Local gymnast excels in her sport

When most teens are hanging out with friends, doing homework, or watching TV, Lindsey Berger leaves school for five more hours of hard work.

The Sisters eighth-grader is serious about gymnastics.

“She spends more than half of her life upside down,” said her mom, Laura Berger.

From vault to uneven bars, floor exercise and balance beam, Lindsey pushes her body to be stronger, more precise and perfectly timed. She enjoys the long hours in the “hot chalky gym.”

Since she began gymnastics in the third grade, Lindsey has progressed to Level 8, which means she can compete in regional competitions. At last month’s regional championship in Whitefish, Montana, she placed third all-around.

There were about 400 competitors from six Western states.

“I did really well,” said Lindsey — after she got over her nervousness at watching the girls before her compete well.

Berger enjoys the challenge of competition and likes to use new skills as she progresses through the levels in her sport. But it almost ended when she had barely begun.

In elementary school, the little gymnast’s grades began to fall. Some teachers recommended she stop spending hours at the gym.

But her mom decided to pull her out of school in Las Vegas and move to Sisters where she hoped for a better school system.

“It was such a gamble and it worked,” said Laura Berger of the big move to Oregon.

In two months, Lindsey’s grades were moving up.

“She hated school in Las Vegas and loves school here.”

Mom credits both the teachers in Sisters and her daughter’s discipline.

Now Lindsey heads to a gym in Bend every afternoon after school and continues to work out “an incredible amount” during the summer also.

It’s a full schedule for a teenager and keeps her traveling during competition season from December through April to places as close as Portland and as far away as Hawaii. Between all the competitions, she’s keeping her grades up.

“It would be really fun to go to college,” said Berger.

She hopes a gymnastics scholarship will take her there.

Lindsey wrote a poem, titled “Larger Than Life” in which she expresses her great expectations.

“Your fears are conquered more often/ Than friends outside our sport/ Simply no time for holding back/ In a career that’s much too short.”