Dinmore performs a balancing act at Navy
Arundel grad pursuing med school while aiding his team
Summers for most midshipmen at the Naval Academy include eight weeks of training and four weeks of well-deserved leave to do as they please.
However, Navy gymnast Ian Dinmore isn’t like most midshipmen. This summer will mark the third time the Arundel graduate will opt out of taking leave, or any type of break for that matter.
Instead, Dinmore will spend his last leave block before his senior year shadowing doctors at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center in Bethesda. He has goals that go beyond graduating from the Naval Academy — namely attending medical school and ultimately becoming a trauma surgeon.
However, before the Odenton resident can even think about those lofty ambitions, he has more pressing matters this weekend: beating Army. Dinmore and the ninth-ranked Navy gymnastics team travel to West Point to face No. 11 Army in a meet that could come down to one or two routines by either team.
If the competition rests on the shoulders of Dinmore, coach Kip Simons likes Navy’s chances.
“The type of gymnastics that Ian does is a coach’s dream,” Simons said. “When he raises his hand, I can always pencil in the exact score. You know what you are going to get.
“When you go into a meet as big as we are this weekend, we need folks like Ian, who are going to go out and get the job done.”
Gymnastics has been a part of Dinmore’s life since he was 4 years old. His mother said it all started by accident when her son was doing cartwheels.
“We had the whole house baby-proofed, but he managed to shift the foam on a piece of furniture and gave himself a Harry Potter scar,” Jennifer Dinsmore said. “It was a deep one that we had to go get taken care of.