Diné gymnast from Louisiana places 4th in Nationals

CHINLE

Earlier this month, Caralyn Yazzie from Louisiana placed fourth in her age group at the 2021 NGA National Gymnastics Championships. She is 10 years old but she is already showing promise of being a great gymnast.

Caralyn’s parents are Brian and Vania Yazzie, both of who are U.S. Navy veterans and were in active service when Caralyn was born at the U.S Naval Hospital in Portsmouth, Virginia. The family would move seven times while in the military before settling in Louisiana.

Despite the constant movement, they are still recognized as a part of the Rock Springs community in New Mexico.

They always try to maintain close contact with their friends and family, part of the reason why they settled in Louisiana was so that they could care for Caralyn’s ailing maternal grandfather, who passed away the previous year.

During their constant moves, Caralyn would show bouts of energy so her parents would sign her up for extracurricular activities. She first started taking ballet lessons when she was just 2 years old and did fairly well with the lessons. But then after moving to North Carolina, her parents found a gymnastics gym not far from their home so they sign her to give it a try. Caralyn instantly fell in love with it.

Bill Hardy is the owner and head coach of Acrosport, the gymnast group Caralyn is apart of. Her fellow teammate Mena Lewis came in first at Nationals.

“She made a ton of improvement in her confidence,” Hardy said. “Her gymnastics skills have improved greatly, she always been a hard worker but now she is starting to reap the benefits of her hard work.

“She is pretty quiet, and kind of keeps her head down and works hard, she’s not a real emotional athlete so she doesn’t let a lot of outside things bother her, she keeps plugging away and slowly but surely gets to her destination”

Through the years Caralyn would try other activities like music classes, but she always kept her mind focused on gymnastics.

So far, she has displayed a lot of good qualities in gymnastics and although people would describe her as being reserved, she became known for her dedication and hard work.

“I think it is important to point out that not only does she spend 20 to 25 hours a week in the gym,” Vania said. “She is also a straight A student. I feel like that is not because of us. We are here to support her, but really it is her achievement. She is doing all the extra work and being on top of all of that herself at 10 years old, and I think that is a big accomplishment.”

Despite being far from the Navajo Nation, Caralyn has grown to love her culture and is always eager to learn something new.”

“We try to keep her knowledge of Navajo traditions and Navajo culture alive in the house,” Brian said. “Since me and my wife have been in the military we have been traveling all over, we come up to the reservation on occasion but we try to have a little piece of home with us everywhere we go.

Brian said even though it’s tough being far from home in the Navajo Nation, Caralyn is learning about the Navajo culture, traditions, and the language.

“Everything that has to do with the Navajo culture, she is very interested and we’re trying to keep that knowledge and values close to her, close to the Navajo tradition,” Brian explained. “We try our best to keep her focus on that, keep learning the Navajo tradition as she gets older, the more she is going to learn and keep.”

Caralyn will often wear southwest theme clothing and colors, she has a Navajo Nation seal sticker on her water bottle and she would wear Navajo jewelry whenever she goes out.

She also started doing Navajo beadwork to sell in Louisiana and donate the money to organizations on the Navajo Nation. Whenever asked, she would be eager to share her heritage with friends.

Caralyn has been learning the Navajo language and traditions from her parents, such as the value of her hair, which she has grown long, but wears it in a tight bun at competitions. She would also contact her paternal grandfather on occasion to get more details on certain cultural aspects.

She is the first in her family to become a gymnast and hasn’t met many Native gymnasts, but she has heard and follows their exploits. Such as Shawn Yazzie (no relations) from Arizona who also competed at Nationals, he is apart of the Navajo, Comanche and Sac & Fox tribes.

This past year was a challenge for her and other athletes across the world as they adapt to the coronavirus pandemic. The gym was temporarily closed and many students had to learn on their own for a while.

At home, Caralyn would push furniture around and make as much room as she could so she can practice her routines and stay in shape.

“It [the pandemic] slowed the process down but it wasn’t too bad,” Brian said. “Like everyone else we just had to deal with COVID. She’s still going on strong. She’s not letting anything get in her way, especially COVID.”

Caralyn has competed in many gymnastic competitions since she was 5 and she has been to state four times.

At the 2021 Louisiana Upper State Meet held in March she was ranked as No. 9 in the state. Her biggest achievement to date was traveling to Florida and competing at Nationals with the AcroSports team.

President Jonathan Nez wished her luck on Facebook.

At Nationals she would place in all four events in her skill level; fifth on the bars, fourth on the beam, third in vault, first on the floor and finally being ranked fourth nationally.

“Her winning a national championship on the floor is something that she is proud of and I think it’s such a big accomplishment for a young lady,” Hardy said.

Today Caralyn is continuing to train as she prepares to transition to class 5, the next skill level. Her parents believe that her dedication and performance has inspired her two younger siblings. Her 7-year-old brother James plays lacrosse and recently earned his blue-belt in karate while her 3-year-old sister Julia signed up for gymnastic classes. She is already trying to copy her sister’s performance.

“We are very fortunate to have her apart of our program and helpfully she continues to love the sport and work hard and be able to achieve her goals,” Hardy said.

Caralyn hopes to continue gymnastics for a long time as she enjoys the sport, enjoys being with friends, helping the younger gymnast learn, and overall mastering new skills.

“She’s a great kid and she supports from her friends and her family here and family back in New Mexico and she’s seen support from the Navajo Nation and the shout-out from the [Navajo] president,” Brian said. “She’s become a lot more confident in herself and her ability, she’s an amazing kid and I believe she is going to go far.”

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