This article was written by guest author Allison Gatlin.
The hands. Tiny and callused, they bear the marks of a high bar’s wrath. From across the gym, in a chalky storm, those hands are blurred by fluorescent light. They glow like a high floating cloud.
It is through this cloud that a boy wields his mastery of the bars, swinging dizzily through the air until he is no more than a dark blur against a white wall.
Toes pointed with a perfectionist’s precision. Arms taut against the smooth metal, fighting the gravity that tugs at his 4’9” frame with each elliptical he makes around the bar.
With the ease of years of practice, he dismounts into the foam pit. He flips, heels over head, and lands, sending spouts of foam and dust into the air. Fearless. Free.
Kyle Hausmann is a talented male gymnast in a world that increasingly celebrates the females in his sport.
An athlete finds his niche
He discovered gymnastics when he was 5 years old . “I was too active,” Kyle says. “I was really, really hyper and very, very, very active, and my mom needed me to do something so it would take all my energy away.”
“It worked,” he adds.
After a year of recreational gymnastics at levels one, two and three, Kyle started competing in level four when he was only 6 — a very young age to start competing. Typically most gyms coach up to level 10, at which time the Olympics become a distinct possibility. Most gymnasts do not begin competition until they’re old enough and mature enough to handle the stress of competition.
Now 13, Kyle works out at Southwest Gymnastics Training Center in Tempe for 16 hours a week during the school year and 20 during the summer.
In his free time, he enjoys just being a kid. Like others his age, he plays computer games, scooters and has a family pet. “My sister has a tortoise,” Kyle says. “His name is Alexander because he’s Greek.”
His favorite meet: “Oh, ribs for sure!” he says. “Wait… you mean in gymnastics? Oh! Hawaii Regional’s in 2007 because I got a whole week off of school and got to miss AIMS!”
Kathi Hausmann, his mother, says he has come a long way from that 5-year-old boy who couldn’t control his natural talent. “He was so crazy and goofy [when he started gymnastics],” Kathi says. “And you would look at him in practice and go, ‘Oh my goodness, I’m wasting my time and money.’ And then he would go to the meets, and he would be like first, second or third.”
He is a level eight gymnast now, training for level nine. Kathi says her son is “focused and working beyond just his natural talent.”
Talent and Titles
He stares ahead, evaluating, calculating. Determined.
Taylor Swift blares on the radio in the background. Chalk glimmers in the air against the fluorescent lights. Coaches shout to other coaches. Boys roughhouse on the sidelines. The ogling eyes of parents penetrate the gym from the viewing room.
Through the din, Kyle focuses.
He stands tall, toes raised, arms reached for the ceiling. He pauses for a moment — muscles tensed — before hurdling forward. Hands and feet alternate, taking turns ferociously slamming the ground with his powerful tumbling. The springs under the floor groan, throwing him higher and higher with each back-handspring.
And then he’s off. Rotating through the air, like a living firecracker.
As quickly as he takes off through the air, he lands. Arms outstretched, steadying. His eyes: focused, determined.
But Kyle knows that determination will not be all he needs to make it as a male gymnast in what is becoming a predominantly women’s sport since the introduction of Title IX in 1972.
What was meant to create equal educational rights for men and women had unforeseen ramifications for men’s collegiate sports teams, oftentimes depleting their funding in favor of women’s.
“It’s hardest on the youngest kids right now to find a college that offer men’s gymnastics scholarships,” says Monique Auger, the men’s gymnastics team manager at Arizona State University.
Only 17 colleges and universities nationwide still fund their men’s gymnastics teams. Others, like ASU, are privately funded through fundraising, a booster club and donations. This means that on top of school, gym and part-time jobs, the men raise 60 percent of their own funding through hosting junior meets and clinics, setting up equipment for local junior competitions, building competition floors for local gyms and scoring junior competitions, Auger says.
She adds that Title IX has not affected ASU women’s gymnastics, which the university still funds.
Kathi Hausmann says she’s not worried about Kyle’s future in the sport.
“Right now he wants to be a policeman, and that doesn’t even involve doing any gymnastics,” she says. “But he also wants to be an architect, and he wants to start his own business. One time he asked me, ‘What should I do first, Mom? Go to the Olympics, be an architect or start my own business? Which one should I do first?’”
Practice Makes Perfect
Photo by Allison Gatlin.
Kyle’s muscles remain tense. It’s become second nature to him: the tight muscles and pointed toes, and as with everything he does, he does it with perfection.
He prepares for this day, like every day at the gym, with stretching. Inch by inch he pulls, twists and rotates his body to find its limits, and then he pushes more.
“My left leg’s not very good,” he says, sliding his leg to a nearly perfect split, mere inches from the ground.
He tightens his muscles as he slowly pushes himself farther into the split, ignoring the protest from his unyielding muscles.
It’s that work ethic again, the same work ethic that both Kyle and his coach believe make for a perfect gymnast in a sport that requires strength of mind over body.
“It’s a tough sport,” says Brock Anstine, Kyle’s coach and Southwest Gymnastics owner. “Gymnastics is one of those sports that require a certain amount of intelligence because as skills become more complicated, you have to be able to think pretty quickly and to figure out how things work.”
“When he gets in, he works hard,” Anstine says. “He’s younger and more advanced. He’s hanging in there with my older guys skill-wise, and he could potentially have a shot at qualifying for Junior Nationals as a level nine in May.”
Right now, though, Kyle is content just to enjoy the sport itself and face the gender wall surrounding gymnastics when the time comes.
His favorite skill: A handstand swing all the way around the high bar (his favorite event). “It’s really fun to go around and around and around and it makes you really dizzy.”
Meet the ASU gymnasts
In a world where women dominate and men fall to the wayside, it’s easy to forget how it all began with the inception of Title IX and the gender wall built which began to block men from gymnastics. Where did it all begin and who is it still affecting? Meet the men ASU gymnastics.
ASU Men's Gymnastics team during the "Stack the Table" event. Courtesy of ASU Men's Gymnastics
- ASU’s men’s gymnastics team was founded in 1955 by head coach Norris Steverson.
- The ASU men lost their funding in 1993 and are now a club.
- In the 2009 school year, the ASU men’s gymnastics team has 20 gymnasts led by head coach Scott Barclay.
- To donate or get involved, sundevilgymnastics.com
Contact the reporter at ajgatlin@asu.edu
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