Background
His father died in a car accident in 2008.
His father died in a car accident in 2008.
After he graduated and trained an additional year at the University of Oklahoma, Chris" brother Nick coached him for 2 years.
He has trained alongside Olympic and World Championships medalist Jonathan Horton as a Junior, college and Senior elite gymnast. Brooks"s father, Larry, was also a gymnast which is how Chris got involved with the sport. Brooks was a highly ranked junior gymnast in high school, where he trained at Houston North Gymnastics Club under coach Bill Foster.
In 2003 he was a Gold medallist at the United States of America National Championships.
In 2004, he suffered a serious injury when his grip locked while training on High Bar, resulting in shattering and splintering of the ulna and radius of his right arm. The team were national champions in 2008.
Brooks was a multi-year, multi-event All American, and in 2009 was captain of the Sooners Men"s Gymnastics team He returned to elite gymnastics in 2008 when he competed in the United States National Championships in Houston, Texas.
He made a huge comeback at the beginning of 2009 at the Winter Cup coming 5th All-Around, 4th on High Bar and winning a Bronze medal on Floor Exercise.
Due to injury, he was not able to compete fully at the 2009 United States of America Nationals and did not make the National Team that year. After graduating from the University of Oklahoma he returned to Texas to train at Cypress Academy of Gymnastics under coach Tom Meadows, with American teammate Jonathan Horton. He went on to compete in the Japan Cup in July helping the United States of America Men"s Team to a Bronze medal finish.
He went on to represent the United States of America at the 2010 World Artistic Gymnastics Championships in Rotterdam where he helped the team to a 4th place finish, and 6th place finish in the High Bar final.
After worlds, he had to have surgeries on his ankles and wrist. In 2012, he had an outstanding performance at the Pacific Rim Championships in Everett where he led the team to a Gold.
At Visa Championships, he showed some inconsistency in his routines, but great potential with difficult moves on High Bar and Vault. He went on to compete in Olympic Trials where his combined scores placed him in joint 4th place with Jake Dalton.
At the announcement of the Men"s Olympic Team on 1 July he was named as an alternate to the 2012 Summer Olympics team
Later in the year, he was recovering from a hand injury and did not compete in the P&G Championships.
In 2010, he won Gold in the All-Around and High Bar as well as a Bronze on the Vault at the Winter Cup. He went on to compete at the American Cup where he won a Bronze in the All-Around behind teammate Jonathan Horton and Russian, Maxim Devyatovskiy beating the World Silver medallist, Daniel Keatings. Later in the summer he competed fully in the United States National Championships in Hartford, Connecticut where he won a Gold Medal on High Bar and Silver on Parallel Bars securing a place on the Senior National Team. He competed in the United States of America National Championships where he won a silver medal on High Bar and Bronze on parallel bars. He was chosen to be an Alternate for the team representing United States of America at the 2011 World Artistic Gymnastics Championships in Tokyo, Japan where they won the first Men"s team world medal for the United States of America since 2003. He went on to win 3 more individual Golds as well. In 2014, Brooks won the Winter Cup Challenge all-around competition and was named to the United States. Gymnastics Men"s Senior National Team.
He was a member of the United States. Junior National Team 1999-2001, 2002-2005. He was a member of the Oklahoma Sooners gymnastics team in college from 2005-2009. In 2011 he was chosen to be a member of Team Hilton HHonors - a group of male gymnasts sponsored by Hilton Worldwide.
