Meet Mikaela Snow: Our Very Own National Gymnastics Champion

When you watch gymnasts compete at the Olympics, you often find yourself wondering “How do they do that?”

They make it look so easy—but if you talk to any of them, they will tell you it takes a huge amount of hard work, patience, commitment … and most importantly, a positive mindset … to pull it off.

That’s certainly what Mikaela Snow will tell you—and at the recent YMCA 2022 National Gymnastics Championship in Toledo, where more than 1,600 girls competed, she used it all to blow the competition away. At just 11 years of age, she earned gold on the floor for Level 5.

What makes Mikaela’s win even more amazing is that this was her first-ever time competing at Nationals. As with so many other sports, COVID led to the cancellation of the nationals in recent years, but Mikaela’s team kept training throughout and competing more locally. All of her hard work and dedication paid off because not only did she win the floor title, but she also took silver on bars, beam and all-around.

Mikaela is currently a member of Westport Y’s gymnastics program, but she started in gymnastics at the tender age of 2½. In gymnastics terms, she is still very young but she knows exactly why she sticks with it. She loves the sport, particularly the floor exercises, which she says often make her feel like she’s flying as she tumbles across the floor. She also loves her teammates, who (in her own words) are at least 50% of the reason she keeps doing what she’s doing. She couldn’t do what she does without their constant support and, of course, the valuable advice of her gymnastics coaches at the Westport Weston YMCA.

Despite her win, Mikaela’s feet are planted firmly on the ground … but watch this space as we’re pretty certain they are going to take her places in the gymnastics world.