Phoebe's trip to Junior World Championship

Phoebe Learmont is a 14 year old Rhythmic Gymnast who trains at Aspire Gymnastics Academy at Robertson in QLD.  Phoebe fell in love with this sport at the age of 6 and only after one training. She then went on to win her first competition a month later, and has never looked back.


Phoebe trains 25-30 hours every week, having just Sunday off to get all her school work and other commitments done. Phoebe manages to get all this done thanks to her outstanding work ethic and determination, that is way beyond her years. Her long term goals is the 2022 Commonwealth Games and the the 2024 Olympics after that.

 
If that is not impressive enough, Phoebe is also aspiring to be a coach and judge as she believes in giving back to the club and the sport. She has already began helping out with younger classes and will be attending a coaching course just days before leaving for her first World Championships.



About Rhythmic Gymnastics
Rhythmic Gymnastics is a beautiful sport that uses hand held apparatus as such Rope, Hoop, Ball, Clubs and Ribbon. It is an Olympic sport, and if often the one that everyone loves watching. It is not a very widely known sport in Australia, but it is a very popular sport in Europe. The senior gymnasts are mainly 20 years old or younger, with most retiring by the age of 22. The pressure and demands on their bodies astounds me, what they do and how they do it, is beyond anything that I could imagine a body could do. For such a graceful sport, it requires more strength, coordination, athleticism and poise than most would think.

 
Accomplishments

Phoebe has had many achievements over the last few years. She has been the Queensland State Champion many times, and has made the Queensland State Team for Australian National Championships for 5 years running.

In 2017, in the Pre-Junior Level (international 11-12 years), Phoebe won her first All Around title, crowning her the Australian National Champion. The next day Phoebe went into Apparatus Finals, where she also won each apparatus, coming away from the competition with 5 Gold Medals, out of possible 5.

2018 saw her move into the Junior International level, where she was chosen to be part of the Australian Team to compete at the Pacific Rim Championship, Columbia where she came 11th All Around, she then placed 2nd at the Australian Championships and made the Australian National Squad.

This year she has had a fantastic competition year! Firstly, she won all of the Queensland competitions, including Queensland State Championship, and also being named, for the 5th consecutive year, to be part of the Queensland Team to go to the Australian National Championships in Melbourne. Based on Phoebe’s qualities as an athlete and person, she was named as the Queensland Captain for 2019. At Australian Championships Phoebe placed 2nd All Around and went on to win 3 Gold and 1 Silver in the Apparatus Finals. Upon returning from this event, she traveled a day later to compete at the Singapore Open which she took out 1st place!

While she was in Singapore, she received the much desired news that she had been selected to represent Australia at the first ever Junior World Championship in Moscow in July.  It is such an honour to represent her country again, and to compete against some of the best gymnasts in the world. This will be the 3rd time Phoebe will represent Australia and each time has been individually special. 

 
The costs....

 Rhythmic gymnastics is a self funded sport in Australia. Athletes and their parents are expected to cover all costs - from uniforms which often change every competition, to their coaches costs and judges costs. The price tag of this World event is $10,000 - this covers both myself and my coach, including international flights, visas, transport, accommodation, Australian uniforms just to name a few. With paying $2000 for Nationals in late May and $1800 for Singapore Open in early June, you can only imagine how much financial pressure this has put Phoebe in. Despite all these costs and the financial pressure we have as a result, we continue to support Phoebe with every opportunity she makes herself. We do this out of love of the sport and the knowledge that Phoebe works hard, she does not expect anything from anyone and will always give 110% in everything that she does.

We would like to thank you for any support that you could give Phoebe to help continue her on this incredible journey

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