FROM PAIN TO PODIUM
Gymnast beats bad injury for gold
Holly Lavigne has done much more than just return to the world of competitive gymnastics after a devastating injury.
The 15-year-old has flourished, winning a gold medal at the recent Eastern Canadian championships in New Brunswick.
“If you want a true underdog story this would be it,” said Karen Clarke, her coach at Winstars Gymnastics Club.
“If I had to use one word to describe her it would be ‘perseverance.’”
In 2013, the then 11-year-old took a bad fall off the uneven bars, breaking both arms at the elbow. There were surgeries, full-length casts and months of physiotherapy.
Not once did Lavigne consider giving up the sport she loved despite the pain it caused her.
“It’s what I had been doing my whole life and I wasn’t ready to stop yet,” she said.
Clarke remembers vividly when Lavigne took to the bars for the first time after the accident.
“That was probably the worst injury I’ve ever seen,” Clarke said. “I probably never would have done (gymnastics) again. We all held our breath when she did that dismount again.”
For Lavigne, she recalls feeling a little scared but also “excited to get back.”
A year later, she was back competing, which earned her a Windsor/Essex Sports Persons of the Year Award for courage and determination.
This season was her most successful to date. She qualified for Eastern Canadians as one of just four girls in her age group for Team Ontario.
“She was the youngest out of 64 athletes,” Clarke said. “This was by far her best season. It’s like everything kind of clicked and she knew she was ready. Her whole demeanour, the way she holds herself, it’s almost like a secret confidence about her.”
As the final competitor to take the beam at Eastern Canadians, Clarke laid it on the line exactly what Lavigne needed to do to win gold.
“She’s definitely the kind of athlete I can put pressure on her. I said, ‘If you want this it’s in your hands,’” Clarke said.
Lavigne responded with a 9.75 score out of 10 from the judges to win.
She excelled at a high level in an extremely competitive sport all the while splitting her focus this spring between gymnastics and high school track and field.
As a Grade 9 student at Brennan, Lavigne won the 400 metres and finished second in the 200 metres at the Windsor & Essex County Secondary School Athletic Association championships.
She had planned to run the 100 metres, as well, but the timing wasn’t quite right. Upon her return from New Brunswick, she literally went from the airport right to the track, but didn’t make it in time for the 100-metre race.
Her season just ended at the provincials as part of Brennan’s midget girls’ 4X100 metre relay team, which finished fifth at the Ontario Federation of School Athletic Associations championships.
As school winds down, her gymnastics training will ramp up over the summer.
“She’s a hard-working little girl,” her mom Kathy said. “But she really enjoys it.”
That was probably the worst injury I’ve ever seen. I probably never would have done (gymnastics) again.