Last year, Deborah Shaw of Bryant was the level 5 state champion on beam. Thisyear, as an eight year old, she has won the overall level 6 competition after coming back from a break in her thumb when her brother accidentally fell on it.
The break required surgery and one pin with six weeks in a cast plus two more weeks of recovery before she could return to a full workout schedule.However, in order to compete at the state meet, a certain all-around score must be achieved to qualify.
Deborah had only competed in two meets before she broke her thumb. Fortunately, she had achieved a score high enough to qualify in her first meet. However, the recovery from her surgery left only about two weeks before the state meet.
Out of all the 8 year olds competing in gymnastics in Arkansas, Deborah achieved the highest level placement of all of them, Level 6. So most of her work was done before the State Meet simply by achieving that placement. By the time she got to the State Meet, she had already beaten all of the other 8 year olds in thestate.
Deborah's goal at the state meet was to achieve her highest all-around score of the year. Not only did she achieve that goal, but she scored the third highest all-around score of her whole level 6 team. The only two girls to outscore her on the team were two 12-year-olds.
Deborah won the 8 year old level 6 competition by taking first in all events and the all-around. Her level 6 team took third place. They missed second place by a tenth of a point.
—Stephanie Shaw