Gymnast Lauren Lavoie has stuck the landing onto Team Alberta to compete at one of the biggest gymnastics competitions in the country.
Lavoie worked her way through tough training and rigorous camps to secure a spot at the Western Canada Summer Games as a member of Alberta’s gymnastics squad.
Lavoie made it through trials and advanced to the main camp where she competed against eight other girls to earn one of the six spots on Team Alberta.
“Camp was very hard,” said Lavoie. “I was very sore after, but I would say it was worth it.”
Lavoie and her team will be travelling to Kamloops in August where they will have a chance to compete as a team and individually.
Even though 16-year-old Lavoie lives in Calgary, she trains at Mountain Shadows Recreation Centre in Okotoks.
Jim McLuskey, one of Lavoie’s coaches and owner of Mountain Shadows, said he is extremely proud of Lavoie and her accomplishments.
“This is the first time gymnastics has been involved with the Western Canada Summer Games in over 10 years, so it’s a big deal to be going,” said McLuskey.
Lavoie is a P5 level gymnast, which is the highest provincial level, and was a vault finalist at both the Great West Gym Fest in Idaho and the Kyle Shewfelt Gymnastics Festival in Calgary.
Lavoie has been a gymnast since she was five-years-old and has been committed to the sport ever since.
“I like it because it’s fun and different. Not a lot of people do gymnastics. Just being able to do what not a lot of other people can is really cool,” said Lavoie.
She said her specialty is the vault because it seems to be what she excels at the most.
McLuskey said he is happy Lavoie is competing above her provincial level and is now in the same scope as the national level gymnasts.
“If you’re competing against P5’s that’s no problem, but it was tough when they threw in the national class gymnasts, which made it a lot more difficult,” said McLuskey. “But Lauren stuck it out and beat some of the national level girls.”
Lavoie said she is looking forward to competing against gymnasts from all over Western Canada, but hope her nerves don’t get the best of her.
“I’m hoping that it won’t be too stressful because there is going to be so many different provinces, it’s obviously going to be a big meet,” she said. “There’s going to be lots of really good gymnasts that qualified so I think it’s going to be tough.”
By the time the Western Canada Summer Games roll around in August, Lavoie will be 17 years old and ready to compete with some of the best gymnasts in the country.
“I’m very excited to go; it should be really fun to compete with so many people from Canada,” she added.
The Western Canada Summer Games will be held in Kamloops Aug. 5-14.
