Maple Valley gymnasts selected for USA Gymnastics National Jump Start Team

Three gymnasts from Maple Valley were recently selected for the USA Gymnastics (USAG) National Jump Start Team. The USAG Jump Start team is a program designed to identify talented 7-12 year olds in the gymnastics discipline of Trampoline and Tumbling (TT.)

March 1, 2012 5:29 pm
(Left to right) Madison Miller
(Left to right) Madison Miller

Three gymnasts from Maple Valley were recently selected for the USA Gymnastics (USAG) National Jump Start Team.  The USAG Jump Start team is a program designed to identify talented 7-12 year olds in the gymnastics discipline of Trampoline and Tumbling (TT.)

The team also serves as a fast-track for gymnasts who hope to compete at the international level in the years to come.

Trampoline made its debut as an Olympic sport in 2000 at the Sydney games, and this discipline is quite different from recreational bouncing on a backyard trampoline.  International competition trampolines are powerful.

Elite athletes can reach heights of up to thirty feet—and then they perform multiple flips and twists in midair.TT athletes must first pass Jump Start testing at club level, then at the state level.  Athletes who pass at the state testing are then invited to try out for the national team.

Testing for the 2012 National Jump Start Team was held in January of 2012 at the Texas ranch of legendary gymnastics coach Bela Karolyi, which is a US Olympic Training Center.Out of 21 girls who made the 2012 Trampoline team, three of those are from Maple Valley.

They are:

  • Kalani Pinter, 12, a sixth grader at Cedar River Middle School.
  • Emma Rochleau, 11, a fifth grader at Lake Wilderness Elementary School.
  • Madison Miller, 12, a seventh grader at Tahoma Middle School.

Rochleau was also selected for the girls’ Tumbling team.

These athletes will travel to the US Olympic Training Center located at the Karolyi Ranch in March for a three-day training camp.

During the camp the girls and their coach, Kelly Israel, will be instructed by the national TT coaching staff.

The Jump Start Team will also perform in an exhibition at the upcoming Junior Olympic Tumbling and Trampoline Nationals, which will be held in Long Beach, California in July.Coach Kelly Israel is thrilled to have all three of the gymnasts she took to Texas for testing make the team.

Anyone interested in sponsoring one of these hardworking gymnasts for their upcoming training camp can contact Summit Gymnastics owner Debbie Johnson at 425-432-9999.