Katy was excited and actually a little shy to be participating in her first gymnastics meet. We love her gymnastics school, Tags. Like most sports schools in Minnesota/the USA, Tags has a very competitive "team" section and a great "recreation" section. Katy is doing Recreational Gymnastics, which is much less intense and not as "competitive". Despite this, the whole meet was run very professionally and seriously but in a fun and supportive manner for the Recreational Gymnasts too. It was Mama's first ever gymnastics meet so it was quite thrilling to observe all of the gymnastics protocols one would see at an Olympic Games or World Championship.
The meet started with a group warm up session. That's Katy's Coach, Lori, in the white shorts.
Then the girls gathered in their groups. Each group had two coaches and one judge.
Katy was very happy to have Coach Elise as her lead coach. Elise has been her favourite coach - she is very gentle, sweet, young and pretty!
The girls start with their salutes to the judge. (And supposedly the audience but Katy was too shy to acknowledge the audience).
Their first apparatus was the bar. We were on the other end and I wasn't really paying a great deal of attention to what was happening at first. Katy seemed to do her routine ok.
Then Dada got excited by the score. Katy was coming first with an 8.85.
At first, I didn't really believe it. I thought there might be some misunderstanding and I didn't want to be jumping to conclusions. But Dada knew what was going on - he is the gymnastics parent - and he explained why Katy was leading based on her technique and performance!
At the end of the apparatus, Katy was awarded 1st place! She had announced to me a few days before that she would love to win one first place ribbon. But I had played this down and explained that she hadn't been doing gymnastics very long, she only went once a week, and we didn't practice at home or take it very seriously like we did piano. We were thrilled for her that she got to win.
I'm ashamed to admit though that I still wasn't sure what was going on and wasn't really comparing Katy to the other girls. I thought oh maybe that was a fluke or that they were being very encouraging of Katy because it was her first meet, or that maybe they would take turns giving the girls a first place each.
But then I started to watch the other groups too and it became apparent that they really were taking the whole thing very seriously and judging properly and giving actual scores that varied and were not all the same.
Katy's second apparatus was the balance beam.
Her signature move on the balance beam is this form. She really looks lovely doing it and she does it very well.
And they even do a dismount, which Katy stuck!
Giving her 2nd place on beam with a score of 8.55!
After each apparatus, the girls hold up their ribbons. Despite being more serious than I thought, the whole thing is done in a very supportive and inclusive way and every girl was thrilled with her ribbons, whatever the colour!
As the floor routines started, Katy and another girl each had one 1st place and one 2nd place ribbon...
Katy did a lovely floor routine and scored a 9!
Giving her 1st place on the floor...
...and first place overall! Katy was super excited to be on the first place podium! Again, a touch I had not been expecting!
Hooray for Katy!
With Coach Elise.
With Coach Lori.
A very proud gymnast...
...with proud Julie...and
...very proud parents.
Super fun!
