An international stage awaits West Fowler.
Not many athletes have the opportunity to compete against the very best their sport has to offer, but for the 13-year old gymnast out of Gulf Breeze, he’s earned that right and will see how he measures up to the rest of the world.
Fowler was selected by USA Gymnastics to represent his country at the 2022 Trampoline and Tumbling World Age Group Championships. The event will take place from Nov. 23-26 from Sofia, Bulgaria and will feature athletes from Great Britain, France, Spain, Portugal, and New Zealand.
“This is an amazing accomplishment,” Fowler said. “I’m so excited that I get to compete with the best in the world. I can’t wait.
“It’s going to be really, really cool. I’m going to have my friends there and I’m going to probably make new friends, either from this country or possibly different countries.”
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As part of the 13-14 age group, Fowler, who turns 14 in September, was selected to compete in double mini trampoline. In the event, a gymnast performs a skill or maneuver following a sprint toward the trampoline and another skill or maneuver on the dismount from the trampoline to a flat surface.
The teenager has also been selected as an alternate for individual trampoline and synchronized trampoline competitions. In individual competition, athletes perform 10 connected, complex skills and are evaluated on execution, height and difficulty. Synchronized competition features two gymnasts on separate trampolines.
“It’s a big deal in our opinion that he’s qualified for this world championship event,” said Blain Fowler, West’s father and coach. “It could be a once-in-a-lifetime, you never know. So you got to take this opportunity when you get it.”
Typically, gymnastics is a young person’s game, but trampolining generally skews towards adult-aged athletes. The discipline is popular in other parts of the world, particularly in eastern European countries.
With West Fowler, he’s already excelling in the event while having plenty of time to get better.
Following a series of strong results in elite-level competition, he sealed his trip to Bulgaria by capturing two titles at the USA Gymnastics Championships late last month in Des Moines, Iowa.
Fowler was eligible to compete in 2019, but USA Gymnastics decided against bringing kids at the 11-12 age group to the World Championships. After the 2020 World Championships were postponed due to COVID-19, West was named an alternate last year, but didn’t compete.
This year, he’ll finally get his shot.
“I was really happy because this is my first time competing for the United States,” West Fowler said of the moment he learned he made the cut. “It’s a really big deal to do that, especially at a young age. Everybody in my family was happy; my mom and dad were really, really happy that I made the U.S. team.”
Fowler has won five national titles in trampoline gymnastics in his career thus far.
While his ability in trampolining and tumbling has presented this opportunity, the teenager is also a high-level performer in artistic gymnastics (uneven bars, floor exercise, vault, parallel bars) as well.
In May, Fowler captured a silver medal on Level 9 vault at USA Gymnastics’ Eastern National Championships in Battle Creek, Mich.. One month earlier, he became the regional champion on floor exercise and vault at the Region 8 Championships in Fort Lauderdale.
In June, he was selected to the National Gymnastics Association’s Premier squad after winning a national title on Level 9 parallel bars and horizontal bar.
Many coaches have asked why West hasn’t specialized in just one discipline. But as the family sees it, they go hand-in-hand.
“He’s been focusing on this as a whole,” Blain Fowler said. “The artistic gymnastics help him with the trampoline and tumbling and the trampoline and tumbling helps with the artistic gymnastics. … We’re going to let him do both for as long as he can.”
West Fowler says he wants to continue in the sport into adulthood.
It's easy to understand why gymnastics will be a part of his future since it's been so prominent in his past.
His older sister, Hallie Fowler, is a NCAA Division I gymnast at Quinnipiac University in Hamden, Conn..
His mom, Alie Fowler, has coached gymnastics for 27 years while Blain Fowler has coached for 15 years. And from an early age, they saw something special in their son.
“It was clear from the minute he was five (years old) that he was good and maybe had potential doing this,” Blain Fowler said. “We knew that these World Championship events were always something he could possibly do.
“A lot of kids have a lot of fear, they don’t do what they are supposed to do and they are afraid of everything. And then you have kids that have no fear and they end up getting in trouble; they might get hurt or end up doing something they weren’t supposed to do and build bad habits. But his fear and his abilities have always matched. And that’s a pretty unique combination when you can do big level skills. He knows what he can do, he’s confident and he’s capable.”
The Fowlers were based just outside of Milwaukee, Wis. before spending a year in Houston, Texas. Alie and Blain were hired to coach at World Champions Centre, the training home of U.S. Olympic legend Simone Biles, before the family left for Gulf Breeze in 2016.
They opened Panhandle Perfection Gymnastics. The main gym is in Gulf Breeze while classes are also held at the Pensacola State College main campus.
Patrick Bernadeau is a sports reporter for the Pensacola News Journal. He can be reached at (850) 503-3828, on Twitter @PatBernadeau or via email at pbernadeau@gannett.com.