Saratoga News

Photograph by Robert Scheer

Amity Hartman of Saratoga is training to compete in platform tumbling.

Saratogan joined circus

But she's back in competition

By CHANTAL LAMERS

Amity Hartman started her career as a gymnast at age 4. At the age of 8, she was receiving calls from coaches all over the nation, asking her to train for the Olympics at their gym. The intense pressure got to Hartman, so she turned in her leotard and joined the circus.

Hartman's mother, Judi, said that her daughter looked at her one day and said she just wanted to be a normal kid. She left West Valley Gymnastics School, where she'd trained for a year.

A freshman at Saratoga High School, 14-year-old Hartman has been a part of Cirque San Jose for nearly two years. High above the crowd on the high wire or the Russian swing, Hartman may be further from the normal teenager than she realizes.

"I really like it because it is performing and not competing," Hartman says. "I'm not trying to beat anyone; it's just performing for people to make them happy."

It was, nevertheless, through the circus that Hartman happily returned to competition.

Hartman met Anatoly Solodar when she joined Cirque San Jose, and when he saw her tumble, he told her she should compete. Not in gymnastics, but in platform tumbling.

"Tumbling is the best for her," says Solodar, who has led many of his students to medals in world championships. "She has the talent," he said, "but she needs a little more practice and hard work."

Platform tumbling and acro-gymnastics were introduced to the world at the closing ceremonies of the 1996 Summer Olympics. The event will be added to future Olympic games.

Platform tumbling is performed on a platform approximately 85 feet long, in three different styles--straight, twisting or a combination.

Hartman competed on May 18 in Sacramento in the California State Championship in Platform Tumbling, where she won a gold medal in her event.

Now, Hartman will compete for the national title in Houston in late July, and she has also qualified as the first alternate for the United States Junior Elite Team competing in the Junior World Championships in Hawai`i.

Compared to gymnastics, Hartman says, she enjoys her new sport because the tricks are harder and it's over faster.

Now, Hartman spends 12 hours a week training in tumbling and 12 hours practicing her trapeze and swing routines for the circus--just half the time she spent each week training as a gymnast.

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