Young rhythmic gymnast to compete in Junior Olympics

Jessica Tijam cannot help but laugh when she recalls the first time she competed in a rhythmic gymnastics competition. She was 7 at the time and it did not go exactly the way she planned it.

“During my ball routine I dropped the ball and it rolled almost right in front of the judge’s table,” said Tijam, who turns 11 on Friday. “I ran to get the ball and almost tripped. I was also ahead of the music in my routine so I redid (that part of the routine) to let the music catch up.”

Many her age would have given up and moved on to the next sport after that. Not Tijam, though. She kept working hard at it.

“I understood it was just my first performance and I could get better,” she said.

Tijam was absolutely right.

Her persistence paid off with a Level-7 (age group 10-14) state championship in April and a Region 1 Championships title in May. The latter qualified her for the USA Gymnastics Junior Olympics, which begins Monday and concludes Tuesday in North Carolina.

“I felt honored to win (the Regional 1 Championships),” said Tijam, who recently completed the fifth grade at Chaparral Elementary in Poway. “I just went out there and tried my best.”

Her best in the regional got her scores of 11.0 in the floor routine, 10.4 in the rope routine, 12.35 in the ball routine and 11.35 in the clubs routine (each out of 14). She won the overall title with 45.1 points and was named the Gymnast of the Year at Level-7.

This is not the first time Tijam will be participating in a high-profile event. Last summer, she was one of just two from San Diego to be selected to the USA Future Stars Team. She was sent to train at the Olympic Training Center in Albany New York for that.

Tijam trains with the San Diego Rhythms four days per week for hours per day with her coaches Sasha Chernenko, Nicole Minevich and Sofia Minevich. Tijam said she has tried other sports, but rhythmic gymnastics is her favorite.

“I like everything about it ... except the conditioning,” she chuckled.

Of the four different routines in rhythmic gymnastics, Tijam says her favorite is the clubs routine.

“It keeps you busy the entire time because you have two things you need to handle,” she said. “It tests your coordination skills.”

Tijam is just as talented outside the gym as she is inside of it. She plays the guitar and the piano and she recently took first place out of 45 schools in a circuitry competition at a Science Field Day event.

But there is nothing that she loves more than rhythmic gymnastics.

“What I love the most is showing other people what I can do,” she said.

With her talent, seems like she is going to be doing that for a long time.