A Gymnastics Champion
A couple hours later, it was getting close to departure time; my competition was a couple hours away, and I had to be early. I jumped into the shower and quickly gave my hair and body a rinse. The moment I set foot outside of the shower my mom started working on my hair. She instructed me to bend over and start brushing my hair with my head upside down. After deciding that my hair was still too knotty, she put me in the bath tub my head under the faucet. She scrubbed my hair in every which way trying her best to get the knots out.
When we were finished in the tub, I climbed out cautiously, bent over again and continued brushing my hair as instructed. My mom quickly took over when she saw that I was struggling. She flipped my hair and head back to a normal position, and began putting it in a pony tail. Then she braided it into five very thick braids and spun them into a bun. It was time for hair spray, foam, and gel! After three hours of me squirming around in a little pink chair and my mom working very hard on my big head of hair, we had a very nice result. There was a very enormous bun on the top of my head with pins everywhere throughout.
The time had come to grab everything and leave. We packed the car, grabbed my father, and went. We had to pick up my sister from her gymnastics class on the way out, but that was normal. The car ride was very nerve racking; my family was familiar with traveling to competitions since my sister had already competed two seasons as a level five before moving up to level six. Now it was my turn to shine, and I had goals to achieve. I planned on getting above a nine on beam and winning, a nine on bars and vault and placing in the top three, and scoring at least an eight on floor.
After our arrival, I ran into the gym to meet the rest of my teammates and begin the twenty minute warm up. This would be the first competition for any of my teammates as well as myself, and it was expected of my by my coaches to set a good example for the younger ones. I had a very good warm up, and was very confident. Moments before our walk in, I was informed of our event order: beam, floor, vault, and bars at the end. This was very close to the order I had wanted, but it would d ofine.
We walked in, with each of the three teams in a single file line facing the audience. When the announcer called the name of our gym, we did a big solute as a group, and walked off towards our coaches. Then they taught us how and when to solute the judges and we were off to our first event, beam. We were quickly told to wait in a single file line with our backs against the wall and silently wait for our turn to warm up and then perform in front of the judges. One gymnast would warm up, wait for one to perform and another one to warm up, and then it was her turn to perform for a score. You only get one chance to show the judges your routine, so we had to make it perfect the first time. I was toward the back of the line, and my nerves were starting to kick in. One of my coaches pulled me over and said, “D u want to see a nine on that score board? Well you’re about to do it.”
That gave me my last boost of confidence, and I was sure I was going to win. Earlier during warm up, that same coach told me that I was part of the team, and I had a role as a team player. Now all I was thinking about was winning. I would worry about the team later. I had a great mount and middle routine, but I got a little wobbly when I heard the warning bell. I managed to pull it together and finish with a nice side handstand dismount. My score was higher than I had expected, a 9.250!
Next up was floor, which I made many small mistakes on, but still managed to pull out a score in the eights, an 8.475. on vault I thought after my coach gave me a correction that I would be in the eights, but to my surprise, I ended up with a 9.150. Bars was my last event, and my bun was falling out. Bars was also my second best event, and I intended to prove it; I performed a good routine with some minor corrections and left with a 9.050, not bad for a first meet. My final placement was: first on beam, second in the all around, third on bars and vault, and nothing on floor. I was overjoyed with my standings!
In the end, I had an amazing meet; I had been the top scorer on my entire team, and received a total of three out of four nines! This meet was easier than I originally thought it to be. I hope that I will do just as well or even better at my next meet.