Ananda our gymnastic girl in Athens

IS IT any wonder that our lone female representative at the 2004 Olympic Games, which will be held from August 11-26 in Athens, Greece has been in gymnastics clinic since age two? Sixteen-year-old Ananda Fraser and her grandmother were part of the mummy and tots class under the direction of Joan Knowles, who held her classes at the Jean Pierre Complex at the time. Ananda was too small to do all the exercises on her own, so whatever simple exercises “grand mummy” did — a roll on the floor or a curl of the leg — Ananda followed.

She was born with the physique of a gymnast. Her mother had never seen a baby more toned than Ananda. And the day she saw Ananda grip the parallel bar of the swing in the front yard of their home in Diego Martin, as if she was performing some stunt on the uneven bars, she knew that gymnastics had chosen Ananda. “All my children started walking from an early age and I remember the time when her cousins came over and they were all on the play swing and slide. And while everyone would climb to the top and then slide down, Ananda, on the other hand, would hold on to the bar and because she didn’t know how to move her hands along the bar or to come down for that matter, she just hung there, and started to cry,” said Makela Fraser. Of course, her mother had to run to her rescue.

Fourteen years later, Ananda has graduated from swings and slides to becoming quite skilled on the vault, uneven bars, balance beam and in the floor exercises. She trains under the guidance of national coaches Cliffton Mc Dowell and Deborah Garcia, and has outgrown her training grounds at Tots and Tumblers Gymnastics Club on Dundonald Street, Port-of-Spain. She formerly trained with Jeffrey Charles and Sterling Wilson and later, at a competitive level with head coach at the Artistic Achievers Gymnastic Club, Kenwick Mc Lean. When People caught up with Ananda, she was just about to slip into her lycra body suit and powder her wrists. Hung on the wall of the office area at Tots and Tumblers was an action shot of Ananda, caught in mid-air, during her routine on the balance beam at the 2002 CAC Games in El Salvador. She was the first national gymnast at the event to qualify for an apparatus final in vault.

This time around, come Athens, Greece, Ananda has the world as her stage. Asked how she felt about her big event, which is just two months away she said: “Excited. It’s the Olympics. It’s a big thing. I’m currently working on getting stronger, incorporating more skills and new strength techniques.” She is unsure which of the events she will participate in but believes she is mentally and physically ready. The Holy Name Convent Form Four student is also awaiting formal acceptance to Cheshire Academy in Connecticut, where she hopes to complete high school on an academic scholarship and join the CATS Gymnastics team. She made good on her biography when she became the youngest member of the country’s first Women’s National Gymnastics team to participate at the 2002 Commonwealth Games in Manchester. At this event, she made it to the final and scored the highest for TT.

At the Pan American Junior Interclub Championships in 2003, Ananda brought home Trinidad and Tobago’s first international medal in her sport. She earned silver on vault and placed eight all-around. Earlier this year, she won gold medals on vault and beam at the TT Amateur Gymnastics Association National Invitational meet. She became a “Guardian Life Youth Star” and was the Gymnastics Nominee for the WITCO Sports Foundation Sportswoman of the year 2003. She is quite a disciplined student when it comes to study and eating habits. “I find time to do things. My diet is good. I try to eat a lot of fruits. I study at nights and train five times a week,” said Ananda. “And I like hanging out with friends.” Having a good study programme and being balanced have helped her maintain “straight As” at school.

Last Friday, she addressed her peers in a formal setting for the purpose of encouraging participation in the Olympic Day Run which takes place on June 19 in Tobago and June 26 in Trinidad. Olympic Day Run will commemorate the founding of the International Olympic Committee, 110 years ago. Ananda will be taking part in the four-legged race and invites those not participating, to come out and cheer her on.