Teen gymnast soars toward dreams again, WTSP

A teenager thought her dream was over. 10 News reporter Bobby Lewis is on the road in New Tampa where the dream for this gymnast is once again in reach.

Since she was three years old all Jade Martin wanted to do was fly. Yeah. It kind of came naturally. And for most of the last 14 years she has. You got to show the judges all the hard work you’ve been putting in, especially when you perform at your best. One neighbor asked hey why don’t you take your daughter to gymnastics so we can carpool. That’s how I got her in the gym. It’s a feeling that’s hard to duplicate anywhere else. The soaring, spinning and swinging. She loves it all and she almost lost it. It was excruciating. It was actually, I couldn’t stand and after years and years and years of that pounding Jade’s body finally gave out. Her hip injury, threatened to take away the sport she loves.

Yeah, I was worried that it would be too painful and I wouldn’t be able to continue with gymnastics. She said, I’ve already given up gymnastics. I quit. I can’t do it anymore. And I said, okay, now it’s time to see if we can fix it. So we ended up going in and doing surgery on her hip. Two years later she’s bounced back and surprised herself with how great she’s become this year. It was my first year competing level nine and I won all around States, Regionals. And then I got second at nationals and first on beam.

Now this incoming high school senior has gymnastics back on her brain. Her first love. And she’s flipping out about it. And you always just want them to find their passion and go forward. And uh, and that’s what she has done.

Pretty much everything in my life revolves around gymnastics. I definitely push myself every day and it’s worked out.

On the road in New Tampa. I’m Bobby Lewis, 10 News.

Well that’s a great for her to be back on the mat and congratulations for her. She did really well with all of her competitions and that the surgery went well as well. So Jade had her surgery at the Florida Orthopaedic Institute, and she hopes to do gymnastics in college at Cornell and then study to become a veterinarian.