Iowa’s Greta Krob ready to compete in junior elite gymnastics U.S. championships

CORALVILLE, Iowa (KCRG) – When dozens of the top gymnasts in the U.S. arrive in Fort Worth, Texas for the U.S. championships, among the future and current Olympians will be 13-year-old Greta Krob.

Krob, who trains at Iowa Gym-Nest in Coralville, will be among 14 junior elite women, the top U.S. gymnasts under the age of 16.

“She has really big goals and she’ll do pretty much whatever it takes to get to them,” said one of her coaches, Erika Briscoe.

“I’m hoping to make the national team one day, and compete at the Division I level,” said Krob. “My goals (for the competition) are to be confident and then just hit my routines like I do in practice, and not get overwhelmed.”

Krob started gymnastics for fun, but her talent and drive took her to competitions at age seven.

“(At) two years old I joined a mommy and me class. I was a little bit wild so I needed something to get my energy out,” Krob said.

“She was taking off through the levels,” said Briscoe. “Most kids will do one level a year or maybe two years at a level, she was skipping through some of the levels, and it was coming pretty easy to her.”

Briscoe says Krob is talented and hard-working, but she also has maturity far beyond her years.

“She comes in, she gets here on time, she gets done whatever we ask of her,” Briscoe said. “She isn’t willing to give up easily even when we’re like ‘it’s ok if don’t get this skill this year, it’s ok if we don’t do this level this year,’ she’s like ‘no I’m gonna do it, don’t doubt me, I can do all of this.”

In last year’s Hopes classic – for ages 10 to 12 – she won the all around competition, scoring highest in the uneven bars and balance beam.

“I think she’s really good on bars and beam cause she’s able to stay calm under pressure,” Briscoe said.

In a competition, like the one coming up in Forth Worth, Krob says all those early mornings and tough practices lead to the landing.

“It is just a big sigh of relief knowing that all my hard work really paid off.”

Next Friday competition can be streamed on the USA Gymnastics YouTube channel.

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