The baseball scout who discovered a gymnastics prodigy: his 7-year-old daughter

and top prospect Corbin Carroll. But this type of talent, in his own house and so young, is new to him. And it has thrown him and his wife, Misty, for a loop.

Ladnier is used to scouting 17-year-olds who reach their primes at 27, but a female gymnast’s progression starts a decade earlier and reaches a peak more quickly. To reach the sport’s pinnacle — classification from USA Gymnastics as an elite gymnast and, for four lucky young women every four years, a spot on the Olympic team — kids must train very young and very hard. It is not for everybody, no matter the talent.

The Ladniers are prepared for that. “If she woke up tomorrow and said, ‘I don’t want to do this anymore,’ we’d go, ‘Great, let’s do something else,’” says her father. Instead, their daughter awakens each morning with a bounce in her step, a dream in her eye and an uncommon love for the grind. Theare a long way off and the chances of making the Games are exceedingly slim for any gymnast.

Saylor was always bounding off this and swinging off that, so Ladnier installed it to give his daughter something to do. Now, it serves as a historical record of her progression as a gymnast. The same way other parents track the growth of their children on a door frame, Ladnier can record Saylor’s advancement on that metal bar — as she got better and better, the bar’s height kept going up and up and up.

At some point over the previous six months — between the lowest and highest bar positions on that backyard apparatus — the Ladniers had become a gymnastics family, evolving beyond special pasta and into special everything, a life reoriented around the pursuit of their daughter’s gymnastic excellence. It’s an incredibly weighty commitment, and one that few families choose or are even equipped to make, but the Ladniers felt as prepared as they could be.

ZHBuchanan I really hope these parents realize that their daughter doesn’t have to train this much in order to reach her dreams. The sport has evolved, gymnasts are peaking later. This article perpetuates some of the stereotypes that are no longer accurate. Burnout is extremely likely.

ZHBuchanan FWIW, it’s not called Junior Olympic anymore because the Olympics doesn’t like unauthorized use of its name. USA Gym renamed it “Developmental Program” a couple years ago.

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