Silverthorne Storm gymnasts Eloise Hood, right, and Mia Norden, center, pose for a photo after placing third and first, respectively in the compulsory 4 older division floor competition at the Foothills Flairs gymnastic meet on Saturday, May 20.
Claudine Norden/Courtesy photo

The Silverthorne Storm gymnastics team has reached its 2023 competition season, and local gymnasts have been working hard to qualify to state as things get underway.

For those who may not be familiar, the Silverthorne Storm is a youth gymnastics team that is hosted out of the Silverthorne Recreation Center. Without a middle school or high school gymnastics program in the county, Silverthorne Storm allows student athletes to explore the sport while competing at a high level.

The Silverthorne Storm is made up of local Summit County middle school and elementary school students, and the team competes in the Colorado Association of Recreation Athletics gymnastics meets from May through July.

“The mission of the Storm is to provide children with the ability to participate in gymnastics at a higher level than classes,” head coach Ben Way said. “Participation in gymnastics helps with so many things — from body awareness, strength, focus, flexibility, self-confidence and more. These are all things that will help them throughout their lives. We want to provide the space for those who want to be more involved with the sport and take it to another level by competing at a recreational level.”

During the competition season, Way — who has coached at the Silverthorne Recreation Center for 25 years — works with the team to perfect its members’ skills they have already learned. But during the fall and winter, the team focuses on learning new skills to foster progression.

Beyond the team placing highly at its first meet of the season, the Storm was able to qualify the majority of the team to the state gymnastics meet, which will take place in July.

“I would say it was a successful first meet,” Way said. “We qualified 22 out of 26 girls for the state meet with eight of them in all around.”

The Silverthorne Storm will now prepare to travel to the Broomfield Flyers gymnastics competition, which will take place on Saturday, June 3, at the Paul Derda Recreation Center in Broomfield.

Following the Broomfield competition, the Storm will then host a home meet at the Silverthorne Recreation Center on June 24 and will then close out the season with a meet on July 8 and the state meet from July 22-23.

I expect more polished routines, more state qualifiers and plenty of trips to the podium,” Way said of the coming weeks.

Local Gymnastics Team secures state qualifications.