WORKING FROM HOME NO ISSUE
THE world is continuing to adjust to the new normal of working from home — and rising gymnastics star Chloe Saliaris is no exception.
The 13-year-old has put together her own makeshift gym in her Wandana Heights home as she continues to plug away.
With her usual gym closed because of the COVID-19 pandemic, Saliaris has tried to keep her routine and continues to spend more than 30 hours a week improving her skills.
“I’ve got an air mat to do some tumbling on and I have some other mats for support so I’m not on the ground,” she said.
“I’ve got a good supply of weights for strength.
“I’ve got some floor bars that my dad made for me to keep up my handstand work and turns and I’ve got an exercise bike.
“My brother and sister help me. My sister (Lily) was spotting me in my turns the other day … Jack likes joining in with weights.”
Hard work is nothing new to the young star.
Her main coaches — Peggy Liddick and Mark Carlton — are also keeping in touch through FaceTime to make sure sessions run as normally as possible.
“We’re keeping almost like a normal schedule just so we don’t fall out of routine, but I am doing just a little bit less than I normally would because I don’t have all the apparatuses that I normally use,” Saliaris said. “Three days a week we do seven hours a day because we do two sessions of training and other days we do four hours.
“We do FaceTime for our sessions almost every day.
“It’s a good way to keep up with everything while still seeing your coaches and being able to ask them questions and talk to your teammates.”
The passion for gymnastics was there for the youngster before she first used any bars or beams.
Saliaris describes herself as “always kind of jumpy” and she immediately loved the adrenaline sport when she took it up.
“I did ballet but it was too gentle for me I guess,” she said.
“I wanted to jump more and flip and the place where I was doing ballet also did gymnastics, so my mum put me in just to see if that worked better for me.”
Last month, Saliaris performed strongly in her first international competition at L’international Gymnix in Montreal, Canada.
Her Australian team placed fifth overall in the Junior Cup section, while individually she finished sixth in the floor competition and eighth in her favourite event, the beam.
Having ticked off an international competition, Saliaris’ next goals are to compete at the annual Melbourne World Cup, the Commonwealth Games and at the Paris Olympics in 2024.
Until then she remains focused and driven to keep putting in the hours at home.
“I’m just determined to become the best, so it keeps me motivated to try and be better than I was the other day,” she said. “Other things I want to be good at, but the gym just makes me want to be the best.”