The typical five-year-old girl:
Gets dizzy jumping on a trampoline.
Falls every time she does a cartwheel.
Can’t do a handstand to save her life.
However, senior Allie Wismer was different. At the age of five, Wismer became involved in competitive gymnastics at Pinnacle Gymnastics in Shawnee, Kan.
“At the time, my sister was a gymnast, and I wanted to be like her,” Wismer said. “Eventually, my sister changed to diving, but I was still in love with the sport.”
Since then, Wismer has been competing in meets all around the country and has been a Level 10 gymnast for about three years.
Competition season begins in January and lasts until May. In that time period, she participates in eight to ten meets.
Wismer said she dedicates a lot of her time to the gym. She practices five days a week for four and a half hours a day. On top of that, she works on her conditioning outside of the gym.
Her hard work and dedication for 14 continuous years have paid off. Wismer plans on attending North Carolina State in the fall on a full athletic scholarship for gymnastics. Her teammates, parents and especially coaches Morgan Kuchynka and Hannah Thomas said they are proud of her athletic accomplishments.
“There is no one that deserves this scholarship more than Allie,” Kuchynka said on the Pinnacle Gymnastics website. “Her hard work and dedication to the sport, her teammates and herself over the past 14 years have turned her into the athlete she is today.”
A college scholarship isn’t the only thing Wismer has earned through her dedication to gymnastics.
She won vault and bars at the State Championships, placing second all-around, she finished in the top ten at Regionals and she attended Level 10 Junior Olympic Nationals last year. Aside from the high titles and intensity, Wismer views gymnastics as her escape from the outside world.
“Gymnastics is my life,” she said. “It’s full of challenges and commitments, and it is a stress reliever. Once I am in the gym, I can forget about the world and have some fun.”