Gymmin' Miel!

When Olivia Vivian went to the Beijing Olympics in 2008 as a 19-year-old, she was the oldest woman on the gymnastics team.
Almost five years on and at an age when most gymnasts have long retired, she is far from done with the sport which has consumed close to 16 years of her life. The 23-year-old is an uneven bars specialist and has set her sights on becoming the first Australian woman to win a medal in the event at the world championships in Antwerp in October.
Vivian has been to two previous world titles, but the results she wanted have proved elusive.
Sensing this could be her last hurrah at the highest level, she is preparing to go all out later in the year.
"I have always missed out on finals by the littlest of scores," Vivian said. "I want to make sure there is no room for regret or error or there is no looking back, saying, 'If only I had done this'."
The part-time Zumba instructor said she would almost certainly have given gymnastics away had she not taken up a four-year scholarship at Oregon State University after Beijing.
Vivian originally decided to accept because she couldn't turn down a chance for a fully-funded degree, but her time there also had an unexpected result, reigniting her passion for the sport.
"It really just taught me how to love gymnastics all over again," she said.
"Gymnastically, it taught me how to perfect things and to make things big, and get those landings and get all those extra points that will make a difference in the end.
"I was challenged every day in the gym. I improved my gymnastics by going over there, when originally it had been a plan to wean off gymnastics.
"You get so mentally and physically exhausted and it is kind of a norm here in Australia after an Olympic Games that you move on. If I didn't have that college outlet, I probably would be doing something else."
Fate also intervened to prolong her career last year.
Vivian's mum, Gillian, had planned a trip to visit the US and watch the final college competitions of the year. But when she had to cancel at the last minute, Vivian decided to return to Perth to surprise her family.
The trip home coincided with the Australian Olympic trials. Vivian's decision to "have a crack" saw her win the uneven bars.
She fell just short of winning a spot on the team for London and was named as the reserve.
"Winning bars was a surprise but that is kind of what sparked my thought of, 'hey if I can podium here in Australia, I want to take that podium finish to international level for Australia'," she said.
Tragedy has also played a role in Vivian's return to Perth to pursue her sporting dreams.
Her 64-year-old father, Craig, lost his battle with a melanoma in February. Vivian had already been determined to qualify for the world titles, but losing her dad had added fuel to the fire.
"At first gymnastics helped as a coping mechanism, coming in here and keeping me busy," she said.
Vivian is currently completing an intensive 10-week block of training prior to nationals in July.
Gymnastics has come under the winning edge program and the bar has been raised on standards, meaning only those who are medal chances will be taken to Antwerp.
Vivian, who will turn 24 during trials, said she was planning a high-risk, high-reward routine.
And if things go as well as she hopes, her name could be immortalised in gymnastics.
"There is a skill that we are trying to learn in the gym and if I do complete it at world championships I will be the first to do it and it will be called the Vivian," she revealed. "That would be pretty awesome."

The glittering Olympic sport of rhythmic gymnastics is a world away from where Janine Murray grew up under the brutal regime of Zimbabwe's Robert Mugabe.
But that is in the past and now Murray, 22, looks to her bright future as Australia's only competitor in the sport in London.
It is a dream she never thought possible when she fell in love with gymnastics at primary school in Harare.
Murray, who will be WA's first Olympian in rhythmic gymnastics and only the sixth for Australia, found that her four disciplines - ribbon, ball, hoop and clubs - also complemented her ballet skills.
"We never had great facilities in Zimbabwe, nothing like in Australia, but we always had great coaches, in my case Bulgarian gymnast Krassimira Yurukova, who still coaches me," Murray said.
"I underestimated my own ability in Australia because I came from a country where gymnastics did not have the same foundation or support."
Yurukova followed the Murray family to Australia a decade ago and the pair had their first big success when Murray won Commonwealth Games gold in Delhi in 2010,
She won two silver and a bronze medal at the Pacific Rim championships in Seattle this year.
"We have been able to remain close all these years," Murray said. "In the gym she is in charge but outside we are the best of friends."
She said Yurukova came from a culture where gymnasts had high profiles and were among the world's best.
"It has taken a long time to get to the Olympics and I am not thinking beyond the Games," Murray said.
But her future is definitely in sport. She is about to graduate with a sports science degree and is considering doing her masters.
She said life in Zimbabwe was all she knew as a child with constant shortages of basic foods and petrol, which made getting to school hard.

With thanks to my beautiful sisters for bringing my attention to this article on Lauren Mitchell from today's (23rd  of February, 2012) The West Australian newspaper. The article, which you can read in full here, was recorded as part of the Coles Sports for Schools program at Kapinara Primary School in City Beach, where Mitchell and Australian pole vaulter Steven Hooker were the special guests. The Coles Sports for Schools initiative aims to make children more active at schools.            

Gymnast Lauren Mitchell, Australia's best hope for gold at the London Olympics, has a shoulder injury which has forced her to stop training on the uneven bars before her first overseas trip of the year.
The star of the WAIS gymnastics program, which also includes three other Olympic squad members - Emily Little, Georgia Simpson and Nikki Chung - has not allowed the setback to prevent her from training.
"The injury is a setback because I am not able to train on the bars but that has allowed me to work on other areas, which is a positive," Mitchell said.
"I have been working on my execution because the start value is at the highest level and that is what you need to be a contender in the finals at the Olympics."
Her coach, Martine George, said Mitchell had come a long way in the past three weeks. George said the decision to stay off the bars was made to prevent her from aggravating the injury while still allowing her to prepare for her two pet events on the floor and beam.
"She needs to rehabilitate well before she jumps back on the bars because we don't want to take any risks with the instability in the shoulder," George said.
"It is a balancing act for her because we leave for two big competitions in Montreal and Seattle next month where she needs to get back on the international scene even though we don't expect her to compete all-around."
Mitchell's main goal is to get ready for Olympic selection trials in Sydney from May 22 to 26.
She said the trip to Canada would give the team a feel of where it stood on the world stage in the lead-up to London.
"My main goal at the Olympics will be to qualify the team into the top eight and after that anything can happen in the finals," she said.
She said her last Olympics campaign in Beijing was disappointing after falling off the beam, and her floor routine was not as good as it was when she won the world title in 2010 or when she took two silvers at the 2009 world championships.
"I am not able to train on the bars but that has allowed me to work on other areas, which is a positive.""