Olympic bound South African gymnast Caitlin Rooskrantz was looking forward to participating in her first Summer Games in her career this year, however she will have to wait until July 2021 to set foot in Tokyo, Japan.
The Games were rescheduled due to the global Coronavirus pandemic that has had a huge effect on every sporting event on the globe and will now take place from 23 July to 8 August 2021.
While Rooskrantz will now have over a year to sharpen her skills, her training methods have had to be tweaked as she cannot attend gym due to the 21 Days lockdown implemented by President Cyril Ramaphosa.
“At the moment it has now changed completely,” Rooskrantz pointed out to gsport’s Celine Abrahams.
“We have developed home programmes to stay in shape for the time being.” – South African gymnast, Caitlin Rooskrantz
“We cannot go to the gym to train at all in this time, so together with our coaches we have developed home programmes to stay in shape for the time being.
“Fitness, flexibility and strength programmes together with healthy food plans to help us stay in shape.”
The inspiring young gymnast had to return to South Africa from the 2020 FIG World Cup in Baku, Azerbaijan after having qualified for the Bar Finals in seventh place.
“After having our World Cup cut short due to the virus, we then arrived back from Azerbaijan on the 15th of March and were instructed to self-isolate for the following two weeks as we had been travelling.
“We (my teammate and my coach) self-isolated by only being at home and going to the gym to carry on our training but separately from everyone else before the lockdown was implemented.
“They had people come in a sterilise and clean the equipment before and after we trained.”
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After learning that the International Olympic Committee had decided to postpone the event, Rooskrantz believes that the decision was made accordingly as to ensure the safety of all athletes.
“As upsetting as the change was, I am in full support of this decision as I believe it is at the best interest of all the athletes’ health and safety and the only way we really have a chance of overcoming this pandemic together.
“Along with this postponement came an early end to our competition season of which all of this was very sudden and upsetting but I understand it needed to be done,” she concluded.
Photo 1 Caption: South Africa’s gymnastics sensation, Caitlin Rooskrantz, will be one of the top athletes heading into the Tokyo Olympics that have been Rescheduled to July 2021. Photo: SA Gymnastics
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