“Survivor” is the description that Peggy Liddick, the head coach of Australian women’s gymnastics used to describe Mary-Anne Monckton
Monckton, a 20-year-old Australian gymnast, is a member of Australian women’s team for the 2015 World Championships in Glasgow. She came back from a severe ankle injury after undergoing a left ankle reconstruction surgery last November, following the devastating selection disappointment in the 2012 Summer Olympics, where she was selected as one of the two travelling athletes.
The persistence of the young athlete caught the attention of the women’s national head coach.
“Mary-Anne was never really a superstar in her junior career, but she just has staying power,” Liddick said. “She’d get some injury that took her out for six months, and then she’d pop back up and would win something, and then she’d get another injury, she’d disappear, and then pop back up. So it was just her refusing to give up that really caught my eye, and then I thought ‘you know, she’s actually got some good gymnastics’.”
Her gymnastics skills are competitive enough to finish with a silver medal in the balance beam and team event at the 2014 Commonwealth Games, and to take part at the 2014 World Championships in China regardless of her ankle injury that undermined her training and performance for the year 2014. Also, good enough to be the most experienced Victorian artistic gymnast who will compete for the upcoming World Championships in Glasgow next week, October 23.
"People always see the end result, and that's only about five minutes of performance. A lot of hard work goes into it, so I'm just really excited that hanging in there after last year is really starting to pay off now," said Monckton, a 20-year-old gymnast who started gymnastics at the age of five, whose family moved to Canberra at the age of seven and to Melbourne, at the age of 15, and currently attends her tertiary studies and part-time work while training for more than 30 hours a week simultaneously.
"I knew that I could come back, but it was just to which kind of level was uncertain. But I just kept pushing and I was really determined to get back to the level that I was at last year's world or even better, and this year I've had a much better preparation and I'm feeling in great shape physically and mentally, so I'm really excited for the next couple of weeks."
As of now, her ultimate goal is to claim an Olympic berth by being a part of the top eight teams in the upcoming world championships, which would guarantee an Olympic team slot for next year’s Rio Olympics. On the other hand, her personal goal is to make it to the apparatus finals, and if by any chance, win a medal. Beam remains to be her best apparatus event, in which she has a top-10-quality routine and an elite 6.4 start value. On such an unstable and terrifying apparatus, she can do anything as long as she remains calm during the execution of the routine.
"A lot of other girls find it quite scary," Monckton admits. "I mean, it's one-and-a-half metres in the air and it's 10 centimetres wide, so it's as wide as your iPhone.”
"When I was younger, I just would do skills on the floor and then my coach would say 'go to the beam' and I didn't really have much fear, and it's always been like that with me. There's some things that I get a little bit scared or anxious about, but when I go for it I just have this exhilaration that I can't find anywhere else. I just love being able to do flips up there; it's really fun."
However, her coaches, Peggy Liddick and Tracey Penaluna, a senior coach at the VIS, must sometimes protect perfectionist Monckton against her own self. Not physically, as her dedication and diligence guarantees that she’s never idle in the gym. The adjustment lies more on the psychological side; to prevent the young athlete on dwelling with minor slip-ups and mistakes, and rather focus on the process and not on the outcome.
"She's a joy to have around but, if anything, she's too hard on herself," says Liddick. "I have to sort of protect Mary-Anne from Mary-Anne sometimes because she's her own worst critic." There are, however, no issues with her professionalism. "She's probably one of the hardest workers in the gym, and I don't mean just when I say do 10, she'll do 11, it's not that. It's when nobody's watching … she really wants to do this."
If ever the Australian team fails to make it on the top eight teams, there is still a chance to secure a berth at the Olympic test event on April, on which four more teams will get the chance to claim an Olympic qualification. Furthermore, if ever Monckton would be a part of the selection team, she would be required to add a floor routine to her repertoire as the members will be reduced from seven to five in the Rio Summer Olympics.
Even so, expect that the young athlete will do whatever is needed, as this young athlete whose love for the sport originated from being capable of doing what other kids couldn’t, is still managing a degree of difficulty that most would see as too great. "She has every reason to say it's all too hard, but she still comes to the gym every morning, never misses a day," says Liddick. "It's just something that she wants, really deep down, and that's why she's here. And I'm glad she is."
The 2015 World Artistic Gymnastics Championships will take place at the SSE Hydro Arena in Glasgow, Scotland. The Australian team is comprised of Georgia-Rose Brown, Georgia Godwin, Madelaine Leydin, Emily Little, Larrissa Miller, Mary-Anne Monckton, Kiara Munteanu.
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