Despite a horrendous injury, gymnast Caitlin Rooskrantz defies the odds for symbolic Olympic routine
Despite a horrendous injury the promising gymnast was not about to give up on her dreams of competing at the Olympics and other international events
● When Caitlin Rooskrantz’s ankle ligament tore during a floor routine last year, it made a snapping sound audible to others in the hall.
Coach Ilse Roets-Pelser immediately thought their Olympic dream was over; they were 12 weeks away from the world championships, the qualifying event for Tokyo 2020.
And it came barely a year after Rooskrantz had returned to the sport following a serious knee injury, having spent nine months on the sidelines after surgery to repair another damaged ligament.
But Rooskrantz wasn’t about to give up. Eight weeks after tearing the ankle ligament she became the first South African to win a gold medal on the uneven bars at a World Challenge Cup, in Hungary, and four weeks after that she qualified for the Olympics.
Dislocated it a few times before
I expressed myself through gymnastics
Caitlin Rooskrantz
Rising SA gymnastics star
Had the Japan showpiece not been delayed by a year because of the pandemic, she would have competed at the Games today.
Instead, a video of her on the bars — perhaps the most intricate of the four apparatuses in women’s gymnastics — will go online at 10am today on www.nowisthetimetoplan.co.za.
Roets-Pelser remembers the moment her star gymnast injured an ankle during a training camp in Paris, while doing a basic jump on the floor.
“We immediately heard the snap. I thought ‘that was it’. The look on her face of sheer terror, like ‘oh my word, is my dream gone?’ I honestly doubted how are we going to do it.”
Roets-Pelser herself had missed out on the 1996 Olympics in Atlanta. Then two of her gymnasts qualified through Africa for London 2012 and Rio 2016, but the SA Sports Confederation and Olympic Committee (Sascoc) refused to recognise continental qualifiers and didn’t select them.
Rooskrantz changed that trend against the odds.
Her career nearly ended with the injury to her left knee. She had dislocated it a few times before, and required surgery in mid2017 to repair the medial patellofemoral ligament.
Roets-Pelser said the way Rooskrantz came back from that was another illustration of her resilience. “It’s extremely tough to come back from an injury like that and very few gymnasts do.
“Often gymnasts see a coach pushing them as somebody being too hard on them. With her, she’s the one who says to me, ‘come Ilse, we need to do more’. She’s the one pushing me.”
For 18-year-old Rooskrantz, gymnastics has always come easy.
“I was a very busy kid growing up. I could never sit still and my parents told me I was a hazard to myself, between flipping on the couches and on my bed.”
She did monkeynastics at creche and enjoyed other sports at junior school. “Swimming, netball, and I loved athletics, I loved sprinting. I always say if I didn’t go into gymnastics I would have gone into athletics.”
Gymnastics grabbed her heart. “Everything came naturally to me.”
The sport also helped her overcome the unexpected death of her father, Delmé, when she was eight.
“I didn’t really understand what was happening, but at the same time I was getting into gymnastics, so I believe gymnastics really was an aid for me. I expressed myself through gymnastics. That was my way of talking and coping.”
Mom Veda, a qualified nurse, quit her fulltime job and worked part-time to assist Rooskrantz’s blossoming career.
Rooskrantz took a gap year this year to focus on the Olympics, and she will take another one next year.
“It’s hard to set a high goal [for next year]. I want to get there injury-free and then compete at my optimum and have a clean competition, compete without any falls.”
Roets-Pelser, describing Rooskrantz as the best gymnast she’s had in her 20-year coaching career, believes there’s still plenty to come. “I think she will, by 2024 in Paris, be able to do something really special. Not just aim for a final, but maybe aim for a medal.”