FROM MY LIFE | PROMPT: HIGH SCHOOL ADVENTURE

Years Of Pointed Toes And Leotards

Gymnastics was my sport, and I still have a passion for it

We moved to Namibia — back then it was still South West Africa (SWA) and part of South Africa — at the end of 1977. I was about to start my penultimate year in primary school, but since schools in SWA were part of an experiment, I went to high school a year earlier. In South Africa, Standard 5 was still part of primary school, but in SWA it was the first year of highschool.

I was still eleven years old when I went to high school, but turned twelve less than two months later.

Back then, all schools in the South African school system were big on extracurricular activities, whether sports or debate or singing in a choir. At the beginning of each year, athletics were mandatory for everyone. In my second year of high school, I even broke the school’s javelin record.

But this story is not about athletics, something I only did because it was mandatory, and I joined none of the teams.

A late starter to gymnastics

I heard about the school choir, went for auditions, and got in. It took up little of my time, and that suited me just fine.

Until one day, I saw a notice of a gymnast club outside of school. I knew my mom had done gymnastics when she was in school, and I always had the desire to try it. At home, outside on the grass, I was forever standing on my hands, or doing cartwheels.

When I asked my mom, she gave me a choice: choir or gymnastics. It was an easy choice, and soon I was enrolled at the gymnast club.

The trainer was an older German lady — Frau Neumeister. When my mom learned her name, it turned out to have been her gymnastics teacher back in her school days. Her daughter was a record-breaking swimmer back in those days.

I was quite a late starter to gymnastics, but poured myself into the training from the beginning. We had to learn specific routines to advance through the different stages of the South African Amateur Gymnastics Union. Those phases were simply called iron, bronze, silver, gold and platinum.

My first year was all about training, and in my second, Frau Neumeister put me up for the iron competition. I was so proud when I could display the first fabric badge on my bright green leotard. The next year I went up for bronze, and could add the second badge.

Then, at the end of that year, we moved back to South Africa.

My best year in gymnastics

The one thing I loved about the new school — I turned fifteen that year (1982) and was in Standard 8 — was that it had its own gymnastics team. Of course I joined them!

Our trainer was also the PT teacher at the school, and after school, during training, her husband joined. Those two were fabulous and coached me through one of my best years in gymnastic.

I made it to the school team, and in regionals, members of the school teams in the region competed against each other. Depending on your results, you made it through to the provincial competition.

It was at the provincial competition that I won a bronze medal on the uneven bars, which was my favorite element, next to the floor exercise. Because of my result at provincials, I was one of three girls who went to the national competition in Pretoria. My mom and I took the night train there, which was an amazing adventure, but a story for another time.

To say 1982 was a good year would be an understatement. I did extremely well in sports, and my academic achievements were also above par.

During summer holidays there was no training, and when we returned to school at the beginning of 1983, I seemed to have lost all ability to be a gymnast. Or a student. Everything seemed to fail, and then I fell pregnant.

Two more gymnastic years

Essentially, those were not high school years anymore, even though they should’ve been, seeing my age.

While pregnant, and on either side of the birth of my daughter, I studied for my final school exams, a year ahead of the classmates I left behind. At the beginning of 1984 — I was about to turn 17 — I went to uni, studying to become a PT teacher.

I joined the university gymnastics team and trained in the gymnastics hall in every spare hour I had. After all, when the day at uni was over, I had to get my daughter from the creche and be a mom, only to be a student again the next day.

I made it through to regionals and provincials again, not only in my first year but also in the second. In my second year, I also did a course to become a gymnastics trainer.

Early in my second year, I injured my wrists during a competition. They constantly hurt, and the doctor gave me an ointment to ease the pain. Then I did something stupid, even though the doctor had warned me about it. I took part in a competition and applied the ointment. I injured my wrists again, and with the next obligatory physical medical exam for my study, they found me not fit enough to continue. There was just no way I could do the seven sports I had to do to become a sports teacher.

Gymnastics now against gymnastics then

That was the end of my gymnastics adventure, but not the end of my passion for the sport.

During the Olympics, I’m glued to the television, relishing in the beauty of the sport, and always amazed how it has developed over the years. When I was a gymnast, I was good, but doing somersaults while on the uneven beam? No way! Letting go of a bar and flying to catch the other when doing a routine on the uneven bars? No way. We had to hold on to at least one bar, or be disqualified.

Something else that has changed is the rating system to get to the final points for an exercise. Back then, they did not award us points for the difficulty of the exercise, only for the overall execution.

Something that saddens me deeply are the stories about abuse in the current gymnastics world. At least that’s something I never had to deal with. Back then there was no fear-culture — it was all about the sport.

Good memories

At least I can look back at a wonderful time doing gymnastics, and especially at that one year in high school! I am still in contact with my teacher back then, and recently she visited our school, and sent me a picture: my name is still engraved in golden letters in the assembly hall for making the team to go to nationals in 1982!

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