On a Wednesday evening, the Johannesburg Gymnastics Centre in Newlands, Johannesburg, is a hive of activity. Girls and boys of all ages are running around, doing backflips and swinging from various pieces of equipment around the room. Near the entrance of the gymnasium are three raised wooden beams; poised on the middle beam is Parktown gymnast Caitlin Rooskrantz.
For two hours, from 5.30pm to 7.30pm, Rooskrantz engages in a “light training session”, according to her coach. This involves practicing her routines for all four apparatus of artistic gymnastics: beam, floor, vault and, her specialty, uneven bars. The session is relentless, with Rooskrantz moving at lightning speed, flipping and spinning her body seamlessly in mid-air.
There she competed in the Federation of International Gymnastics World Challenge Cup, where she made history by becoming the first South African to secure a gold medal in a top-level tournament. Rooskrantz reckons she’s probably injured every single part of her body, including a serious knee injury in 2017 which took her out of competition and training for many months. However, after the setback, she returned with renewed energy and focus.I was out for the whole of 2017. That was really hard for me because the year before, 2016, I was national champion and I had a really good year and in 2017 I had to be out, you know, I couldn’t build a CV, I couldn’t participate in anything.
On the prospect of being in Team South African at the Tokyo 2020 Olympics, Rooskrant says: “We all know that’s the big dream, that’s the end goal, to be at the Olympics one day. It’s so far-fetched, it’s like, only the Americans go there. But getting to the stage now where it becomes realistic, being this close to it, it feels like you can almost touch it. That motivates me and pushes me more.”
Gymnast Caitlin Rooskrantz practices her beam routine at the Johannesburg Gymnastics Centre on 11 September 2019. Photo: Aisha Abdool Karim