Talya Vexler knows it’s not always about gymnastics, and, at least for one weekend, Georgia’s Gym Dogs will too.

After their road meet with LSU tonight, the Gym Dogs will return to Athens for a breast cancer weekend of sorts, hosting their first “Stiletto Race” Sunday afternoon before taking on Utah in their annual “Pink Out” meet Monday, both to raise money to fight the disease.

It’s something Vexler, a former Gym Dog who was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2003, knows is all too important.

“People aren’t immune to it, and I certainly wasn’t,” said Vexler, a four-time All-American as a Gym Dog.

“The whole awareness thing, I think people don’t really think about what that means, but young girls need to be more aware of their bodies. The reason that I’m alive is because I found a lump myself and went to the doctor.”

At the time of her diagnosis, Vexler was 22, done competing but still in school, and the youngest person ever to be diagnosed with breast cancer in the Athens area.

Now five years in remission, Vexler’s cancer and Gym Dogs coach Suzanne Yoculan is now the reason why every NCAA gymnastics team has some version of a “Think Pink” meet to raise money for the disease each season.

“When I got sick Suzanne wanted to help me, of course, but she realized that it was an important cause. It’s pretty neat to see how much it’s grown,” said Vexler, now an assistant gymnastics coach at Iowa. “Every collegiate gymnastics team does one throughout the country, so it’s very nice to see that something really wonderful can come out of something really awful.”

The stiletto race is not a new concept – they’ve taken place everywhere from Central Park to Australia – but it’s a novel idea in Athens.

Teams of four, sponsored by a number of other Georgia coaches and administrators or just the average layperson, raised $500 apiece to be able to race across the floor of Stegeman Coliseum.

With Yoculan notorious for roaming around the blue mats in high heels, a relay with racers donning fashionable footwear seemed like a natural, if not uncomfortable, fit.

“Athens Regional came up with the idea and said, ‘You know, Suzanne, this is right up your alley,’” Yoculan said.

“Through the last 25 years [my heels] have actually gotten a little shorter. They’re not really stilettos anymore. Stilettos are skinny high heels and I seem to wear fat low ones now.”

The Gym Dogs, not allowed to sprint across the floor wearing high heels for obvious reasons, also raised at least $300 apiece to sponsor a runner for themselves in a separate race.

“There’s times when it seems like we’re just here for our gymnastics and ourselves, and we’re not,” said senior Gym Dog Courtney Kupets, who will have Dr. Laura Jolly, the dean of the University’s College of Family and Consumer Sciences, run for her.

“We want to do this for other people too.”

Over the years, Georgia gymnastics has helped raise $120,646.69 for the Athens Regional Medical Center Breast Health Center, according to Mike Pilcher, the Associate Director of Corporate Communication for the hospital.

That figure, which doesn’t include money raised this year, has gone toward new technology and facilities, Pilcher said, and has helped make the Athens Breast Health Center state-of-the-art.

It was recognized by medical publication Imaging and Technology News as one of the nation’s five “Most Influential Women’s Centers of 2008.”

“You think of an athlete of [Vexler's] magnitude and just how unlikely that is, I think it just goes to show that nobody’s really safe from it,” Pilcher said. “It doesn’t matter who you are, or what you do or what kind of shape you’re in. If you have breast cancer, you have breast cancer. From that tragic news came [our] partnership.”

Fifty-plus cancer survivors from the Athens area will be in the stands as honorary guests for Monday’s Pink Out meet with Utah, serving as a reminder of things beyond the walls of Stegeman.

“There’s other things more important in life than sports, and athletes need to know that and so do fans,” Yoculan said. “This is our way of getting that message across.”