Ava Verdeflor's Aspirations for Philippine Gymnastics

When gym fans think of artistic gymnastics in Asia- China, Japan and South Korea come to mind. Ava Verdeflor wants to change that.

Verdeflor, 15, is a Filipino-American elite gymnast who trains at WOGA. She was born in the Tarlac province of the Philippines and later moved to the U.S. with her family. The Verdeflors have dual citizenship in the U.S. and the Philippines, which allows her to compete for her birth country.

She first competed as a Philippine gymnast in 2013 at the Philippine National Games, where she won the all-around and was named to the Philippine National Team. Then she began representing the Philippines in international competition in February of this year. Although it has just begun, going elite has always been the plan.

“My parents are both from the Philippines. The idea of me competing for the Philippines has always been there from the beginning,” Verdeflor said. “As I progress more in my gymnastics, the idea became a plan. When I was about 11, my mom contacted the Gymnastics Association of the Philippines (GAP) and we met with the officials during one of our Philippine visits, and that was the start.”

While USA Gymnastics requires gymnasts to go through a detailed process to qualify to the elite level, that’s not the case in the Philippines. “There are actually no tests in the Philippines to be an elite gymnast, so there is no elite gymnast title,” she explained. “There are not enough gymnasts there for elite testing to make sense.  And it’s sad to say that the skill level (in the Philippines) is not that good yet, not even close.”

Although the skill level of Philippine gymnastics is not high enough to contend internationally, Verdeflor says the GAP is "trying to improve their program to be more competitive.”

Photo Credit: Whitney Riney 

One way of increasing their competitiveness is by competing internationally, which Verdeflor has been doing throughout this year, thus bringing attention to gymnastics in the Philippines and their gymnastics programs. She first did this at the 2014 Nadia Comaneci Invitational.

“The first time I competed for the Philippines was also the first time I competed as an elite,” Verdeflor said. “It is so different from competing as Level 10. I enjoyed my first elite experience but it was also stressful because I was not familiar yet to the elite competition format.”

She used the stressful situation as a learning experience to help her in future elite competitions. Two months after the Invitational, Verdeflor competed at the Junior Asian Artistic Gymnastics Championships in April, which qualified her to compete at the recent Youth Olympic Games. “My experience at YOG was amazing. I enjoyed everything about it,” Verdeflor said. “It was really fun to get to know my team, including our Young Ambassador.”

 Her favorite parts included spending time with her team, meeting other Youth Olympians and “competing alongside the best gymnasts in the world in her age division,” and now that she’s competed at the Youth Olympics, Verdeflor has her eyes set on Rio.

“I hope to win medals for the Philippines in the coming competitions, specifically at the Southeast Asian Games in June 2015,” she said. ”I also hope to qualify to Worlds and ultimately, to represent the Philippines in Rio 2016.”

That’s just one of the few ambitious goals she has set for herself. Another one of those goals is to earn a college scholarship. She has already visited a few schools and hopes to make a decision soon. As a WOGA gymnast, which she is proud to be, there’s definitely hope for Verdeflor to get a scholarship like many of her fellow WOGA teammates. But that isn’t even her highest hope.

“I hope that I can make a difference somehow, someday, (to) maybe inspire more Filipino kids to try gymnastics.”

For more information on Ava, be sure to check out her website. (Here)

Written by: Amanda