier in early January. Pulling out of the meet after falls on floor and vault, Sharky was disappointed not to have re-qualified to International Elite. The following weekend, however, Sharky would get another chance, and this time on home-turf. What a difference a week made! This time Sharky was on form and looking good, hitting everything except a fall on beam, Sharky won the Junior qualifier and easily qualified to Junior International. After a couple more invitational meets it was on to the serious ones, The American Classic. Unfortunately Sharky's bar routine kept her AA total lower than she had hoped, and she narrowly missed out on one of the 12 spots to Nationals, coming in 13th. However, just like elite qualifiers, Sharky had another chance. During training one day for the US Classic in just a few days time, Sharky landed her Tarasevich tumble a little 'off' and she suffered a broken leg. Bitterly disappointed at again being denied a chance to compete at Nationals, Sharky watched both Classics and Nationals from the side lines on her crutches. Once again Sharky showed tremendous strength and courage by returning to the gym as soon as she could to continue training. For weeks she just trained on bars and did strengthening exercises until she was totally cleared by her doctor. After minor surgery in August to drain some excess fluid from her other knee, Sharky was back to full fitness and to finally show the world what she is capable of. 2004 is now upon us and while many gymnasts will be aiming for the Olympics Games later this year in Greece, Sharky is taking each day one at a time, and is again hoping to make Nationals this year. Now a senior elite gymnast, Sharky is determined that 2004 is finally going to be an injury free year, and she deserves nothing but the very best! As part of the elite team at Parkettes, Sharky is coached by Mr. and Mrs. Strauss, Robin Netwall, John Holman and Sol Kahn. She is very close with her team mates and coaches and says they are all like family to her. The girls often have sleep-over's together, go to the mall and go to amusement parks. Annie Fogerty and Paige Cipollini are Sharky's best friends in the gym, although she is very close with all her team mates. In September Sharky started a home school program and is in 8th grade. Before being home schooled, she attended East Hills Middle School in Bethlehem, PA, close to her home. Sharky her and parents decided that home schooling would be better not only for her gymnastics, but it would mean that her school work wouldn't suffer when she traveled for meets. The rest of the elites at Parkettes are also home schooled, and do their work together during their breaks - and not playing cards like they used to! A big fan of pop music, Sharky loves listening to Backstreet Boys and O-Town and P!NK, but she dislikes N*Sync. Sharky is also a HUGE Kelly Clarkson fan and her current favorite song is Kelly's smash hit 'A Moment Like This'. It was in level 5 that Kristina got the nickname Sharky. Her coach noticed that she used to run down the vault run way with a smile on her face, and he though she looked like a baby shark! The nickname has stuck and everyone at the gym refers to her as Sharky rather than Kristina. Sharks have also become a running theme with Kristina, she has a large collection of toy sharks and the pool in her back yard even has a mosaic of a shark on the floor of it! The Coccia family consists of Dad, Silvio, who owns a construction company specializing in the food, beverage, and chemical industries. Sharky's Mom, Robyn, is a homemaker who runs a busy taxi cab service to and from Parkettes every day for Sharky and to Sharky's brothers football practices! The family have a dog, Gomez who is completely black and adored by Sharky and her younger brother, Michael. Although he is 4 years younger than Sharky, Michael is already taller than his big sis!