Ever since he was four, Joaquin Martinez ‘27 has participated in the sport of gymnastics. Martinez was put into the sport by his mother and never looked back because he was showing signs of being something special.

“My Mom inspired me through her battles with cancer,” said Martinez, who still competes to make her proud. 

As a male, Martinez feels the sport is “very underrepresented due to little NCAA teams.” Currently there are only 15 collegiate teams that offer male gymnastics programs, and only 12 of them are Division 1. 

Nevertheless, Martinez hopes to attend University of Michigan after participating in camps there for the past three years, loving the city of Ann Arbor and the school’s facilities. He also says that the coaching staff shows fond interest in him and that it would be a dream to go there. 

Martinez trains “five hours a day, six days a week.” These training sessions entail lots of conditioning and he tries to hit all six events and improve his skills in them. The six events in Men’s Gymnastics are floor exercise, pommel horse, still rings, vault, parallel bars, and horizontal bars. Martinez also said that his nightly recovery is quite intense. After practice is over he immediately eats protein and rests his legs with ice and sleep.

Martinez’s biggest inspiration as a male gymnast is Michigan Wolverine alumnus Paul Juda, who made the USA Men’s Gymnastics Olympic team after not qualifying for the role twice. 

Men’s gymnastics competitions bring these athletes in from all over the nation and are in states such as Tennessee, with Nationals based in Salt Lake City, Utah. His mindset going into each competition is just not to fall. Martinez was ranked tenth in his region last year and is hungry to climb the ranks as he gets older.