Six years of hard work in competitive gymnastics paid off for Greenbelt resident and gymnast Fiona O’Brien, age 12. She was one of six kids in her event representing the United States in Budapest this month as part of the International Club Team (ICT). She and her partner competed in the Budapest Acro Cup as an 11-16 women’s pair.
USA Gymnastics International Club Team allows young gymnasts who the selection team thinks have the potential to be members of the national acrobatics team to receive early experience competing on the international level.
O’Brien and her partner, Lily Barnowski, were two of the four acrobatic gymnasts from Maryland as they represented International Elite Acrobatics and Tumbling. The other women’s pair team came from Xtreme Acro and Cheer from Rockville.
The three-day competition started on September 1. O’Brien and Barnowski competed against 12 other countries on the first two days and then faced the top six teams in the finals on the last day. The duo finished in fifth place. Judges score the performances based on the artistry, execution and technical skills.
O’Brien and Barnowski were initially part of a trio; however, one of their members left due to personal reasons. They had only been training together as a duo since December.
“So the fact that they went from only being a pair a really short time to then competing all the way through the season and doing really well at nationals and getting on the ICT was exciting,” said Jamie Krauk, O’Brien’s mom. Sarah Thomas, O’Brien’s coach, said, “I was not surprised because I knew how talented they were and how good they were doing and how much they were improving.”
O’Brien has been participating in gymnastics since she was 2 years old, initially doing artistic gymnastics at Silver Stars Gymnastics in Silver Spring. Her parents got her involved in the sport after they realized how much she loved to climb on furniture.
“[You were] always climbing up things and jumping off,” Krauk said, explaining the story to O’Brien. “We’re like, ‘Oh, golly. We need to get her in some sort of tumbling activity.’”
When she got older, O’Brien transitioned to Prince George’s Sports and Learning Complex to continue doing artistic gymnastics. She switched to acrobatics and changed gyms after an injury last summer.
“My back had scoliosis,” O’Brien said. “So in artistic, we do a lot of tumbling. And it was like pounding me on my back and acro does it a lot less.”
Krauk added, “They focus a lot on flexibility and stretching. So both her chiropractor and the physical therapist said we’re comfortable with the level of stretching that she can stay safe.”
All the activities for acrobatic gymnastics take place on the floor. It combines tumbling and choreographed floor routines with balancing skills such as handstands. Artistic is viewed as the more traditional form of gymnastics and is usually done using beams, bars and the vault.
Acrobatic gymnastics takes lots of time and dedication. This past season, O’Brien practiced four days a week for three to four hours per day. To prepare for the international competition, she added an additional day of practice on Fridays.
The sport also requires perseverance. During international invitationals in Las Vegas earlier this year, Thomas said that O’Brien and Barnowski got really nervous and made some mistakes during their routine.
“After that one routine in Las Vegas where they made mistakes [in] their second routine they came back and did really, really well,” Thomas said. “And from then on out it’s like they put the nerves behind them.”
The duo did really well in the second round of competition. O’Brien said nervousness during competition never completely goes away and that she has just had to learn to deal with it.
“Like, it goes away a little, like after the first skill,” O’Brien said about dealing with nerves. “But there’s not really anything that we do to help it because it doesn’t really go away even if you’ve done a lot of competition.”
Thomas said, “She’s very calm in competition. That’s one thing that we noticed is that she’s able to handle pressure very well and not get nervous when she’s on the big stage with a big audience.”
Next season, O’Brien will continue with acrobatic gymnastics. Now, as the top to a women’s trio – with two bases instead of one.