Gray gymnast, 12, rebounds from back injury to represent Louisiana in regional championships

A 12-year-old from Gray is among eight representing Louisiana in a regional gymnastics championship against seven other states.

Brianna Pittman will represent Louisiana in the 2024 USA Gymnastics Region 8 Xcel Regional Championships today through Sunday at the Greenville Convention Center 1 in South Carolina.

Twenty-six athletes advanced from the Louisiana state competition to the regional competition, but Pittman was one of the top eight who get to represent and score points for Louisiana. She will compete in four categories: vault, bars, beam and floor. Points are scored in each category, and those scores are tallied up for her final score.

"I'm excited," she said. "I'm kind of nervous, just a little bit, but it doesn't hit my body until I am at the event."

For the vault, athletes sprint at an object that looks like a cross between a table and a steeple known as a vault. They plant their hands on the table, propelling their feet over their bodies launching into the air as high as they can, and then attempt to land in a certain specified area. They are expected to land with control and are scored accordingly.

The uneven bars event has two bars. Athletes swing from one bar to the other while performing flips and other acrobatic techniques.

The balance beam has athletes performing on a beam about four feet high, 16 feet long and nearly four inches wide. This event is somewhat like an artistic dance, where the athlete performs leaps, handstands, rolls, handsprings and more while maintaining balance on the beam.

"Beam is mentally hard, but physically it's kind of easy," she explained. "We changed my routine up a little bit. Because of my back injury, I couldn't do back walkovers or anything to do with my back."

Pittman injured her back in October in the balance beam event. She was performing a back walkover - which is where the person bends over backward and their body rotates from a handstand back to their feet - when she fractured a bone in her lower back. She said she has recovered since but is avoiding anything too strenuous on her back just to be safe.

The floor event is a set stage for the gymnast to dance and perform acrobatics to music.

Her mother, Tranika Pittman, said she's proud of her daughter and surprised at how she bounced back from the injury to make it this far.

"For a parent, you always want them to strive and do as best as they can," her mother said.

She said her daughter had an extra obstacle to overcome.

"Especially what happened with her back injury, so I'm just really really proud of her," she said. "When she came back from it in that first meet, I was like, 'Wow!' She did everything she had to do to get better, and she's doing really, really, really, well."

This article originally appeared on The Courier: Gray gymnast, 12, rebounds from back injury to represent Louisiana in regional championships