True to her dreams, Olympian gymnast Caitlin Rooskrantz is blazing a trail for young athletes of colour to go for gold in the sport. Here, she reflects on her journey, highlights and how she’s looking forward to her second appearance at the Summer Olympics in Paris this year.
When Caitlin started gymnastics training at the age of six, there weren’t many gymnasts who looked like her. In fact, gymnastics wasn’t a stand-out sport that South Africans collectively rallied behind, like they did soccer or rugby. Per Wikipedia, South African female artistic gymnasts have participated in only three editions of the Summer Olympics. And now we have a game-changer in our midst heading to her second Summer Olympic Games in Paris. Added to that, Caitlin and her colleague Naveen Daries are the first South African gymnasts of colour to represent the country at the Olympics. How did that wild turnaround happen? Nothing short of blood, sweat and tears, muses Caitlin.
The road to success…
Looks different for every athlete. For Caitlin Rooskrantz, who joined gymnastics at the behest of her parents who didn’t know what to do with their ever-tumbling and cartwheeling daughter, it was a slow burn toward the road to the world stage. Her parents weren’t aware gymnastics was an option and stumbled upon it as a viable activity for Caitlin. From there, she fell in love and by the age of ten, had started nurturing an audacious dream: to represent South Africa at the Olympic Games. “I loved the feeling that I had when I did gymnastics and liked the challenge,” she shares. “By the ages 10, 11 and 12, I already had an Olympic dream in mind and that’s what kept me going.”
“You will reap the rewards of what you sow and you will see the fruit of your hard work in due time.” Caitlin Rooskrantz
Falling for it
Her journey came with its fair share of tumbles. One that really shaped her outlook? Entering the elite gymnastics level at the age of 17 with the Olympics firmly in her sights…only to succumb to injury. “I went through a really good year in 2016, winning my Junior National title and I was on a high,” she explains. But a niggling knee turned into a dream-dashing surgery that kept Caitlin from pursuing gymnastic competitions for around nine long months.
She ended up missing the 2018 Commonwealth Games due to her injury and had to work even harder to make a good comeback. “It was one of the hardest moments that I had to work through in my career because I had just started at the senior Olympic level. At the time, I believed I was at a crucial point in my career, and it was a very big disappointment especially because I had already qualified [for the Commonwealth Games],” she recalls. “But, I used it as motivation to fuel me to keep going. I knew the 2020 Olympic Games were coming up and it was also a massive goal. I thought to myself, ‘If anything, I’m going to give everything to get to that.’”
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Sticking the landing
And get there she did, making an impressive comeback in 2019 at the FIG Challenge World Cup. “I was quite a fresh senior and I won a gold medal on the uneven bars, the first woman in South Africa to have done that,” she says. From there, she bagged her qualification for the 2020 Olympic Games and competed at her dream event. “I ended up with a personal best, which was a very special moment for me because it took me years to get there and I wasn’t even sure if I’d be able to get to the Olympic Games. I’d never seen anyone do it before and there I was at my first Olympic Games with a personal best score,” she says.
What got her there? Unwavering faith. Her sports philosophy embodies this: “You will reap the rewards of what you sow and you will see the fruit of your hard work in due time,” she says. “You might not see your results instantly, but gym taught me that it doesn’t always work that way. You need to trust and have faith that your time will come.”
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Looking ahead: Olympics 2024
Now, Caitlin is not only excited for her next appearance at the 2024 Paris Olympics but for all the competitions along the way that will get her ready for it. “I’m a lot older now, a lot more experienced and excited to take it on,” she says. “I think there are a lot of positives to take out of these games, and I’m really looking forward to not only the Olympics but the journey to get there.” Onwards and upwards!
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