Freshman Chelsea Robie stands under the low bar poised to complete her bar routine. She appears to be completely focused and blocks everything else out, trying to prepare for the difficult 45 seconds ahead of her. Around her the gymnastics team screams her name and cheers her on to what they hope will be victory.

“In [United States of America Gymnastics] you’re almost out for yourself; there is no team feeling,” Robie said. “I know now that college gymnastics is about having fun and trying to do well for the team.”

USAG is the program that runs all, elite-level gymnastics competition in the United States.

Robie went to an extremely small high school that didn’t have a gymnastics team. She went to a local competitive gymnastics academy in Florida and trained about 20 hours a week for an entire year. After a while, the tedious and stressful environment put a damper on her mood and love for the sport.

But now in a team environment, she can’t wait to go to practice and improve her tricks. She said she enjoys working on new skills to put into her routines to gain the team a high score, especially a jaeger, which is a front flip release move on the uneven bars. Proving that gymnastics really is her passion, Robie said the only negative about college practices is that they’re too short and she always wants more time to work.

“Being a freshman, Chelsea is learning what it’s like to be part of our team,” sophomore Lauren Moroch said. “She is a very caring person and puts in great effort to be a good team member. She is also eager to be prepared. In practice, she trains hard. She plays an important role in our bar lineup.”

Robie precedes sophomore Jessica Bolduc, the anchor in the lineup. It’s a hard spot to attain as a freshman and requires a great amount of difficulty in her routine.

Starting at age 5, Robie fell in love with gymnastics because of the challenge. She said she knew gymnastics was more than just a childhood recreation activity when she watched Kerri Strug in the 1996 Olympics stick her infamous vault on one leg and went on to win the gold medal.

Robie said it’s not your average sport and she delights in the fact that people get excited when she says she can do a back flip. At times the sport has been hard because she isn’t able to master a skill, but she continues to try.

“She works hard every day in practice and never gives up,” freshman Katie Sampson, Robie’s roommate, said. “Even when she has a bad turn she gets back up and tries again. Chelsea is an awesome gymnast and friend.”

Robie is a more dedicated gymnast than most and will stay on an event until she successfully completes her goal for that day.

Though they have only lived together for a short time, Sampson said Robie is encouraging, but also a fun person who she can goof around with outside of the gym.

Though gymnastics is a big part of her life, Robie said she still has time to be a college freshman. She picked Ithaca because of the campus size and overall feel, but the number of people, wind and snow is a big change from her graduating class of seven people in Florida.

Robie recently declared her major in integrated marketing communications and said she looks forward to her career as a student athlete.

“I want to broaden my horizons,” she said. “I went to such a small high school that I want to get to know more people, try new classes and just get experiences that I can build on.”