Two Clermont County gymnasts are hoping to qualify for a spot in the World Age Group Gymnastics championships in Tokyo, Japan later this year.
Goshen native Randy Holmes and Owensville’s Isabel Steinmetz both competed in Des Moines, Iowa earlier this month, hoping to clinch one of the final spots on the squad.
Steinmetz placed seventh in the preliminary round, earning a spot in the finals. She moved up to fifth overall.
Holmes finished in ninth place, one-tenth of a point away from a qualifying spot. Richard Mousir, who coaches both athletes at Gymnastics Central in Anderson, said he felt both performed admirably.
“They did really well,” Mousir said. “For it being their first year at senior elite, they did really well.”
The duo competes in different events. Steinmetz is a tumbler, while Holmes’ event is the double mini-trampoline.
“She does eight tumbling elements over the distance of about 100 feet,” Mousir said. “She lands in a big landing zone, it’s all speed and power. Randy is the double-mini trampoline, so he executes routines two skills at a time that are big and explosive.”
In Iowa, Holmes didn’t shy away from the bright lights, literally. The setup for the competition puts the spotlight on each individual athlete.
“They have one athlete going at a time,” Holmes said. “When they say your name and the judge salutes to you, you know it’s just you and everyone in the entire coliseum is staring at you. I’ve been in spotlights before, I’ve done theatre and I’ve competed for nine years. For me, it was a lot of fun, but some athletes find it really nerve-wracking.”
Even with his past experiences, Holmes said the competition in Iowa was still a unique one for him.
“It was unlike anything I’ve ever done in the sport before,” Holmes said. “I’ve been to big arenas, I’ve been to big competition where people could easily beat me, but I’ve never been to an arena that big with all the lights on you while you’re competing. It was really fun, but very different and hard to adjust to at first.”
Holmes’ performance is noteworthy due to a bit of adversity he had to overcome prior to the competition.
“Six weeks before that competition, I pulled all the ligaments in my ankle off the bone,” Holmes said. “I was under the impression that I would not be cleared, I would not be able to compete. My doctor said, ‘Randy, I know you’re trying to go to Japan, so we’re going to get you ready to go in six weeks.’”
After trips to a physical therapist and more therapy at home, Holmes was able to compete in Iowa. After a successful second run, the weight of that accomplishment hit home.
“When I landed that second pass on my feet, knowing that I had completed both passes with no training, I was pretty pumped,” Holmes said.
The ninth-place effort left him in a good spot to qualify for the trip to Tokyo. As of this writing, Holmes sits 9th in the standings. The top five athletes are chosen for one meet, with the next four taken to a similar event. Making either competition would be an important step for Holmes, and qualifying on his third try would be special.
“I thought I had no shot after my ankle injury,” Holmes said. “We’ve had unfortunate circumstances before that prevented me from actually competing. To finally compete on my third try and make it, with an injury? It would be a dream come true.”
The road back after the injury was not an easy one, and a lot of work was needed for Holmes to get to that point. Mousir said both Clermont athletes have put in that work, with Holmes and Steinmetz routinely spending several days a week in the gym.
“They’re extremely dedicated,” Mousir said. “A lot of kids age out once they head off to college. Randy is heading into his second year of college and he still trains about 16 hours a week. Isabel is a senior, just finished high school and she often trains 16 hours a week. They’re very focused on their goals, they both have been doing this for about 10 years or so. They’re finally at the stage where they’re at an international level.”
Holmes said he got his start a decade ago with local classes designed to get him out of the house.
“I started with gymnastics classes at the YMCA,” Holmes said. “All around the house, I would walk around doing handstands, cartwheels and knocking over vases and that sort of thing. They decided they needed to put me in a class so I could do it safely without breaking all their things.”
Mousir has been working with both athletes since 2010. He’s seen the duo grow both as athletes and as people.
“We started out as just a small, competitive team,” Mousir said. “We’ve grown through that. The parents say some weeks I spend more time with them than their parents do. I’ve seen them grow up since they were 7, 8 years old into the young adults that they are. I’ve seen them grow through school, through maturing. Now they’re in college and they’re these amazing young people.”
Mousir finished by praising the duo for staying with the sport for so long.
“A lot of kids drop off the deep end because of the time commitment,” Mousir said. “These two, instead, they’ve dug in and gone even harder.”