Rosa Dawson, 15, has returned home with five medals from last month’s World Olympic Gymnastics Academy Classic, held in Texas, in the United States.
Representing New Zealand, Rosa’s the only Queenstowner to have ever competed at the event.
Held at the Ford Centre, a 12,000-seat stadium, which is usually home to the Dallas Cowboys football team, six gymnasiums were running at once — for context, at the NZ nationals there’s just the one.
Competing in the ‘Step 8’ category, against 35 other gymnasts mainly from the States, Rosa placed third overall, coming first in bars, sixth in vault and beam, and seventh on the floor.
She was a whisker away from a gold medal — Rosa scored 36.225; the overall winner, from Arkansas, scored 36.600.
"The results being so close are a bit annoying, as it would’ve come down to just one leg not being straight, or one toe not pointed properly," she says.
Finding out she’d placed was a complete shock — while in NZ athletes know where they’ve placed before prizegiving, thanks to a TV or screen in the gym providing results, that wasn’t the case in Texas.
"So I went into prizegiving not expecting anything at all, so to end up on the podium was pretty crazy.
"The standard ... is so much higher over there — there are even 8-year-olds who spend 35 hours a week training.
"It makes me wonder where I could be if I lived at the gym."
Rosa’s now focusing her attention on her next NZ competition season, which starts in May.
