“Practicing cartwheels will never get you anywhere”
Look I can understand how people who were watching the under 7’s football game where I missed a vital catch losing the game for the team because I was busy perfecting my cartwheels felt? I can see why those people might have thought there wasn’t much of a future out there for me.
Growing up in a world where people had such narrow ideas of what constitutes a ‘boys’ sport’ could have been very limiting for me, if I had let it be.
The thing is, I was so single-minded in that moment on the field, the football match didn’t exist for me. All I wanted to be, was the best at cartwheels.
Fast forward a few years later and I was the coolest kid at primary school, with an insane catalogue of impressive gymnastics tricks. Outside of school I was the Rockstar of the local gymnastics club. I was going to be a world champion one day.
So, mum took me to The Australian Institute of Sport and they took one look at me and said…