An Olympic dream firmly in sight

Combining intense strength with choreographed grace, the truest test of peak physical conditioning comes in the form of Olympic artistic gymnastics. While these young athletes have a few steps to take before that ultimate goal, the pathway to glory is clearly mapped.

Visions Gymnastics will be sending nine of its finest athletes to two competitions in the coming weeks. The Olympic Hopes Cup, widely regarded as preparation for the Olympic qualifiers, will be held from 28 to 30 November in Liberec, Czech Republic. Aiming to bring home gold will be reigning junior national champion Ruan Lange, his young teammate Daniel Mclean and their coach Kevin Basson.

The 2019 AUSC Region 5 Gymnastics Confederation competition will be held between 9 and 13 December at the University of Pretoria. Region 5 comprises all Southern African nations and the two young girls who have earned their South African Federation colours are Alexci Joubert and Sabrina Bietti. In the boys category, Miles de Beer, Hanu Kilian, Ruben Klopper and brothers Frederick and Gethin Davies are the aspiring Olympians taking on their African counterparts.

Promoting gymnastic excellence for two decades, Visions Gymnastics now boasts over 700 enrolled gymnasts. Co-owner and coach, Derick Scholtz, is extremely proud of his athletes. “They work very hard all year round and they fully deserve their chance to compete internationally,” he said. Ruan calculated that he trains for over 20 hours each week. “I train for about four and a half hours a day, five days a week,” he said.

When asked what inspired him to take up gymnastics, Ruan replied, “Well, I started with one goal and that was to do a backflip. It just took off from there.” Hanu’s response to the same question was simply, ”to de-stress”.

Strong bodies and stronger minds are bred at Visions Gymnastics and with their already tireless dedication and commitment they could be crowning an Olympic champion sooner rather than later.