Back in May, Remi Fusilero, 13, won two national gymnastics titles for the 2022 USA Gymnastics Level 9 Western National Championships All-Around and Balance Beam Events at a competition held in Salt Lake City, Utah.
“In early May, at the Western National Championships for USA Gymnastics Level 9, I represented Region 1, which brings together gymnasts from a combination of states, including California, Nevada, Utah and Arizona,” said Fusilero, a Santa Clara resident. “My team from Region 1 consisted of seven members. We were all from the same age range. We competed in Level 9 value skills, which included the Yurchenko, a vault where you do a backhand spring onto the table and flip off. On the balance beam, I did skills such as a front aerial, which is a front flip on the balance beam. I also did a flick lay, known as a backhand spring layout.”
So far, Fusilero has earned three national titles from competing, with her first title being from the 2021 USA Gymnastics Level 9 Western National Championships Floor Event.
The highest level in the Junior Olympic level is Level 10. That’s what I’m training for right now,” Fusilero explained. “The highest possible level that is not part of the junior level is the elite level. The elite level is for the Olympic hopeful. In the future, I hope to be an NCAA (National Collegiate Athletic Association) college gymnast, like my parents. I hope to qualify for elite someday. Right now, I’m taking it one year at a time and seeing where I end up.”
According to Fusilero, she has been doing gymnastics since she was two years old when she was enrolled in a Mommy and Me class at Twisters Gymnastics, a Santa Clara-based gymnastics club her father owns where both her parents teach.
“Today I do double tucks, which are double flips, and I do multiple kinds of twists, like double twists and two and a half twists,” Fusilero said of her present work at Twisters Gymnastics. “I also do release skills on bars. For example, I can do a Jaeger. That is when you do a front flip from a high bar in reverse grip and you catch the same bar. I can also do a Pak salto. That is when you go from a high bar to a low bar.”
For Fusilero, her gymnastics training comes with commitment and sacrifice.
“I train five days a week for four-and-a-half hours each day,” she said of her schedule, which includes being a student at Buchser Middle School during the school year. “There are a lot of sacrifices gymnasts have to make. Sometimes you miss school field trips or birthday parties because you are committed to training.”
Fusilero finds balance in her personal life with her gymnastics peers and family.
“I have a strong bond with the other gymnasts because of all the time we spend together,” she said. “For the rest of the summer, I want to see my grandparents and cousins who live up in Rocklin and I want to go to the beach.”