BY Nkosazana Ngwadla
South African artistic gymnasts Caitlin Rooskrantz and Naveen Daries are on a mission to ignite dreams as they chase Paris 2024 Olympics qualification. The duo were the first gymnasts of colour to represent their country at the Olympics in Tokyo 2020.
South African gymnasts Caitlin Rooskrantz and Naveen Daries have blazed a trail for aspiring youngsters, who for many years did not have role models who looked like them.
Their rise on the global stage becoming the first gymnasts of colour to represent South Africa at the Olympic Games was an immense point of pride for Rooskrantz.
“Representation matters especially in a sport like gymnastics which was predominantly known to be a white sport and in a country like South Africa,” Rooskrantz exclusively told Olympics.com.
“We (South Africa) are the rainbow nation and to have a team full of people of colour is very inspiring to the young girls to see that gymnastics isn’t what you think it would be and that everyone can do it.”
Rooskrantz is the first South African female gymnast to qualify outright for the Olympic Games and was joined in Tokyo 2020 by long-time training partner and best friend Daries, who qualified via the 2021 African Championships in Cairo. In Tokyo, Rooskrantz placed 61st and Daries 76th all-around in qualifications.
Rooskrantz and Daries have been the poster children of change over the last few years including maiden appearances at the Tokyo Olympics and successes at the 2022 Commonwealth Games.
The duo spearheaded breakthrough performances for South African artistic gymnastics at the 2022 Birmingham Commonwealth Games where they placed fourth in the team event. Rooskrantz again made history with her bronze in the uneven bars the country’s first medal in the discipline. She is also only the second female South African gymnast after Jennifer Khwela to win a medal at the Commonwealth Games.
Daries, in turn, finished sixth in the all-around competition which was the best finish for a South African gymnast in the individual all-around event.
At the recent African Gymnastics Championships held on home soil, South Africa won the women’s team gold medal to earn automatic qualification for the 2023 World Artistic Gymnastics Championships in Antwerp, Belgium, from 30 September to 8 October. Consisting only of members from the Johannesburg Gymnastics Centre, they claimed the country’s first team competition at the continental championships since 2006.
Although Rooskrantz conceded her overall title to Algeria’s Kaylia Nemour to finish second, she declared the competition mission accomplished with the team gold ranking as the highlight.
“Our main goal going into this African championships was to qualify the team. So to get our team in first position, anything after that was kind of a bonus,” she said.
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