MUTigers.com will sit down with Mizzou gymnastics' incoming freshman this summer. This week we get to know Kelli Martin.
The Facts
Hometown: St. Louis, Mo.
Club: Team Central Gymnastics Academy
High School: Parkway North
What made you choose Missouri?
Kelli: "I chose Mizzou because I love the gym and I love the team. No other gym really compared on my other visits. And I thought I fit pretty well with the team. I just loved it."
You've been on campus for a while now. How is college so far?
Kelli: The schedule was pretty stressful at first but now after a couple weeks it feels like more of a routine. I enjoy it more now."
What is your favorite thing about college life?
Kelli: "My schedule is totally different than at home. At home I would do school for seven hours then practice for five, so here it is different. Having different teammates, a different environment and a new place to work out is fun."
How did you get started with gymnastics?
Kelli: "My older sister is two years older than me. When she was four she started gymnastics. You have to be three to start and I was two so I would beg my mom to go out there. Somehow they got me in when I was two. My sister and I grew up doing gymnastics together until she stopped when she was a freshman."
What is your favorite event?
Kelli: "Even though it probably isn't my best bars is my favorite. I just like doing it."
What is your favorite gymnastics memory to this point?
Katie: "Either my first meet in level 5, the first meet I ever competed, or my state meet. I got first at both of them and didn't really know what it meant but thought it was so cool at I was up there at the top of the podium."
What do you like to do outside the gym?
Kelli: "I like to hang out with my friends a lot and go swimming in the summer. When my sister comes home from school I hang out with her a lot."
If you didn't do gymnastics, what sport would you play?
Kelli: "Soccer. I used to do it until fifth grade but I stopped because I never had time for it with gymnastics."
What is something most people don't know about you?
Kelli: "When I was two I fell off a llama and had to get 26 stitches. We had a petting zoo come to my preschool. I have a scar under my eye, sometimes you can see it, sometimes you can't."