While most three year olds were playing with play kitchens and dolls, freshman Ashlyn Doyle was on a whole other level learning cartwheels and how to walk across a beam.
Doyle’s parents placed her in a recreational gymnastics class to keep her active body safe while still having fun.
“I was always doing tricks around the house and had so much energy that my parents just decided it would be better to put me in a gym so I didn’t break anything,” Doyle said.
At the age of four Doyle tried out at a gym that wanted her to compete for a level 3 team but decided not to compete because she was too young to be making the commitment she would’ve had to make. She soon switched gyms to compete with a small team that prepared her for competing at the Junior Olympic (JO) level.
When competing at the JO level, gymnasts compete in levels 1-10 and move up based on certain skills learned on the four events: vault, bars, beam and floor. But in Doyle’s case, she started competing as a level 4 when she was eight. From then, she quickly went through the levels and is now, at fifteen, competing level 10.
“This is just the beginning for her,” gymnastics coach Tami Schaafmsa said. “I think that [Doyle] will be a tough competitor and will be successful nationally over the next few years.”
Being a gymnast at that level takes a lot of time and dedication. Doyle currently trains 16 hours a week at her gym in Holland, Michigan. Her daily routine consists of school, driving an hour to practice, practicing, and then takes the long car ride back home, where she does her homework and gets ready to do it again the next day.
“[Doyle] is a very hard worker and is very disciplined which has definitely gotten her to where she is today,” Schaafmsa said.
The long hours and hard work pays off. After COVID-19 forced her first level 10 season to close, she came back better than ever this season.
She received 2nd place on vault at the state meet and 3rd in the regional meet and, on top of that, 9th place all-around which allowed her to qualify for an alternate spot at Nationals. This means that if a gymnast cannot compete, Doyle will compete in their place.
“[It’s] a once in a lifetime experience, because not everyone in their career makes it to nationals,” Doyle said.
Nationals can be a huge deal for gymnasts who want to compete in college because college recruiters attend this competition. Doyle is one of those gymnasts.
“College gymnastics seems fun and I would get to compete for my team and hopefully contribute my scores,” Doyle said.
Despite being only a freshman, her gymnastics Instagram account has already caught attention by some college programs, including the University of Pennsylvania and Towson University.
The awards and potential scholarships aren’t the only reasons why she does gymnastics. She simply loves it.
“I love the challenge it gives me to try new things and I love my teammates who are all super supportive no matter what and are always there,” Doyle said.
