The 23- year old Australian gymnast Larissa Miller has beaten one of Australia’s most successful gymnasts, the former World champion Lauren Mitchell, and took the last available Olympic spot for an Australian artistic gymnast.
Despite her success, the 23-year-old gymnast was unable to fully celebrate after the Australian national team failed to qualify for the team competition for the first time in 20 years, leaving the close teammates to compete for one individual position at last month’s national championships.
One of the main reasons of the poor performance of the Australian team at the two Olympic qualifiers – the 2015 World Championships and the Rio test event this year – was because of Mitchell’s knee reconstruction in July.
The 24-year-old Australian gymnast, who is the only female Australian gymnast to achieve a World artistic gymnastics title, spent the last ten months to get herself back to shape ahead of last month’s Olympic trials and acquired the beam title there but placed second to Miller in the floor, which is both their strongest event.
Gymnastics Australia had decided to pick the gymnast who possesses the greatest possibility of reaching the Olympic final to compete for a medal. They chose Miller.
Miller described the Olympic trials as “one of the most stressful competitions I have ever done”.
“I knew what was riding on that competition and I knew only one athlete was going, which was hard because we are a team,” she said. “Before the floor final, I was crying because I was so tired and so stressed, but I got through my routine. I know my teammates have done as much work as I have done, so that’s really upsetting.”
After a lot of stressful situations that came into her personal life, Miller said it was only after the 2015 World Championships was she able to regain her focus and commit to the gym. “It’s been a really long, hard road trying to build back up,” she said. “But I love gymnastics and the gym is my safe place.”
Miller is very confident that she is capable of reaching the Olympic finals in Rio after finishing sixth at the 2014 World Championships.
Meanwhile, in other gymnastic disciplines, Trampolinist Blake Gaudry and rhythmic gymnast Danielle Prince have also qualified for the Olympic team.
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