RHYTHMIC gymnastics is not usually grouped with injurious sports like league and AFL but as Bao-Tran Nguyen-Phuoc found, it does come with its share of pain.
``When you throw the apparatus up in the air and go back to catch it, it can hit you in the head. It’s hit me in the mouth, that really, really hurts,’’ she said.
For the 11-year-old from Croydon Park who is the latest nominee for the Inner West Courier Junior Sports Star, the excitement of learning difficult moves, making friends and standing on the winner’s podium is worth it.
Bao-Tran has been perfecting her moves on the mat since the age of four when she took up artistic gymnastics. About five years later she moved to rhythmic and a year on in 2008 she had already won her age division in the Aussie All Stars Championships in Melbourne. This year she came first.
``I really like the competitions but I get butterflies in my stomach and tingling in my cheeks, but it’s good because it keeps me smiling which is one of the things we have to do,’’ she said.
Gymnasts need to bring mountains of personality to the floor and be prepared to spend many afternoons after school practising, Bao-Tran said.
For now, she is busy mastering more advanced moves such as the toe-to-head pivot and getting ready for her first year of high school at Meriden.
``I want to do all sorts of things when I grow up, I will do rhythmic gymnastics until I am too old to do it any more.’’
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