Lee's Summit is home to a group of extreme athletes, including one who's about to head to the Junior Olympic National Championship.
Her name is 19-year-old Kristen Tock, and she's been a junior elite trampoline athlete since she was 11. Her gym is at Xtreme Gynastics and Trampoline in Lee's Summit.
"It takes a lot of time and dedication," said Kristen. "You have to really love the sport. It's a lot of commitment to the gym and just really wanting to do it."
Next weekend she's hoping the 18 hours a week she puts into practice pays off when she and her teamates head to the USA Junior Olympic National Championships in San Antonio next weekend.
"You're going to see all the routines that we've trained all year for," said Kristen, who can reach heights of 20-25 feet in the air on the trampoline. "This meet is to get us in the mindset of competition. We have a big meet next week and we want to get into that mindset of 'this is competition, we gotta get ready for this.' And perform at our very best."
But before the big competition, the team will practice this weekend during their x-meet which will benefit local charity Coldwater No Hungry Kids, a summer food program. All money that would have gone towards meet fees will instead go to Coldwater.
"Our community supports us quite a bit," said coach, Carl Neidholdt. "We have athletes that travel all over. We have athletes that go to the world championships, stuff like that, but I really want these kids to give back to the community also."
It's also a chance for them to run through their routine before the big day. If that goes well, the team gets a chance at the world championship in Russia.
"I'm pretty excited for it," said nathan Donnelly, 17, also a junior elite xtreme trampoline athlete. "We have ten days left so I'm kind of getting nervous."
After all, a medal, a trophy and some serious bragging rights are at stake.
The X-Meet is this Saturday, July 2 from 8 a.m. to noon. More details are on the group's Facebook page.
