Crown Point's Elly Kiran performs her floor routine at the Chesterton Sectional last season.
Gymnastics comes naturally for Crown Point junior Elly Kiran. She’s been competing for as long as she can remember, and Kiran puts in the work.
Kiran’s natural ability shines through on bars where her routines almost look effortless.
“I do like bars,” said Kiran, who finished second in the all around at the state finals the past season for the defending state champion Bulldogs. “It’s the most fun for me to practice. There’s so many different things that you could do.”
Crown Point coach Ami Pysh said Kiran is strong in every event but noted that she absolutely loves bars.
“When she does bars in practice, it’s like she’s a kid on the playground,” Pysh said. “That’s what it reminds me of because she does it with such fervor and joy and she just enjoys it so much. She’s so good, she can talk in the middle of it. She’s a multitasker.”
It’s an ability that is just part of her routine.
“I’ll be doing my giants, and I’ll just have conversations in between them,” Kiran said.
Kiran has competed at the club level since she first started out in gymnastics, and this is her second season as a member of the Bulldogs. She still competing at the club level in addition to the high school team.
“She’s just an absolutely amazing kid and gymnast,” Pysh said. “She really appreciates the high school experience. Coming from club I don’t know what she thought it was going to be like, but I know that, along with doing club, which she does as well, I know that it was a really good experience for her and she made a lot of really good friends.”
Kiran said she puts in approximately 20 hours a week between practicing for her club team, GTC in Valparaiso, and for Crown Point. She makes it work by doing her best to stay healthy.
“I go to physical therapy twice a week,” she said. “I do all my exercises that I was given. When I’m not in my physical therapy, I do everything to make sure that all my joints are staying good. My physical therapists helps me out a lot with everything. If I have a certain problem, they’ll help me out with it that day, give me certain things to do or not to do at practice so that I can stay healthy.”
Kiran was going to compete at a Level 10 for her club team, but she listened to her body and decided to compete at Level 9.
“I have all my Levels 10 routines, all my Level 10 skills,” she said. “But as it came toward starting to compete, my body said that it wasn’t the right thing for me. And I’m just going to stick with Level 9 and see what Level 9 has to hold for this year.”
Pysh said Kiran works hard for her club, but she also gives 100% for Crown Point.
“It taught her a lot about managing her time productively,” she said. “I’m really proud of her.”
Kiran said she’s still getting used to being recognized by fellow students and coaches from other sports about the gymnastic team’s accomplishment of winning the state title.
“It just feels really good knowing what we did last year, and that we have hard work to put in for this season to hopefully do the same,” she said.
Kiran said it’s a goal for the team to get back down to state and for her to get on the podium again.
“Hopefully, it will end up the same if not better, and I’ll put a lot of hard work in the season and get myself there,” she said.
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