Soza Ready To Soar

As the years go by, the pool of rising talent for USA Gymnastics continues to grow. With many of the top elite gymnasts preparing for the 2016 Olympics, there is another group of young girls waiting in the wings for their time to shine. Deanne Soza from Arete is one of those girls, and she has all the qualities to be the next big thing!

Photo Credit: Christy Linder

In 2012, at just ten years old, Deanne started her journey down the elite path with a clean sweep at the US Challenge. She took home the gold in the all-around and on all four events- a feat that is anything but easy! At that point Deanne was well prepared to move into the elite ranks, however in January of 2013 she was faced with an obstacle to overcome- a broken foot. Deanne took four months off in order to recover, leaving her with only two months to train and qualify for elite. (Watch this video of how Deanne kept in shape during her time off.) Despite the short time frame for preparation, Deanne managed to qualify to junior elite at a developmental camp in June. At the age of eleven, Deanne was officially the youngest competitor on the elite stage. As you could imagine, qualifying to elite when you are just eleven years old is a pretty big deal! "The coolest part of being an elite gymnast is having the opportunity to compete among the best gymnasts in the world!" Soza said.

Photo Credit: Gymnastike

In her first elite meet- the American Classic, Deanne finished 1st on beam and 6th all-around. Her score of 53.150 was good enough to qualify her straight to the P&G Championships, but first came the Secret Classic. Despite some mistakes, she finished 15th all-around and 9th on vault! Deanne concluded her first year of elite at the P&G Championships. She didn't have the best meet- she placed 26th all around, but given the fact that she had little time to train coming off her injury, it's fair to say Deanne had a great year!

So far 2014 has been a good year for Soza. At the American Classic she placed 3rd all around, 2nd on vault, and 3rd on floor. Overall it was a very strong performance for her! Then just a few weeks ago at the Secret Classic, Deanne wowed the crowd with some big routines that look much improved from last year. Don't let her size or age fool you, Deanne has quite the repertoire and competes well beyond her years. On vault she now does a very clean yurchenko double, which earned her the bronze at Classics with a score of 14.400. On bars, she has a beautiful toe-on tkatchev, straddle-back with a half twist, and a full twisting double layout dismount. Deanne hits all her handstands and has great form throughout which is impressive for someone so young! Her solid routine at Classics earned her a 14.200 and the silver medal! On beam Deanne shows lots of potential! She has some awesome connections including a switch leap-onodi and a front aerial-front aerial-side-aerial down the length of the beam. Deanne already has a 15.8 start value on this event, so within the next few years she could be one of the best beam workers in the United States. Lastly on floor, Deanne opens with a full-in which looks fantastic and she shows lots of potential for future upgrades. In conclusion, Deanne tied for 3rd all around with Norah Flatley and is using her recent results at both the American and Secret Classic as a confidence boost going into the P&G Championships.



With one week to go until Championships, Soza is working hard in the gym to improve upon her performance at Classics. "I am working on consistency." Soza told us. "I need to work on precision, execution, and to refine my routines." Although Deanne is working on plenty of new tricks in the gym, she doesn't plan on adding any upgrades for Championships. The key is to be clean, consistent, and confident; which Soza will need to be in order to achieve the goals she has set for herself at these Championships. "My goal is to keep improving my scores, especially on beam and floor. I want to remain in the top five places and make the US junior national team!"

Photo Credit: USA Gymnastics

Unfortunately for Deanne, she will miss the cutoff for the 2016 Olympics by nine months, but that hasn't stopped her from dreaming big. "My long term goals are to get international assignments and represent the United States!" Deanne said "I want to compete at Worlds and make the 2020 Olympic team." Deanne has a long list of golden idols that include Jordyn Wieber, Carly Patterson, and Nastia Liukin. She also looks up to fellow competitors Kyla Ross and Simone Biles. "They are all great athletes that I admire. They have shown their love and passion for the sport through their performances." Deanne said. Right now World or Olympic gold is still just a dream, but who knows, someday it just might be reality for Deanne Soza.


Check out some of the awesome skills Deanne was working on last summer. (Click here) We can't wait to hopefully see some of these skills in the future!