Lara gymnast ready to vault into senior competition
ONE look at Heath Thorpe’s YouTube channel and it’s not hard to see why the Lara export is tipped for big things in the gymnastics world.
In April, the five-time junior national champion will represent Australia as a senior for the first time at the Pacific Rim Gymnastics Championships in Medellin, Colombia.
Thorpe, who began gymnastics at the Geelong WMCA at age eight, said it was hard to explain how he did his awe-inspiring routines.
“It’s hard to put into words … it involves a lot of muscle memory and a lot of funda- mental work on trampolines to raise your aerial awareness,” he said.
“Gymnastics is as much mental as it is physical, there has to be no self-doubt. A split second can be the difference between sticking a landing or hurting yourself.”
To give himself the best chance at a gymnastics career, Thorpe left his family home in Lara at the age of 16 to attend school in Queensland, which includes gymnastics in its inter-school sport competition.
“The first six months was pretty difficult but it’s what I needed to do to pursue an international career,” he said.
“I feel like my gymnastics has definitely improved.”
Thorpe juggles year 12 with six hours of training every day and after school, and it’s already paying off.
In January, he represented Australia at a junior international competition in Texas and won bronze for the vault. In Colombia Thorpe will compete in the vault, floor, rings and horizontal bar.