Some would say West Fowler was born for this.
West was in gymnastics class weeks after he was born because his mom, Alie, was running a local gym. He did a back handspring when he was 2 years old, then a double backflip on the trampoline when he was 6.
Even caught the eye of Simone Biles’ youth coach when the family lived in the Houston area for a year before moving to Gulf Breeze when he was 7.
“Her coach, Aimee Boorman, was like ‘He kind of reminds me a lot of her at this age’,” Blain Fowler, West’s father and coach, said. “He’s just chucks his body through whatever and finds his feet.”
West isn’t on the same track as arguably the greatest gymnast ever just yet. But he is making waves in his first year at the senior level.
Just 17 years old, West will be the youngest gymnast representing Team USA at the World Trampoline Gymnastics Championships from Nov. 6-9 in Pamplona, Spain. He’ll compete in the double mini and tumbling events.
“I just learned to grow up with the sport,” West said. “And I’ve been doing it my entire life and I’ve learned to love it.”
Growing up a gymnast
West’s mom competed in gymnastics in high school and all three of her children followed her footsteps. West is the youngest of the three. His oldest sister, Hallie, is currently the head acrobatic and tumbling coach for Manhattan College and was the youngest college coach ever for any sport when hired. His other sister, Bradyn, is a sophomore on the University of Montevallo acrobatics and tumbling team.
When West says he grew up around the gym he means it.
As a newborn, his mom “flipped him” to help simulate some of the skills for the little kid classes. Blain remembers a time when he had to bring his kids to the gym on Christmas to do payroll before a family vacation. While he was working, his son was with his sister doing double back handsprings on the main tumbling pass.
“She’s 11, spotting him,” Blain said. “They’re doing it, this is their fun.”
West picked up skills quickly. How he started focusing on trampoline more than artistic gymnastics was a combination of skill and circumstance.
The sport is more niche compared to artistic gymnastics, so it was easier to move up the ranks. West won a national title in the double mini in Level 9 gymnastics when he was 9 against only “three or four competitors,” his dad said.
West’s big breakthrough came at the 2022 World Age Group Competitions in Sofia, Bulgaria. That year, West was sitting at around third in the U.S. for the 13-14 age group. But he and his dad kept working on what skills he needed to master, and he won the double mini in Bulgaria.
At an age where many gymnasts give up the sport because of the lack of college opportunities, West was taking off. He finished third in the double mini in the 15-16 age group at the 2023 World Age Group Championships and sixth overall in the event at the World Junior Championships.
In 2024, he finished no worse than second in the junior division in double mini, trampoline and tumbling at the three biggest meets in the country: The Winter Classic, The Elite Challenge and the 2024 USA Gymnastics Championships.
At 16, he became the youngest ever to do a triple pike dismount, which is three flips in a pike shape.
In May 2025, West landed the first straight full/half siefert on the double mini. That means he did a double front flip with a 360-degree twist on the first flip and an 180-degree twist on the second flip in the first mount, followed by a pike triple backflip with a 360-degree twist in the first flip.
“It’s kind of like we really shouldn’t be doing this,” Blain said. “He’s a gifted person, he’s an incredibly talented athlete.”
The path to the world championships
West wasn’t sure he’d be heading to worlds this year. He’s just 17, and some of his competitors were in their 30s.
His dad, on the other hand, knew it was always a possibility. He planned his son’s passes, knowing what he could score and what the margin for error would be.
It just came down to performing at the biggest meets. Team USA uses three meets for selection this year, the same meets West excelled at as a junior in 2024, taking the top two scores from preliminary passes and the best score from a finals round.
The plan was to make it on double mini, but tumbling became a possibility after he got third at the Winter Classic. Then at the Elite Challenge, his first pass on the double mini was the highest score of any of his competitors. The 2025 Gymnastics Championships were a little nerve wracking because of some unexpected performances from other competitors, but by the end, West knew he’d done enough.
“I’m going up against adults, so that’s what I was more nervous about,” he said. “I was like am I going to be able to compete with them? After the first couple meets I knew I was able to keep up with them.”
In recent weeks, West has started to get the typical big meet nerves and jitters. His mom has given him some apps to help hone in the mental side. Then for the actual skills, his practices vary depending on what he needs to get done.
The family owns Panhandle Perfection Gymnastics in Gulf Breeze and also uses space in the gym behind Pensacola State College’s Hartsell Arena. The latter is where West practices due to its high ceilings.
Usually he practices from 3:30-8:30 p.m. and does online school in the morning and at night after his workouts. Leading up to worlds, the goal has been to get his body physically ready.
Quality matters more than quantity. In a recent workout, West wasn’t feeling good in his double mini mounts. So he did six more, three of each pass, nailed them and that was it.
“It’s not a team game where we have to get everything perfect,” Blain said. “You don’t have the choreography of the team game. He can do what he needs to do and get everything done and move on.”
West had a send-off in Gulf Breeze on Oct. 25, spending a couple days in New York training with some of his Team USA competitors before departing for training camp in Porto, Portugal.
Blain think he has a good chance to medal in the double mini. Tumbling is a bonus, at least this time.
West’s meteoric rise has him thinking not just about this year but three years from now about the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics, not just for trampoline but artistic gymnastics. A dream is now a legitimate possibility.
He admits he doesn’t have many hobbies outside of the sport. He likes to watch other routines or his own when he’s not practicing, looking for new passes to try or ways to improve. West doesn’t want to limit what he can do. It’s gotten him this far, so why not keep pushing for more?
“Both of them are going to be extremely hard to get in their own respective ways,” he said. “But I’m going to keep trying as hard as I can to keep pushing with what I can do and what I know.”
This article originally appeared on Pensacola News Journal: Meet West Fowler, Team USA’s youngest member at Trampoline World Championships
Reporting by Justin Fitzgerald, Pensacola News Journal / Pensacola News Journal
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
