When Sean Hollinshead, 11, isn’t at KT’s All-Star Gym, he can be seen walking around his house on his hands.
“He just learned how to run up a wall and then do a back flip,” said John Hollinshead, Sean’s father. “He flips whenever he can.”
Sean is in his first season of gymnastics, but he’s been quite the remarkable rookie. During the first weekend of March, he competed in the Peter Vidmar Invitational, where he won the vault competition for his age and level (he competes at a level 5).
That was only the third meet of the season. At the other two meets, he placed third in vault.
John said because gymnastics is a small sport, there are many situations where starting gymnasts will come into contact with experienced Olympians. In fact, Sean has already seen Olympians at two of the three meets in which he’s competed; and he may just run into another Olympian when he attends a camp in Tennessee in the summer.
Within the Hollinshead house, everyone is an athlete. However, John is hoping Sean will be that one-track athlete he’s been hoping for.
“He likes to be upside down, so he’ll be a natural for the pole vault,” he said.
This article appears in Mar 10-17, 2011.
