For Natalie Burns (11), cartwheels and handstands weren’t just childhood play, they were a calling. From her first cartwheels at three years old to the time-consuming 24-hour training weeks she now undergoes, Burns has dedicated herself to perfection on the mat.
Burns’s mom signed her up for gymnastics as a three-year-old little girl, but it didn’t last for long.
“My mom took me out for a little bit because she didn’t think it was something I wanted to do, until I was doing cartwheels and handstands all around the house,” she said.
Burns returned to gymnastics at the age of five and has been devoted ever since. Things started casually.
Doing gymnastics at a gym called Mountain Kids helped her learn the basics. However, when she decided she wanted to push herself further, she switched gyms.
“I went to Extreme Altitude, and that’s where I really feel I excelled,” she said. “The coaching was definitely different. They’re a lot stricter there.”
Over the next few years, she strengthened and gained new skills, bumping her up level to level from the basics to flying through the air in full twists. She trained at level six. Then seven. She was always pushing for the top against growing pressure.
Another gym change brought her to Colorado Gymnastics Institute in Aurora, where she currently trains.
Level eight.
Level nine.
Now, she trains at level 10, the highest level before the Olympics.
This commitment to gymnastics is paying off impressively—Burns is ranked 80th in the nation for beam.
“I train about 24 hours a week. So I wake up and go to school, and I take summer school so I can leave after fifth period because I drive 45 minutes to practice, so I need that time,” Burns said.
Burns has been doing summer school since fourth grade to accommodate her devotion to gymnastics. Having a normal childhood while having rigorous training hours and doing summer school is a difficult task that Burns has had to work around for most of her life.
“Practice starts at 3:30 and goes until 7:30, and I get home at about nine,” Burns said. “If I get invited to things, the majority of the time, it’s a, ‘No, I have practice, sorry.’”
This toll on her social life can be difficult.
“I think my regionals fall over prom, but it depends on if prom is on Friday this year because I don’t know when I’m going to compete for regionals,” she said. “I still will probably go and try and have fun.”
Recently, gymnastics has swallowed more than she is willing to give, despite the amount of love and devotion she has put into the sport. Nonetheless, she is willing to sacrifice more and never give up.
“You get mental blocks where you just decide you forget how to do the skill and can’t do it,” she said. “It feels like my body doesn’t know what I’m doing, like my eyes and brain don’t connect with anything my body’s doing.”
But deep down, Burns knows that she has learned so much from gymnastics. Without it, she would never be the girl she is today.
“It’s just something I’ve gone with my whole life,” she said. “I don’t think I would trade it for anything. Even with the ups and downs, I just think it’s been so beneficial and what’s made me, me.”
