Freshman gymnast advances through levels

Freshman Kaitlyn Lee swings back and forth, stretching out her body and gracefully practicing the moves she’s trained for many years. As her 4’11 figure lands with a final touch, she finishes her three and a half hour gymnastics practice, just one of the four practices she has almost every week.

Lee began gymnastics at age 9 after watching the 2008 summer Olympics. According to Lee, once she began, she immediately fell in love with gymnastics.  Since then, she’s continued participating in it, practicing for roughly 15 hours a week.

Lee attends Airborne Gymnastics in Santa Clara and has participated in a number of competitions in areas such as Sacramento, and from time to time, other cities and areas even further away. The levels of gymnasts ranked by USA Gymnastics (USAG) ranges from 1-10, with 10 being the best. Lee has worked her way to level 5.

“I do travel for gymnastic competitions but not very far,” Lee said. “The farthest I have ever traveled for a competition is Visalia, which is about three or four hours away [from Saratoga].”

Though already participating intently in gymnastics, Lee plans to take it a step further, advancing her skills and qualifying for more competitive and larger scale competitions. Lee continues to practice hard, in hopes to one day climb from level 5 to a higher spot.

“As you get higher [in the ranks], you start traveling to places like Las Vegas and San Diego for competitions,” Lee said.

Lee hopes to hone her skills in order to reach a level in which regional tournaments become available to her. According to Lee, regional tournaments are only accessible at a certain level of skill, which she has not been able to reach yet.

“Regionals are different than the competitions I already go to because there are harder competitors, and it's also more difficult to qualify for regionals,” Lee said.

Regardless of the joy Lee gets from participating in the sport she loves, her time commitment to gymnastics can be tough.

“With the amount of gymnastics practice I do, I have a lot less time to finish my homework and study for tests,” Lee said. “I have to make sure that I do my homework ahead of time or do it as soon as I get home so that I don't sleep too late.”

Gymnastics has become more than just Lee’s favorite sport.  Over the years it has evolved into her passion, one that she wouldn’t trade for anything else.

“In my free time, I enjoy practicing certain skills such as roundoff back handspring tucks, and refining them gradually in order to be capable of performing her best at competitions,” Lee said. “Gymnastics is really fun for me because of the feeling I get after I accomplish a difficult skill, and I have a feeling I’ll be a part of [the sport] for a long time.”