The life of a gymnast is one of physical and mental toughness, sacrifice and as her dad puts it, many many hours in the gym.

Kingston senior Delaney Mead was one of several kids introduced to that life at just 3 years old, originally to concentrate her endless energy into something productive. “Once you start at a young age, you just keep going,” she said. “You have so many skills to learn and the basics of the skills form-wise to be able to perfect everything.”

The Level 10 gymnast will, in fact, keep going onto her newest venture with the University of Arizona. The Wildcat commit inked her intent to join that gymnastics team at a signing ceremony at Kingston High School Nov. 13.

Her journey to achieve perfection in her skills hasn’t come without difficulties, and even when she reached Level 10 in 2020, the effects of COVID kept the best of her talents boxed in. Conditioning would be done over Zoom calls, and she kept her skills around and alive on her home trampoline and air track.

“I really couldn’t do anything major like I’d normally do in the gym,” she said.

Yet as any athlete would hope to do in the uncertainty of the pandemic, she moved forward with the help of coaches Ian Campbell, Krystal van Buuren, and James Thompson across 11 years of training at Cascade Elite West in Silverdale. This year she moved on to Cascade Elite Gymnastics in Mountlake Terrace.

She went to nationals in 2022 and 2023, finishing third on bars, sixth on floor, and ninth in the all-around in her most recent appearance.

Then came another obstacle: a partial tear to the medial tendon in her left ankle just two days before state this year, which led to a months-long recovery period and some uncertainties about her competitive future. Though it took longer than she’d like, she said her health is back where it should be.