CKW LUXE is proud to announce that Ian Gunther is our honoree for the Fireball Award. This award goes to an exceptional youth athlete. The winner of this award represents the meaning of teamwork, determination, and passion for the sport.

“Visualize your goal; practice your passion; perfect your skill; achieve your dream.”

– Ian Gunther

Ian Gunther is a gymnast and a member of the class of 2018 at Westside High School in Houston. At Westside, where his favorite subject is Science, Ian maintains excellent grades and is a member of the National Honor Society and the Westside Engineering and Geosciences Academy. He also has the distinction of being a four-year recipient of the Academic All-America Award, a student-athlete recognition program.

When Ian was just four and a half, his mother recognized the need to harness his energy and channel it in the right direction, so she signed him up for recreational gymnastics. Ian’s coach at the time quickly recognized his talent for the sport and suggested his parents place Ian in a competitive gymnastics program at a nearby gym. They followed the coach’s advice. Eventually, Ian found his ideal match with Cypress Academy of Gymnastics. Today, he is in level 10 artistic gymnastics at Cypress and the team captain.

Ian’s favorite event is the pommel horse. Watching him perform the event, you can understand why. He completes each move with the athleticism and perfection of someone who is clearly devoted to it. As a matter of fact, he performs all events the same way, which is just what you would expect from an all-round artistic gymnast.

Ian knows the value of hard work and dedicates many hours of every day to his chosen sport. As a reward, he has received numerous national medals and awards and has been on the Junior Olympic Development Team twice. In 2017, he took the gold medal on rings and parallel bars at the Junior Olympic Nationals meet.

Ian also understands that with hard physical work often come trials that must be surmounted. Injuries are a part of any competitive sport and gymnastics is no exception. He has had major knee surgeries, dental injuries,

and many torn muscles. While going through recovery for his injuries, Ian had to forego hardcore workouts, limiting them to upper body only. The result for any gymnast is that the lower body becomes atrophied and the athlete falls behind the competition.

Once fully recovered, Ian had to work twice as hard as he had before to get his body back into the shape it was in prior to the injuries. This didn’t hinder Ian, who accepted the challenge as a true athlete, put in the work, and succeeded.

Ian’s determination both academically and athletically has culminated in his being accepted into the school of his dreams. In the fall of 2018, Ian will be a freshman at Stanford. As the recipient of a gymnastics scholarship, not only will he be a student, he will also be on the Stanford Gymnastics Team.

Devoting one’s life to academics and sports takes a lot of dedication, but there is always room for a little down time. In Ian’s quieter moments, he enjoys playing the guitar.

Ian’s proud parents have believed in him and supported him all the way. They couldn’t have known when they decided to enroll him in gymnastics at the age of four and a half that his love of the sport would inspire him to go on and achieve so much at such a young age.

CKW LUXE would like to congratulate Ian Gunther on being the Fireball Award honoree. As the embodiment of the award, Ian is not only an exceptional athlete, he is also one who understands how important it is to focus on team and individual goals with passion and determination. Ian has set his sights on being part of a world team or an Olympic team. We have no doubt at all he will meet that goal with the same excellence he has with everything that has gone before.