Gulfport Native Tyse Love to represent Team USA in the World Age Group Championship in England

You may be wondering what the Olympic gold medalist Simone Biles and one of our local gymnasts have in common, but they truly share similarities in more ways than one.

Introducing a gymnast representing Team USA from right here in Gulfport, Mississippi, this is Tyse Love’s story.

When Gulfport native Tyes Love was five years old, his mother knew he had a future in gymnastics when he would come home from kindergarten doing back walkovers.

At age six, love began competing in artistic gymnastics, and a few years later switched to trampoline and tumbling, also known as t&t..

“My mom asked me if I wanted to change over to t&t and I was like sure,” said Love. “I didn’t know what it was at that time, but I was like okay sure. Then, we started to do t&t for a little bit and then we realized I was kind of doing good at that, so we were like ‘okay, let’s continue.’”

Little did his mother know he would soon be doing insane flips.

“Five whips, one back handspring, and a double lay, so basically a double layout,” Love said describing a pass. “That’s my favorite because it’s the cleanest pass and it’s very pretty. I love doing it.”

Love makes an elite skill look absolutely effortless, but the real battle for gymnasts is what the sport does to their mental health.

Just like four-time Olympic gold medalist Simone Biles, Love suffered from the twisties, which is a phenomenon among gymnasts when they lose control of their bodies as they are making their twists in the air.

“I did have twisties for a couple months and I couldn’t do any twisting skills at all, but I now have a therapist to talk about things like that,” Love said. “I did have a little bit of a time problem that’s still going on a little bit and it’s a little bit hard to get through, but I’m definitely getting better at it thanks to my therapist.”

The twisties are not the only thing that Biles and Love have in common. The two have both been selected to represent America through gymnastics.

Love was recently selected to Team USA in the World Age Group Championship for the second time in his career.

“I just love everything about this sport and representing my country and hanging out with the environment. The environment in this sport is absolutely amazing,” said Love.

He is one of only three males in the 13 to 14-year-old age division in that was selected for this honor in the entire nation.

In order to qualify, Love participated in three nationwide meets in Dallas, Daytona, and Tulsa…and the top three ranked athletes from the meets advanced to the World Championship.

Love was chosen to represent Team USA for the first time last year in Bulgaria, but he suffered from a broken ankle four months prior to the competition.

Still wanting to compete, Love finished tenth in the entire world, and he still believes he has room to improve this year.

“I will definitely have a lot more training time, so definitely more skills will be added to my passes,” said Love. “I won’t struggle much this year because my ankle won’t be broken six weeks before, but I feel like this meet I’ll do way better because of the lack of injury. Let’s knock on wood so that I don’t get injured again, but yeah that’s how it’s supposed to go this time, so I hope it’s going to stay that way.”

Love and Team USA will be competing against 40 different countries at Worlds in England during the month of November.

If you wish to contribute financially to Tyse’s journey to worlds, you can click the GoFundMe link here. https://gofund.me/aa4a0f0d