Gracefully twisting through the air, Piedmont High School senior Claire Dean grips the gymnastics bar, executing another flip to a series of cheers. One of the first student-athletes in PHS’s class of 2022 to commit, Dean will be attending Stanford to continue her gymnastics career. Stanford requires recruited athletes to apply and get into the school before being offered a spot on the team, Dean said. She received her acceptance letter on June 20th, 2021.
“Aside from [gymnastics], I made sure to look at schools I would want to attend regardless if I was doing gymnastics or not,” Dean said. “Stanford was definitely one of those. It has great academics and highly ranked athletics. It was a very clear choice for me.”
According to USA Gymnastics, Stanford ranks 28th in women’s gymnastics out of all NCAA schools, boasting seven NCAA Super Six appearances (the top six teams in the NCAA tournament), placing third in 2004 and 2008.
“Since seventh grade, my dream has been to [participate in] college gymnastics,” Dean said.
Dean began gymnastics when she was two years old, moving up to gymnastics gyms by three, she said. At that point it was recreational, but by the next year Dean had been moved into development gymnastics, which is the pathway onto the competitive team for her respective gym.
“It was just kind of a way to get my energy out,” Dean said. “Gymnastics is an outlet for my energy, my brainpower. I like the feeling of having that hard work done at the end of every day.”
Dean trains Monday through Saturday for four and a half hours each day, with the exception of Wednesday, which is an optional workout day.
“She is very solution-oriented which enables her to make major or minor adjustments in all situations,” Dean’s Coach Lisa Terry said. “If she sets her mind on something, she achieves it.”
Terry has been Dean’s coach for about a year, ever since Dean began training at East Bay Gymnastics, which is located in Concord.
“I definitely have hard days, I have to go through that grind that any other sport does,” Dean said. “But I love it at the end of the day, and that’s what keeps me coming back.”
Her favorite skills are on the bar, Dean said. One of them is called a Maloney half, which consists of flips and turns on a set of bars. Bars are the hardest events to explain because it is the only event where the gymnast is entirely using their hands, Dean said. When the gymnast is on their feet, their moves can be explained through cartwheels and backflips.
“If you get to the higher levels, you’re doing crazy flips that give you butterflies in your stomach, and that’s what I chase,” Dean said.