Kiera Tomko has been doing gymnastics for more than half her life. “She has done competitive gymnastics for about seven years for Dream Extreme in Vacaville,” said her father, Mr. John Tomko, who works at Armijo. “She’s placed previously in state and regionals.”

She enjoys it a lot because “it’s fun to do,” she said, and explained that having energy inspired her to participate in the sport

It hasn’t always been easy, but the benefits outweigh the disappointments. “I have regretted gymnastics at some point, yeah, but it is fun to do,” she said. “I don’t have as much time as people who don’t do other sports.”

A core memory Kiera has in gymnastics was when she once did a skill and she “face-bended” in front of other people. She describes this memory as one of her “funny” memories in gymnastics.

One of the benefits of being on a gymnastics team is the travel to competitions. “We went to Reno before and Disneyland,” she said. In Reno, she and her teammates saw a lot of slot machines, and discovered that they were not just in the casinos.

Tomko described the atmosphere of gymnastics as “competitive and very social” and encourages others who are interested in participating in the sport to “put in the work.” Gymnastics has personally taught her that message. “If you don’t put in the work, you can’t do it,” she said. Tomko also applied this message to her volleyball team experience this year.

A typical day for Tomko at gymnastics would look like her warming up, conditioning, and working on skills and beams. She has practice after school from 5 to 8 pm and hopes that people learn to focus from her. From other people in gymnastics, though, she has learned that “you can’t go somewhere from doing just a sport.” Still, she could go far and was uncommitted about doing gymnastics after graduation.