Chch gymnast hopes to join Rio Olympics

In recent weeks there has been a steady stream of athletes getting officially named in the New Zealand Olympic team.

Now a Christchurch gymnast hopes she will join them, and that means a tense time waiting for the call.

Sometime in the next few days Courtney McGregor will learn if she is going to the Rio Olympics. Her fate will be decided by the national gymnastics selectors and the New Zealand Olympic Committee.

"It's a bit of an anxious time, but I try not to think about it," she says.

After missing out on the Glasgow Commonwealth Games with a knee injury, the 18-year-old from Christchurch qualified at a recent Test event in Rio.

"I'd never been to South America before. The beach was right there. The facilities need some work, but I would love to go back," she says.

New Zealand's last female gymnast to go to Olympics was Laura Robertson in Sydney in 2000.

McGregor's international experience includes 17th at the last World Championships.

"I'm definitely a better gymnast than I used to be. I'm a late bloomer -- not good when I was younger but in the last couple of years I've worked hard."

While she also does the all-around competition, the vault is her forte.

"I probably do 15-20 vaults a day, sometimes twice a day, six days a week -- that's a lot of vaults," she says.

But that's not to say there isn't a fine line between success and failure. 

She continues to train as if she'll make her Olympic debut in August. Soon she'll know. 

Newshub.

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