Sophomore Gymnast Hops Back After Recovery
Sophomore Kian Miremadi maintains a handstand during his swing on parallel bars. The drill combines aspects of strength and balance, requiring the gymnast to have upper-body control.
At age 7, sophomore Kian Miremadi received a suggestion from a stranger to take gymnastics lessons after a rock-climbing session at Seaworld. A coincidental occurrence soon sent Miremadi on his gymnastics journey, and eight years later, Miremadi spends 21 hours a week training at the Yorba Linda Gymnastics Academy.
Though Miremadi has avoided permanent injuries throughout his career, in late 2018, he was not able to spare himself from Sever’s, a condition in which repetitive stress to the heel causes swelling in the foot.
“When [my heel] first started hurting, I didn’t know what it was, and I thought I overextended a muscle, so I didn’t think of it as anything bad,” Miremadi said. “But it kept on hurting for two months, four months, and [the doctor] said that I got Sever’s. There’s no cure so you have to wait about a year, so for those two seasons I couldn’t do floor or vault, which puts the most pressure on the foot.”
In order to fully eliminate the risk for additional injuries, Miremadi was not able to compete for two seasons due to how competitions required him to be evaluated in all six events, including floor and vault.
The two-year recovery phase limited his growth in those events and impacted Miremadi’s career greatly. However, rather than being discouraged, Miremadi used his injury to propel himself toward improving other abilities.
“During those two years, I really worked on all the other four events,” Miremadi said. “I think it strengthened my ability to do other events, so in the end I think it was kinda good for me.”
With his conditions progressing positively, Miremadi hopes to compete at the 2021 nationals as a junior, following his 2018 nationals debut. He especially is hopeful for this opportunity because during his 2018 nationals debut, he dislocated his knee from warm ups and was not able to perform.
Rather than becoming an Olympic gymnast, Miremadi plans on majoring in biomedics in college. However, he says he would want to be able to continue his career in gymnastics for as long as possible, as the sport gives him relief. To him, gymnastics is more than just a sport excels at.
“Gymnastics affects me by making me active and healthy,” Miremadi said. “My favorite part of gymnastics is the people in my team and the exercise I get from it. Gymnastics is my favorite sport, and I really love spending time with my team and improving in the sport that I love.”
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