After four-plus years of gymnastics lessons, Sarah finally got to compete in her first meet last weekend. She was nervous but had high hopes. She told me she wanted to win a gold medal. I did what any responsible mother would do and tried to lower her expectations. After all, it was her first meet.
It was our first meet, too, and Don and I didn't know what to expect. We arrived at the Westfield YMCA at the appointed time and proceeded to stand in a crowded hallway with other parents and participants for half an hour, while the competition before us wrapped up in the gym.
Once inside, we snagged a couple of folding chairs with other families from Sarah's gym. The seating was squeezed around the gym's periphery, but we had a decent view of all of the events. The organizers handed out score cards so we could keep track. At each event, there was a table with a judge and a scorekeeper, who used a contraption made of PVC pipe and numbered cards that flipped on metal rings to show results to the crowd.
There were seven girls competing in Sarah's division, Xcel Silver Junior. Sarah's team did the vault first, running by just a few feet in front of us to reach the vault. Each girl got two attempts, and Sarah earned a 9.10.
Next was the floor exercise. Sarah had a sore groin muscle for the previous couple of weeks, so she decided not to attempt an aerial. She did a nice job with her roundoff-back handspring and front handspring and got an 8.50.
The third event was beam, which is Sarah's least favorite. She fell off but got right back on and ended up with a 8.75.
The best was saved for last: uneven bars. Sarah's upper-body strength serves her well on the bars. While most of the girls seem to rely on momentum to swing themselves up onto the low bar, I swear Sarah uses sheer muscle power. She is smooth and graceful. She did her routine without mistakes and was awarded 9.20 points.
We waited 20 minutes or so for the other teams to finish their events, then moved to a large multi-purpose room to wait some more for the results. We have joined the ranks of parents who bide their time at youth sporting events.
The wait was worth it, however! When the results were announced, Sarah took first place for her division and mounted the stage in victory. She got a blue ribbon for her overall score (35.55), plus blue ribbons for the events in which she scored above 9.0 and red ribbons for those in which she scored 8.0-9.0 points.
Sarah was pleased with her accomplishment, and I was so proud of her! I couldn't help telling her about when I was 14 and entered my mixed-breed trail pony in a local horse show. My dad did his best to keep my expectations realistic, pointing out that my competitors would be riding pure-bred, professionally trained horses. I entered three classes and came away with two first places and a sixth.
The day wasn't without disappointment, however. Although we'd planned to get ice cream with the other families after, it started snowing during the meet, and Don felt it was best to go straight home (he was right -- the roads were slick).
Also, it turns out Sarah thought she would get real medals at the meet. She was let down to learn that she'll have to go to the Olympics for those. Until then, blue ribbons will have to do.
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