Her first language is English. But when this GymDog competes, she's thinking in French

Her first language is English. She learned gymnastics in French. She speaks to her grandparents in Greek.

Meet Vivi Babalis, the trilingual Georgia GymDog.

Babalis grew up in Montreal and quickly experienced these three different languages at an early age. English is what her parents, Sia and Chris Babalis, spoke at home. But at the young age of 4, she joined a club gym, which was led by a coaching staff that spoke solely in French. At first, there was a language barrier. While learning the sport, Babalis also learned how to speak French, and this was before she ever attended a school.

As Babalis grew accustomed to the language, she subsequently learned all of her gymnastics terms in French.

To this day, Babalis thinks in French when she competes.

"My gymnastics, all my skills are in French in my mind," she said. "I still think in French when I do it."

When Babalis came to Georgia, that made things somewhat challenging when taking cues from her English-speaking coaches. When former head coach Danna Durante would offer instruction or corrections, Babalis would have to take the English words and translate them mentally to French.

Georgia head coach Courtney Kupets Carter marveled at Babalis' ability to do such a thing.

"She learned all her gymnastics terms in French," Kupets Carter said. "When she first got here she had to translate all the corrections from English to French, so it took her a second."

Now that Babalis is a senior, the internal translation isn't as time consuming as it once was.

"If Courtney gives me a correction, now I'm old enough so it's easier to process it," Babalis said. "But when I was (translating to) French it was making sure I was doing the right thing and not comprehending something different."

On any given day, it is possible for Babalis to speak three different languages.

The grade school she attended was trilingual, focusing on English and Greek while also teaching French. Babalis' parents are of Greek origin, with each of her grandparents speaking the language. That made learning Greek important since she can speak to her grandparents in their native language.

As Babalis improved in gymnastics, she changed to a "half-a-day" school so she could get the necessary training in. At this particular school, the educators only spoke French.

Babalis competed for the Canadian women's national gymnastics team in 2010 and 2011. Through four meets in her final season at Georgia, Babalis has posted a 9.825 or better on beam (including a 9.9 against Oklahoma) and a 9.7 or better on floor (including a 9.875 against Auburn).

Heading into Saturday's meet against Missouri, Babalis said the GymDogs have been working on their fundamentals to hopefully see some better scores.

"We're focusing on details and really mostly landings, hitting the handstands on bars, and little tenths we give away easily," Babalis said.

This story was originally published February 2, 2018 at 4:37 PM with the headline "Her first language is English. But when this GymDog competes, she's thinking in French."