Torie Dellinger practices a routine on the uneven bars at Gymnastics Plus in the Boys and Girls Club of Southwestern Oregon on Tuesday. The 16-year-old is ranked as a level 10 gymnast by the United States Gymnastics Association and will be competing at nationals this weekend. World Photo by Alex Powers.

Torie Dellinger’s warm-up routine would probably cause most people serious injury.

The Marshfield High School student, Gymnastics Plus’ first Level 10 gymnast and soon-to-be national competitor does a series of front-flip to back-handstand maneuvers, with a few inhuman-seeming splits thrown in — just to get started in the hot interior of the Boys & Girls Club of Southwestern Oregon on Tuesday.

Torie stands  5 feet, 1⁄4 inches tall, all muscle, and looks like she was born on the high beam, raised on the bars and vault, and took her first steps in the floor routine. In reality, Torie, who qualified for this weekend’s Junior Olympics National Championships in Kissimmee, Fla., with what coach Roy Lans calls the “meet of her life” at regionals, began gymnastics at the age of 8.  

It takes a lot of work to become a Level 10 gymnast — the highest level possible and the only one allowed to compete at nationals. Torie puts in, at a minimum, about 15 hours of practice a week, but with weekend work and extra sessions she says it’s not uncommon to spend 20-25 hours a week with gymnastics. It’s a big sacrifice for a 16-year old to make.  

“I guess I have technically had to give up some things to be where I’m at,” says Torie, breathing hard while taking a break from working on her floor routine. “But it’s not anything I regret. I’m glad I did it.”

On the beam, Torie is intense, occasionally grunting in frustration and hopping right back on after a mistake.

Lans pretty much lets her work.

“She’s very independent,” he says, adding that coaching gymnasts at this level requires one to practice a little bit of letting go. “I mean, you look at the skills they’re learning, and it’s dangerous. For me to sit back here — I have to trust them a lot.”

Torie works on a routine that includes front-flip to back-handstand, full-turn to split jump and switch-leap to pike jump moves. Gymnastics is a do-or-die form of athletics — she’ll only have one shot at this in Florida — so practicing the way she wants to perform is important. Confidence can be critical, and there’s no room for second-guessing. So what does she think about when going through her routine?

“Honestly, I have no idea,” she says. “It’s just “go,” and “stay tight.” There’s so many things to think about, they all just  get jumbled together. When you’re done, you know if you were thinking about the right things.”

Torie’s mom, Barbara, has done her fair share of hand-wringing, however, as her daughter flies through the air, contorts her body and just generally performs dangerous feats.

“You kind of go through steps, so it’s a process. But it’s really been in the last year, since she started doing backs, that it’s gotten more scary,” she says. “There’ve been some instances where I don’t like to watch.”

But Barbara knows that gymnastics is what Torie always has wanted to do, ever since she started performing aerial moves at the pool when she was a swimmer from ages 4 to 8.

“She was always in trouble for doing flips off the blocks,” recalls Barbara. “She kept bugging me to join the (gymnastics) team.”

Eight years after starting gymnastics, Torie is having a breakout year.

At the regional championships, she took third in the beam competition with a score of 8.95. She also finished fourth on the floor with a 9.05 and scored 8.1 on both the bars and the vault. Her all-around score was 34.2. She’ll represent the Northwest region, which consists of six states, in all four events at nationals starting Saturday.

“We weren’t expecting this to happen so soon,” says Lans. “She’s only 16. Gymnastics, as a whole, is going to open up to her now.”

Occasionally, Torie stops, allowing herself to smile and chat with some of her friends who come by to wish her luck at nationals. But mainly she’s all business.

“She’s a perfectionist,” says Barbara.

Confidence will be key for Torie at nationals, where she’ll be surrounded by the best youth gymnasts in the country. It’s taken Torie a while to convince herself that she belongs with the elite.

“I’ve always had a battle with myself, realizing I’m up to the competition,” she says. “I try not to watch the other guys so much. I realize I’m right where they are. They’re probably thinking the same things I am.”