Elijah Thompson tried gymnastics in the first grade and his dedication to the sport makes him our Inspiring Albertan for this week.
You could say it was love at first flip.
“As soon as I tried out I always felt that I really liked the sport and I really wanted to invest a lot of time and work into it,” Elijah said.
He had followed his older siblings into gymnastics for fun, but his coach at the Calgary Gymnastics Centre saw right away that Elijah had something special.
“Perseverance and dedication through passion and understanding that challenges are part of the process and you gotta make your way through it,” said Scott Rayment, coach.
A lot of kids take part in a sport for a while but eventually lose interest. Elijah’s passion and talent for the sport took him to the top of the Canadian rankings for his age group by the time he was 11 years old. He hasn’t let the normal setback stop him, even when his performance at this year’s Nationals was limited because of a thumb injury. Instead, Elijah put everything into the flexibility portion of the competition and did very well.
“He just perseveres, so for my husband Lyle and I just watching him we're really in awe,” said his mother Krista. “When he had the wrist surgery in 2014 we wondered how he would manage and whether he would want to keep going, and he just led the force, he was insistent on not missing training time, on going every day with a cast, doing all he could, so it was easy to just support that.”
Elijah’s dedication to gymnastics is driving him to reach for the top.
“Long term goal would be to go to the Olympics with Team Canada,” he said.
“Definitely and it's our dream as well and our goal for him to go to the Olympics,” said Coach Rayment.
For his tenacity in pursuing his goal to be an Olympic gymnast, Elijah Thompson is our Inspiring Albertan.
