Local gymnast working on some new routines

From the moment Kaitlynn Urano landed her first cartwheel in her family’s Mission home, she couldn’t stop rolling around. She found new ways to bend her body and improve her flexibility.

Her mom thought she should try out gymnastics.

At the age of eight, Urano tried things out recreationally, and in no time, she was asked to take her training a little more seriously.

She started competing later that year and she recalled her excitement when she was awarded ribbons.

We didn’t have score then because we were young and it was just fun, said Urano, who trained with Twisters in Abbotsford for five years until her coach moved to Vancouver.

Urano, who was 13 years old at the time, might have had uncertainties in life entering her teenaged years, but one thing she was sure of was her love of gymnastics.

And she liked her coach. Even at that age, she knew she didn’t want to work with anyone else.

She followed David Kenwright to Vancouver, then to Calgary for a year, and now she trains at Surrey Gymnastics Society.

“I like the way he coaches,” said Urano simply, and pointing out that almost every athlete he has trained has earned scholarships for post secondary institutes.

Urano, now 17, says that’s her goal next year as she finishes her Grade 12 year at Heritage Park Secondary School.

In a sport that exerts confidence and balance, Urano has also found ways to incorporated those skills into her personal life.

Urano, who trains five days a week for 4.5 hours each day in Surrey, admits she has to miss a lot of class time, but somehow she still manages to maintain nearly a 4.0 grade point average.

Some kids don’t even know Urano is in their class.

“When I have school and I have to go there early, I tell the teachers I’ll be missing their class and get the homework,” Urano explained.

Because Urano returns home in the early evening, she is left with lots of time to catch up on what she missed and do her homework.

The Mission teen has disciplined herself to excel in both school and gymnastics, but there was a time when her parents were reluctant to let her continue the sport.

Urano was 13 years old when she took a bad tumbled and broke her arm in several places. She still has the scar on her arm to remind her of the incident, which resulted in four surgeries, two plates and nine screws.

Urano wore a cast and couldn’t do gymnastics for a couple of years as she underwent intense physiotherapy.

“My mom was really scared for me to go back,” Urano recalled. “I was really, really nervous too. I was scared of messing up, and everyone saying what a bad comeback it was.”

She knew gymnastics was hard on the body, but that didn’t deter her from trying.

Urano says stress is the most difficult thing she deals with in the sport. Sometimes she’s apprehensive in trying new moves and routines, but she admits her nerves encourage her to do better. And when she works through them, her confidence level gets a boost.

Urano finished this last season, which ended in June, fourth overall in the nationals.

She will be developing new routines and learning different skills until the season begins again in January. She hopes her work will land her a scholarship to a university south of the border.

There are no gymnastics scholarships in Canada, explained Urano, who plans to study in a sports-related field.

She knows she’ll miss her family, like the time she lived with family friends in Calgary, but by taking one step at a time, Urano is sure to reach her goals.