Gymnast Jennifer Fishman

By Gary Curreri

Jennifer Fishman spends 30 hours a week in the gym to do four total minutes of routines.

The 18-year-old Lighthouse Point girl is used to it. She has been a gymnast since she was 3 and is a Level 10 gymnast at American Twisters Gymnastics in Coconut Creek.

She hopes to bring home a state title when she competes in the 2011 Florida USAG Level 8, 9 and 10 State Championships in Lakeland at Florida Southern University next week.

Fishman prepped for the meet as she placed 12th in the vault (8.750), seventh in the bars (8.500), eighth in both the beam (8.875) and floor (8.875) en route to a seventh place finish in the all-around (34.725) at the Tim Rand Memorial Invitational, Coral Springs Gymnasium, recently.

More than 900 gymnasts from around the country competed in the meet.

“It’s been hard,” said Fish-man, a St. Thomas Aquinas
senior. “It has been physically tough and mentally tough. You get close to people and then they leave or quit the sport. Sometimes, it is hard to make new friends.

“I did have those feelings about quitting, but once you start getting better and see the potential you say, ‘this is why I am in the sport and why I enjoy doing this.’” Fishman added, “I was just doing the sport when I was younger and I wasn’t really thinking of going to the Olympics. I still enjoy it now and I am glad I stuck it out.”

Fishman said she enjoys the competition.

“It is kind of frustrating because you can knock out a million and one routines in the gym that are perfect and then you come here because you are a little nervous, you don’t do your best,” Fishman said. “It is really aggravating, but you just think, ‘can’t wait until Monday.’ It is rewarding when you do well.”