Lauren Mitchell may well be a certainty to make the Australian gymnastics team for the London Olympics, but the former world champion insists the fight for the other four spots has never been tougher.
Australia has historically taken six female gymnasts to the Olympics, including to Beijing four years ago, but an administrative change to do with overall athlete numbers means the gymnastics squad has now been cut to five.
The internal battle for places will come down to the national championships in May and a final selection camp in Canberra a month later and Mitchell, the 2010 world champion on floor, said competition is fierce.
“Last time there was definitely eight of us who could have made the team but this time there’s more like 12 of us,” she told AAP.
“There’s so many people, but Peggy (veteran Australian coach Peggy Liddick) can only use five to make the perfect combination for the team.
“It’s quite hard because we’re pretty close.
“We all talk about it like we’re all going to make it.”
The lead-up to London hits a higher gear when the team competes at the Pacific Rim championships in Seattle in two weeks’ time, which Mitchell says will be a good barometer of how well she and her team-mates are tracking.
“It’s going to be a really good test point to see where we’re at because it’s got countries like America, Canada, China.”
“Everyone is in full competition mode so it’s nice to see.”
While all eyes will be on Mitchell to bring home Australia’s first-ever female gymnastics medal, the 20-year-old Perth product says her focus is on the team event.
Liddick has already stressed to her charges the importance of working together, even using a bit of Hollywood star power – via the movies that is – to help them along.
“Last camp we watched Moneyball with Brad Pitt and it was kind of like Peggy suggesting to us to see where our weakest links are and work and focus more on those things,” Mitchell said of the flick.
Based on the book, it’s about how a baseball side breaks down their sport scientifically in order to assemble their best possible winning team.
“One of our weakest apparatuses is vault and so everyone is kind of churning out these quite big vaults now,” Mitchell said.
“It’s only into the pit, but if we get them, we can compete them.”
