The Penn State women's gymnastics team has hit the Canadian jackpot.

Coach Steve Shephard said today that 2000 Olympic gymnast Emilie Fournier of Canada has signed with the Nittany Lions for next season.

Fournier joins a host of other Canadians currently on the Penn State team, including sophomores Lisa Campagnolo, Katie McAvoy, Katie Rowland, and Richelle Simpson.

"She was very sought-after and highly recruited," Shephard said. "I think she liked the people, she felt comfortable with the coaching staff and the kids on the team, and she recognized she could make a big contribution on the team."

Fournier had been trying to decide between Alabama, Utah, Georgia, Oklahoma and Penn State, before committing to the Nittany Lion team.

Fournier's coach, Francine Bouffard of Club Gymnix where Fournier trains, said that it was a very difficult decision for the gymnast to choose which university she wanted to attend after graduation.

"Each time she came back from visiting a university, I was interested in knowing her feelings, but also the facts," Bouffard said. "I wanted to make sure she asked the right questions and took her time to think about everything. I just wanted to be there and support her in every way I could. All the universities seemed very interesting, but each time she talked about Penn State her eyes lit up."

Fournier was one of two gymnasts that trained under Bouffard for the 2000 Olympic team from Canada. Fournier's teammate Julie Beaulieu was the other. But they are not the only two gymnasts that Bouffard has sent to the Olympics. She sent two others in the 1988 and 1992 games.

Before traveling to the 2000 Sydney games, Fournier was a member of the Canadian team that won bronze at the Commonwealth games, where she was the only Canadian to qualify for all four individual finals. In 1999, she was a member of the Canadian team that won gold at the Pan Am Games and a member of the Canadian team, which qualified for the Sydney Olympics. In the 2000 Olympic Trials, Fournier placed 6th in the all-around.

But the day before competing in the Olympics, Sept. 14, 2000, Fournier sprained her ankle and was unable to compete. The pictures taken at the event show the disappointment in Fournier's eyes.

Fournier, however, is moving on to a new chapter in her life, which includes healing her ankle and moving to State College for the next four years.

As a gymnast on the Penn State team, Bouffard hopes that Fournier will be able to use her independence as an athlete to add to the team.

Bouffard commented that to her, being independent is one of the biggest assets for any gymnast to have.

"We are giving them a lot of responsibility and independence," Bouffard said.

"This is your sport, you decided to come into my gym, you don't only react to what I say, you also have a brain and you use it. If you have an opinion, voice it. You are inside your body, and you know what you can do today. For us it's an asset to be independent,"Bouffard added.

And with that in mind, Fournier should have no problem fitting in with the Penn State team.

In fact the connection she felt with the coaches and team at Penn State is what brought her here in the first place.