BILLINGS, Mont. — 8-year-old Billings gymnast Harlow Occhipinti has been doing gymnastics since she was 18 months old as her dedication to the sport will be leading her to a national youth skills competition in Indianapolis this September.
Harlow is a member of Magic City Gymnastics in Billings where she recently passed a national gymnastics TOP test. “TOP” is short for Talent Opportunity Program and is developmental program for young gymnasts aged 8-10. Harlow was the only gymnast in Montana who was in the program as she both tested and passed the statewide strength and conditioning test in July. Harlow just recently turned 8 years old but was still 7 years old when she passed the skills test in July.
“Normally when kids do gymnastics, they want to go the Olympics, or they want to go do college gymnastics. So, what TOP does is that it just helps you reach your goals a little bit faster,” said Harlow’s coach at Magic City Gymnastics Lashay Sawyer.
Sawyer says that the young gymnast in Harlow has stood out to the coaches at Magic City Gymnastics since she became a member many years ago.
“We noticed her in the preschool classes, and she stood out in our hotshot’s classes and in our preteen classes. She showed us a level discipline at such a young age that we saw a little bit of talent in her and we ran with it,” said Sawyer.
Harlow has been training for the TOPS test for two years and her hard work has more than paid off as she will now go to a TOPS national skills competition in Indianapolis this September where she will be representing the entire state.
“I bet it’s going to be really fun,” said Harlow.
Harlow, who is one of six kids in her family has been doing gymnastics since she was just 18 months old.
“My older sister used to do gymnastics, and so it just encouraged me to want to do it,” she said.
None of Harlow’s siblings do gymnastics in present day, but she has tried to convince them all to try it out.
“Just a couple of years ago, I made them do stretches and like gymnastics stuff with me and they were like, Harlow, stop,” the young gymnast said with a laugh.
According to Sawyer, Harlow has been training nearly 19 hours a week the last two years to get ready for the TOPS test. She even came in at 6 A.M. during the school year to train as well. If Harlow does manage to do well in the national skills competition in September, she will get to go to a special gymnastics camp to further train her skills.
“After this test in Indianapolis, depending on how she does, what they do is take the top athletes from that test and they get to go to a special training camp where they work with high level coaches,” said Sawyer.
Will we see the young Harlow on an even bigger gymnastics stage one day, only time will tell.