Danell Leyva’s Folks Get no Medal in Financial Gymnastics!

Posted by Jose Lambiet , August 9, 2012 Print

What is it with the parents of our Olympians?

Many of them became celebrities in their own right in London while facing financial disaster at home.

Sweetheart gold medal winning gymnast Gabby Douglas‘ mom?

She filed for bankruptcy this year!

Pool-peeing double medal-winning swimmer Ryan Lochte‘s folks?

Facing foreclosure near Daytona Beach.

How ’bout the omnipresent stepdad and flamboyant coach of Danell Leyva, Miami’s first Olympic gymnast?

Not so good either, according to Miami-Dade County records.

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Since they arrived from Cuba in the early 1990s, Yin Alvarez,  Leyva’s step dad, and mom Maria Gonzalez, have had their battles with debt collectors – including county water authorities.

They’ve watched one home sold on the proverbial courthouse steps, and managed to stave off a second foreclosure just months ago.

The salt-and-pepper haired Alvarez, 46, got serious TV time in London thanks to his unbridled enthusiasm for the games.

Yet the road to the Olympics obviously took a financial toll.

Chase Home Finance recently dismissed a foreclosure action against Alvarez and Gonzalez that it undertook in 2008, just one year after the couple bought a $424,000-house in the Silver Palms section of Homestead, records show.

And while the couple managed to settle some bills with Chase and remain in their home, they still owe the Silver Palms homeowners association $2,002 in unpaid maintenance fees and legal costs.

Another Alvarez house on the south side of Miami, meanwhile, was foreclosed on in 2009 by Wachovia Bank. The bank claimed Alvarez owed $370,927 on an investment place on SW 144th Court that taxing authorities assessed at $140,000!

That year, Citibank obtained a judgment for $6,366.05 against Alvarez when he defaulted on a credit card. There’s no indication in county records that Alvarez paid.

And even the county’s water department went after Alvarez. According to a lien, he still owes $540!

Alvarez owns Universal Gymnastics, a gymnastics coaching business run out of a SW 131st Street warehouse in which he trained Leyva.

Alvarez and Leyva returned home Wednesday to a hero’s welcome.

Alvarez wasn’t at the warehouse this afternoon and can’t be reached on his cell phone because he lost it in London. He didn’t respond to an email request for an interview.

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