The Door County YMCA’s competitive youth gymnastics team, The Strivers, took home a handful of medals from this year’s National competition. Girls on the team have gone through the progressive gymnastics program at the YMCA to prepare for the vigorous competition. Parallel to this year’s long list of successes, there’s also an opportunity for new gymnasts to get involved as the new session starts up. 

This year, the team didn’t have to travel far to compete as Nationals were held locally at the Resch Center in Green Bay. For coaches, gymnasts, and spectators, the event was a spectacular showcase of skill with nearly 2,800 gymnasts from across the country who flew in to compete. In addition to the competition, teams also attended a banquet in the atrium at Lambeau Field. 

“It’s really exciting that every one of our members of our team got to compete this year in Nationals, which is great especially for the young ones, because sometimes it’s a once in a lifetime chance,” said Nikki Pollman, the YMCA Competitive Gymnastics Head Coach.

Pollman highlighted the team’s outstanding accomplishments on the floor, vault and bars, and shared that they got to listen to a keynote from fellow gymnast and Olympic gold-medalist Jordan Chiles, who is on the team at UCLA. Pollman said Chiles’ speech was very motivational for the girls and that as their coach, she was proud of their hard work.

“I always say the cream rises to the top and little by little, they’re just elevating the metals up to the top three, top five,” Pollman added.

Now that Nationals has wrapped up, it's back to the floor for a new round. Aspiring gymnasts can sign up for gymnastics classes during the summer session which will be held July 8th through August 15th.

You can listen to the full Y Wednesday interview with Nikki Pollman here.