It took a while for Emily Anderson to find the best outlet for her competitive nature.
As the youngest of five sisters, Anderson’s diminutive physique was hardly ideal for “traditional” youth sports for girls her age, such as softball, soccer or volleyball.
“She weighs only 80 pounds,” her mother and Iola native Shari Anderson said. “She looks more like a 12-year-old than a 15-year-old.”
But young Emily, of Broken Arrow, Okla., soon found her home on the gymnastics mat.
“And she’s kept pushing herself,” Shari said. “She’s very competitive.”
Emily’s gymnastics feats reached their latest crescendo April 30, when she was crowned the overall champion for her age group at the USA Gymnastics Women’s Junior Olympic Level 9 Western Championships in Missoula, Mont.
Anderson scored the best among all Level 9 gymnasts in 24 states. Her final all-around score was two-tenths of a point shy of giving her the top all-around score in the country.
Needless to say, both Emily and her mother were thrilled.
“We were just hoping for a top 10 finish,” Shari said.
The all-around features gymnasts competing in four disciplines — the vault, uneven bars, beam and floor routine.
Emily started with the vault, her weakest event. Her score — 9.375, out of 10 — placed her 11th after the first round.
She had the second-highest score on even bars, putting Emily up to third place. She crept up to second by the end of her beam exercise, despite a slight wobble at one point.
Shari said her daughter was confident entering the floor routine because the first-place gymnast still had to do the beam, her weakest discipline.
Sure enough, Emily scored a 9.3 on her floor routine, sixth best among all entrants.
“Emily didn’t have the top score in any single event, but she scored so high in all four that she got the all-around title,” Shari noted.
Emily’s combined score of 37.500 was .05 points higher than the runner-up gymnast.
