Julia competed all 6 men’s apparatus (VIDEO) at the 2014 Nationals for the National Association of Intercollegiate Gymnastics Clubs.
She qualified for all-around finals and placed 10th on high bar. 🙂
Julia, who trains at MIT Gymnastics Club, sends some clarification:
Thanks for all the support everyone! To answer a few of the questions that have not been answered:
– I’ve been training MAG for 2 years now, but I did WAG for over 20 years before that.
– I started MAG for several reasons:
~ The MIT men’s program was down to two athletes, and I wanted to try to contribute and help build the program back up before it disappeared. It’s really upsetting watching the death spiral of men’s NCAA gymnastics and feeling like there’s nothing I can do.
~ The women’s scoring system doesn’t reward you for doing harder tricks. Why learn a handspring layout on vault when you score better with a handspring tuck that also starts at a 10 (in NAIGC/level 9 rules). It was hard for me to be motivated to train new tricks just to perform worse (read: I like to win). In MAG, I get rewarded for doing harder gymnastics.
~ I wanted to learn new things! I could maybe learn one new skill per event each year at the level I was at in WAG. In MAG, I learn new skills all the time!
~ As a female engineer, I spend all day trying to prove that I’m just as good at my job as my male counterparts. I don’t want other women to feel like there’s anything they can’t do just because of their gender. I think a lot of women are held back just because they don’t believe they are capable. Here’s me trying to prove that they are capable of anything!
related – Julia Sharpe – Men’s Gymnastics on Facebook
Gymnastics Coaching.com 