-------------------------------------------------------------------
At just 22 Louis Smith is already one of the best artistic gymnasts in the world and, after whetting his appetite in the 2008 Beijing Olympics, has his sights set firmly on a gold medal come the 2012 Olympics. The Peterborough-born gymnast caught up exclusively with James Hartnett just seven months before the Games well and truly begin.
When did gymnastics become a serious part of your life?
From a young age I knew that I wanted to pursue a career in the sport. It was always serious for me from when I realised I had a talent, but I guess when I left school at 17 to focus on gym full time my commitment to it took on a whole new meaning as I was dedicating all of my time to the sport and nothing else. I’ve been competing now for 15 years – since I was a seven-year-old, winning my first competition during the Under-10’s Novice Championships.
Does it feel surreal to be living the Olympic dream?
It’s quite daunting to be honest! It’s not a nice thing staring your dream in the face when it can either end in success or failure. It’s a mad thing to come to terms with and obviously I want to realise my dream. I’ll never forget watching the gymnastics on TV at the Atlanta Olympics in 1996. It was the first time I decided that I wanted to be there doing that on the biggest stage.
What are your hopes in next year’s competition? Is a gold medal achievable?
A medal of any sort would be incredible, but the real goal is to do a clean routine. I know that if I do that then I have the potential to win a medal, but ultimately the goal is to do myself justice. If I go there and perform my routine clean, I’ll know that, whatever the outcome, I couldn’t have done any more.
Are you a firm believer that the more you put in, the more you get back?
Absolutely. For me the key to success in competition is getting your body to a level where you’re merely repeating what you’ve done in training. Personally, I train 6 hours a day with two days off, and definitely agree the more you put in during training, the more you get back through the results you achieve.
Where does your funding come from and have you found this hard to come by?
I’m currently a lottery-funded athlete through UK Sport, but in addition to that I’m thankful enough to have some really great sponsors who have been so supportive in helping me and making my life that much easier. I get all my training kit from Adidas, have an awesome car from BMW, have incredible nutritional support from Lucozade and then I’m also involved with Visa, British Airways, UPS, Next and Sky so I’m in a very fortunate position!
You achieved a bronze medal in the recent World Championships in Tokyo, performing one of the hardest routines and unfortunately losing balance making you lose touch of gold. Is it important to really strive to get hard moves in your routine to set you apart from the other competitors?
The competition in the pommel, as with all of the apparatus, is of such a high level that I’m always going to come up against incredible gymnasts from around the world with amazing technique. My strength is in my ability to up the difficulty of my routines so in order to compete with the best in the world I have to keep doing that to set me apart from the rest of the field.
What advice would you give to future gymnasts?
Work hard to achieve the goals you set for yourself, be prepared to make sacrifices and most importantly, make sure you’re doing something which you enjoy. Those are the rules which I’ve led my life by and they’re what have got me to where I am today so I’d recommend to anyone – whatever their age and whatever dream they have – to do the same.
No comments:
Post a Comment