News-Tribune

Dorian Overhaus, an 8-year-old from Ballard, recently won her age division in the All-Around event at the Washington State USA Gymnastics Junior Olympics Championship.

Over 350 gymnasts in the state competed for a spot in the championship event at Sammamish High School. Only 65 qualified and Overhaus finished on top.

She also competed against two friends she trains with at the Cascade Elite Club. When both of them fell off the beam during the meet, Overhaus began thinking she would win.

"Then I thought that I could be state champ in the All-Around," said Overhaus, a student at Viewlands Elementary School.

Now she has a medal and a ribbon to show for her achievement.

Overhaus's mother Kathy noticed a rare agility in her child at an early age. When Dorian was six months old, her mother once climbed a ladder to the attic in their home. To her surprise, her little daughter followed her up the ladder and made it to the top all by herself.

"She was smiling at me, ready to come up," said Kathy Overhaus.

At the age of 2, Overhaus started preschool gymnastics at Seattle Gymnastics. She does not remember much about that experience except that she had a good time.

"I came home and said it was so fun," said Overhaus. "I was so excited and happy to go everyday. We did cartwheels, handstands and forward rolls."

She learned to stretch after watching a Jean-Claude Van Damne film and seeing the action star do exercises.

"She was imitating him," said Kathy. "It was funny. She is a natural, she has been doing it ever since."

Overhaus attended a Seattle Pacific University gymnastics program. She worked with 7 to 9 year olds when she was just 5 years old.

At an early meet, Overhaus received a 10 score on the floor exercise.

"Every once in a while someone gets a score without deductions," said Kathy Overhaus.

After her daughter outgrew the Seattle Pacific University program, she joined the Cascade Elite Club, which produced Brett McClure, a member of the U.S. Men's Olympic team that won a team gold medal in the 1992 games in Barcelona.

"He showed us the medal. It was cool. I got to see the medal and got his autograph too." said Overhaus.

She also has an autographed picture from women's Olympic gold medalist Carly Patterson.

Overhaus trained with Nicki Weiss at Cascade Elite. Weiss is now a sophomore with the University of Washington's gymnastics team.

In January, Overhaus hurt a knee. Then the other knee got sore. A doctor found tendonitis in both knees.

"We slowed her down," said Kathy Overhaus. "We backed off and gave her time to heal. She came back and the vault was one of the stronger events."

Practices at Cascade Elite are four days a week and last four hours per session. She does all four gymnastics events.

"I like the beam," said Dorian Overhaus. "It challenges me and makes me want to be better at it. I'm working on a back hand spring and back walk over."

In the floor exercise, she is working on new routines she describes as "more spicy and more like dancing."

The bars event is still challenging to her. She is improving and is adding new skills to her bars routine.

In the vault, Overhaus says she likes flipping over and went to a University of Washington gymnastics camp to learn how to do a round off back spring.

She is proud of her accomplishments at such a young age.

"I want to go to the Olympics," said Dorian Overhaus. "I wanted to be on television since I was little. Everyone would be rooting for me, that would be cool."