Henry Cooper Cummings says that he never gets nervous during competitions.
“You get in there, you try your best and you hope for it,” says the Scarborough gymnast.
That’s a good attitude for anyone, but especially so when the athlete in question is seven years old.
Henry works out at the Maine Academy of Gymnastics in Westbrook, training three days a week during the school year and four in the summer.
He’s constantly on the move – running and jumping, practicing on one piece of equipment and then bounding over to another. If you turn your head for an instant you’ll miss him.
“When I was little I liked (gymnastics) because I wanted to get strong and it seemed cool doing back flips and front flips and triple backs,” Henry says. “Now it’s really fun because I can do all that and that’s what I wanted to do.”
And he does those things well.
Henry won gold medals in the parallel bars and the still rings in this year’s Maine State Gymnastics Championship in March. He also took home a silver medal for finishing second overall in his level.
“Henry is a spitfire, an incredible athlete,” says Paul Amundson, co-owner of the academy. “He’s focused and very goal oriented. He’s also competitive.”
Henry considers the parallel bars his favorite event.
“It’s fun just to be on it,” he says, “and I’m really good at it.”
Barry Cummings, Henry’s dad, likes what gymnastics teaches his son.
“It’s a foundation for anything they might do – strength, discipline, the consistency of what it requires,” Cummings says. “To stay sharp in this (means practicing) all the time and that translates into life skills.”
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