Whenever U.S. Olympics team gymnast Raj Bhavsar visits clubs like Classic Gymnastics in the Morganville section of Marlboro, he knows that the future of his sport is in good hands.

“This club is exceptional,” said Bhavsar, who won a bronze medal at the 2008 Beijing Summer Olympics. “It has everything you need to advance.”

Bhavsar, 29, was at Classic Gymnastics on July 6 to conduct a clinic that was about more than just demonstrating the newest techniques and tricks in the sport to a group of young and admiring gymnasts.

“It’s a combination of teaching and motivating them,” Bhavsar said of his goal for the clinic. “I tell them the gym is the greatest classroom in the world. You will learn life’s lessons here.”

Bhavsar, who has two moves named after him — one on the still rings and one on the parallel bars — has been impressed by what he has seen from the young gymnasts he has met during his visits throughout the country.

“Our juniors are better than at any other time,” he said. “The sport is getting harder. They are pushing the limits.”

He said it all starts at clubs like Classic Gymnastics.

“This is the steppingstone, there’s no way around it,” he said.

Visits from people like Bhavsar provide the kind of teaching developing gymnasts need in order to advance and perhaps, like Bhavsar, become an Olympian someday.

The visits are also crucial for keeping alive a sport that is looked at in this country as a once-every-four-years sport.

“To most of the world, gymnastics isn’t every four years,” Bhavsar said. “To the gymnastics community, every year there are important meets.”

By making appearances at clubs such as Classic Gymnastics, Bhavsar and other elite gymnasts keep the flame burning in the years when the Olympic Games are not being held.

Bhavsar began his gymnastics career at the club level in Houston, Texas. He remains a resident of that city.

“I was an active kid,” he said. “I did other sports along the way, but I came back to gymnastics. It was the most challenging for me.”

When he was 14 and 15 years old he started to win junior national titles and he became an elite gymnast. It was then that Bhavsar realized he might have a bright future in the sport.

Watching the 1996 Summer Olympics was in inspiration. He said that as he watched the gymnastics competition at the Atlanta Olympics, he remembers saying, “That’s going to be me.”

The young man made his international debut at the 1999 Pan-American Games in Winnipeg, Canada, where he won a silver medal with the United States team.

Bhavsar then went on to excel in college at Ohio State University.

“Ohio State has an outstanding program and good coaching,” he said. “I wanted to be a Buckeye and be part of their tradition.”

Bhavsar helped the Buckeyes win the 2001 NCAA team championship and in 2002 he became the NCAA all-around champion.

He earned a spot on the 2001 and 2003 United States World Championship teams that won silver medals in the team competition in both of those years.

Bhavsar was an alternate on the 2008 U.S. Olympic Team, but he got a chance to compete when Paul Hamm withdrew due to injury. Bhavsar replaced Hamm on the squad and helped the U.S. men win the bronze medal in the team competition in Beijing, China.

There is great camaraderie in the gymnastics community, according to Bhavsar. He explained that while the public and the media get wrapped up in medal counts pitting the United States against other nations, the gymnasts do not see the competition in that light.

He said American gymnasts have learned a lot from other countries’ athletes who were willing to share their knowledge of the sport.

“We [gymnasts] respect the sport,” said Bhavsar. “We understand how difficult it is.”

Now that the United States has become one of the world’s top teams, has American gymnastics developed its own unique style?

Bhavsar said yes.

“We have a lot of heart, that’s our style,” he said.

At this point Bhavsar is not certain about his competitive future in the sport and whether it will include a bid for the 2012 London Olympics.

“It’s not easy to let go,” he said.

The Olympics were a “snapshot in time” that will be always be there, he explained.

Whatever Bhavsar’s competitive future in gymnastics may be, he is teaching and motivating the young gymnasts of today who are the future of the sport in America. Along the way, he is inspiring them and helping them to create their own snapshots in time.