10-year-old Chiara Lopach performing her floor routine at the 2014 Colorado USA Gymnastics Level 5 State Championship. Photo courtesy of Vicki Catenacci.

Chiara Lopach, 10-year-old Stapleton resident and fifth-grader at Polaris at Ebert, recently won the 2014 Colorado USA Gymnastics Level 5 State Championship. One hundred ninety girls from various gyms around the state qualified. Lopach won floor, vault and all-around for her age division.

“Throughout the season I was getting fourth to sixth place so I was doing okay, I was doing just fine, but I wasn’t doing the best. I was so surprised when I won at the championship,” Lopach says.

She trains at the Colorado Gymnastics Institute in Aurora, Colo. Her team won second in state. She is very proud of her teammates who she feels fortunate for.

On top of 15 hours each week practicing gymnastics, Lopach does ballet at the Park Hill Dance Academy. Her dance skills transfer into her gymnastics and help her form and gracefulness, especially in her favorite event—“I love floor. I really love tumbling and feeling powerful when I tumble while also very graceful. I like the way those complement each other,” she says.

Lopach plans to continue gymnastics for a long time and looks forward to making it to level 7 when gymnasts perform their own routine rather than the same as their teammates.