Back From Portugal

USA Gymnastics created an avenue for gifted athletes to move through the Junior Olympic level to the Elite level program of Trampoline & Tumbling. This avenue is called the USA Olympic Development National Team. Athletes between the ages of 11 – 14 and level 9 or 10 go to three separate competitions around the country. Based on their overall placements the athletes are awarded points and ranked their best two competition points are added together and then the top 4 boys and girls in the 11-12 age group and 13-14 age group for Trampoline, Tumbling, and Double Mini are put on the USA Olympic Development National Team.

Hope Bravo and Isaac Rowley from Eagle’s Wings Athletics were named to that team in July 2012. From there they were invited to an international exchange camp at the USA National Team Training Center at the Karolyi Ranch in Houston, Texas. They also were invited to compete for USA in the Loule׳ Cup in Portugal September 4^th-10^th, 2012.

At this competition Hope Bravo competed in the 13-14 age groups for tumbling. This was Hope’s first international competition; she landed both her passes in the preliminary competition and qualified to the final in 4^th place. She competed again the final for 13-14 women’s tumbling and she did very well, ultimately finishing in 4^th place. This is fantastic for her first ever international competition.

Isaac Rowley has been a member of the USA Olympic Development Team for the past 3 years. He has traveled to multiple international exchange camps as well as to Canada for his first international competition, so in Portugal he was looking to do better than in Canada. Isaac competed in the 13-14 age groups for trampoline. In trampoline you compete a compulsory routine and an optional routine in the preliminary competition. He was able to do both of his routines and that led to him finishing in 8^th which is the last place they take to finals. In the final competition they compete the athletes in reverse order which means that Isaac would compete first. He stepped on the trampoline and did an even better optional routine than what he did in the preliminary round. After watching the rest of the boys compete, Isaac’s routine was done so well that he moved up to 4^th place. His scores also help the Men’s ODP Trampoline Team win the Silver Team Medal.

Isaac and Hope are coached by Amy McDonald and Collin Wallick at Eagle’s Wings Athletics. Coach Amy was named as the USA ODP Men’s Trampoline Coach and traveled with Isaac and Hope to Portugal. She had this to say about her experience there, “Isaac and Hope were true athletes; they fought hard and definitely showed they are competitors that they mean business. I am beyond proud of them, Hope finishing 4^th in her first ever international competition and Isaac moving from 8^th to 4^th place is phenomenal. I can’t wait to see what next year has in store for all of these athletes. The theme given to the USA delegation before they left for Portugal was “YOU can make a wish, or YOU can make it happen.” Isaac and Hope definitely proved that they can and will make it happen every time they compete.