Melissa vaults into gymnastics
AFTER her glittering state and national level junior athletics career was cut short by recurrent knee injuries at age 14, and a plunge into swimming cruelled at the ripe old age of 18, Melissa Hanson discovered a love of gymnastics after taking her children to WAG and MAG classes in Dubbo.
Not at all content to stay on the sidelines, she literally leapt at the chance to take part in floor, apparatus and fitness competitions and set herself on a path to the 2022 Pan Pacific Masters Games.
“I had never done competitive gymnastics as a child – I only did some basic vaulting and floor in primary school,” Hanson said.
“I always loved the thought of doing gymnastics, but because of the knee issue, I always thought I would never be able to do it because of the twisting and landing movements.
“I moved on to swimming after athletics was ruled out by my orthopaedic surgeon, but when I finished swimming, I never really did any sports or anything active after my children were born.”
Hanson’s Masters gymnastics story started just three years ago with a not-so-subtle dig from her eldest daughter.
“During the times before Covid when you could sit and watch my three kids do gymnastics in Dubbo, I would try to give them advice about how to do something like a forward roll or a cartwheel,” she said.
“My eldest hated that her mum would try to correct her,
and one day she turned to me and said, ‘If you think you’re so good, why don’t you do it?’
“So, I did! I asked the club manager Karen if adults could do gymnastics, and she straight away started an adults class.”
And it was that growing confidence in her own powers that set Hanson on her 2022 Pan Pacs journey.
“I just went, ‘You know what, if my daughter can get up and perform in front of people and be so proud and excited in her improvement, so can I’,” she said