Romina Gupta could be your future Congresswoman.
She could be the leader of the next great charitable movement to assist children around the world.
Or she and her team could represent the United States in China for the world acrobatic gymnastics championships coming up in 2016.
But she may just settle for all three along with being a role model for Indian American girls.
“I think being a member of a national team, it’s really great to represent all the Indian-American girls out there,” Gupta said. “I think that’s really special.”
Gupta could compete for an Olympic gold medal if her sport were offered at the Olympics. So for now she has to settle on a world title now and possibly changing the world in the near future.
After winning silver in Kentucky, Gupta and her teammates earned a spot on the U.S. National 12- to 18-year-old Juniors team and will compete for a chance to represent her nation in December.
“It’s a very competitive age group. It is probably one of the hardest age groups at nationals,” Gupta said.
And as she gears up for this elite competition she is interning with a professor at Cal Berkeley this summer after interning on the Congressional campaign of Ro Khanna, entering her senior year at Oakwood, applying to colleges and starting her own nonprofit to benefit underprivileged youths to enter gymnastics.
Gupta has competed in gymnastics since she was 4 years old, but only got into acrobatic gymnastics within the last two years, but was successful almost right away, winning a gold after just her first six months.
Acrobatic gymnastics, which can be done in pairs or in groups, is a mix of balancing and artistry.
Gymnasts perform a series of balancing acts on their teammates, often contorting their bodies into seemingly
impossible positions.
When Gupta got started, she was a base, or the person who is on the bottom of the stack from which the others perform their balance routines.
At the elite level, Gupta said her team has to do three routines, which includes a balance routine, a dynamic routine and a combination skills, balance
and dynamic.
However, to become more competitive, Gupta teamed up with veterans Cheyenna Jones and Kaylee Witana who have already
competed internationally.
Witana had the natural size for a base, so Gupta was moved to the middle.
“It took a lot of flexibility. And to be honest, in the beginning, I was more strong than flexible,” Gupta said. “I had to really work on my flexibility. I was going to the chiropractor three times a week.”
She said the chiropractor worked on her back to help open up her shoulders to allow her to perform some of the routines.
But being a relative novice to the sport and having to learn a whole new position, Gupta said it took a little time to get comfortable with her teammates. But she said both girls were very patient and they clicked after working for almost a year together.
“It was a lot of stretching and a lot of intense training,” Gupta said. “My coaches have been really supportive. They pushed me really hard. I would say this is my trio’s peak. This is where we’ve been the strongest.”
Along with the coaches and her teammates, Gupta said she got a lot of support from her teammates’ families along the way.
“Your parents have to put in a lot of time, not just the athletes,” Gupta said. “So I got a lot of support from them. I don’t think I could have done it without their support.”
Now leading up to nationals to see who moves on to China in 2016, Gupta said she will be competing in some warm up matches, including in London this fall where she said they will be competing against some of the best in the world.
Her goal, Gupta said, is to finish in the Top 3, but more specifically to get scores in the high 27s (out of 30) to help them standout internationally.
This will lead up to the national competition where Gupta said she and her team are essentially going for a job interview.
“They select two and it doesn’t have to be the top two,” Gupta said. “They select the two they feel has done the best, made the most progress, has the best attitude, (and) the best skill choice. It’s a lot of different things that come into the national team selection.”
Gupta said the coaches have set goals through out the year to help the team earn a spot in China.
She said it is partly how they practice, but also how they enter practice and how they conduct themselves after practice.
“Everything is looked at. Every time we go to a competition, that bar gets raised higher and higher,” Gupta said.
But if anything has taught her how to present herself well, it has come from out of the gym.
And it started with her parents and sacrificing their time to help get her to practice and competitions.
“They have been there supporting me and giving me anything they can to help me to get to where I am. I am really lucky to have parents like them.”
The Oakwood senior is starting to apply to college, but is doing so while also starting her own nonprofit to reach out to at-risk youth and help them pay for gymnastics training.
She calls it the iFly project with the goal “to inspire at-risk girls to be strong, confident and healthy young women through gymnastics.”
Learn more at rominagupta.wix.com/liftingupproject
