Freshman Gymnast Gets Back on the Beam Since Pandemic

By: Mariah Gomez

Madison Lightfoot, ‘24 has done gymnastics for almost seven years and experiences some changes since the pandemic.

Lightfoot is only 14 years old and has done gymnastics for four years at Central California Gymnastics Institute (CCGI) and is currently at Lee’s United Gymnastics Academy (LUGA) which is where she has been for three years.

Lightfoot says due to COVID she goes to gymnastics twice a week for a total of five and half hours, “I go on Friday night for an hour and a half and I go Saturday morning for 4 hours. If we didn’t have the pandemic, I would be going four days a week instead of two” explained Lightfoot.

Before the pandemic, an average day for her would be to get home from school, go straight to gymnastics, get home around 8:30 PM, start homework, and then get ready for bed around 11 PM. And she would repeat this four times a week.

Lightfoot is a competitive gymnast who competes for medals and trophies. She has around 80-90 medals and has four team trophies. Her strongest event is beam. She says, “I feel my best event is beam. It’s always hard- every event is, but beam is what comes very easily to me. I get so many new skills on beam, sometimes it seems like I get a new skill every week!”

Competing in gymnastics is something she greatly enjoys doing, “It’s very nerve-wracking but once you get that first event done, everything is okay!” says Lightfoot.

At an average competition event, there are two to three judges judging each event and it takes around three to four hours to finish one competition.

Lightfoot has experienced quite some change in gymnastics, but she is not letting that stop her from doing what she loves. She may not be training four times a week as usual, but she is safely returning and getting to train again!

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