Team Canada- Meet Maddie Gardiner

Recently, Triple Twist had the opportunity to interview 2012 Olympic Alternate, and 2011 Worlds Team Member Maddie Gardiner of Canada. Gardiner, who turned senior in 2011, has made quite the impact on the Canadian Gymnastics scene. Gardiner shared with us some of her favourite things about gymnastics, and plans for the future.

 

Photo Credit: The Couch Gymnast

Triple Twist: How did you get involved in gymnastics?

Maddie: "When I was really little (3) my older brother did gymnastics, and I was a very energetic and bouncy kid, so my parents decided to register me as well. After he quit I just kept going, and it has just been a big part of my life since then!"

Triple Twist: What is your proudest moment from gymnastics?

Maddie: "My proudest gymnastics moment would be when I was at the London Test Event with team Canada when we found out that we had qualified a team for the Olympics, as well as standing on the podium in second with that same team. Knowing that we had helped to qualify the team and would get a chance to be on it was an amazing feeling."

Triple Twist: What are your favorite and least favorite events? 

Maddie: "My favourite and least favourite events change based on training and competition (as well as how my training is going that day!). Generally my favourite event is beam. I love to train beam and work new skills, but my favourite event to compete is bars. I get very nervous for beam, as well as the feeling of flying that bars gives you when you compete is one of my favourites. Training bars though is not my strongest part. Other than beam the other 3 are equal in my preferences for different reasons. "

Triple Twist: In 2010, you competed at the Youth Olympic Games. What was that experience like?

Maddie: "The Youth Olympic Games was a great experience. I met a lot of the girls I would be competing with for the next couple years, as well as gained some very valuable experience. The competition got me a bit, but I learned a lot about myself. My family came to watch and support me, which was very special since it was across the globe. I think that the competition was such a great experience because it was basically a smaller scale Olympic Games that included all the pressures, the Village, the numerous countries participating and the country as a team aspect."

Triple Twist: What was it like being an alternate in London and how was the Olympic experience for you?

Maddie: "Being an alternate for the London Olympics was a bit of a bitter-sweet experience because I would have loved to be able to compete and represent Canada, but the girls did so well, and I am so proud of them. I really enjoyed my trip, and had the pleasure of being able to watch almost every day of gymnastics live (except vault finals). I had a great time being able to tour London, and spend a bit of vacation time with my family! The experience overall was a very good one. I got to spend a lot of time with Jessica Savona and Christine Lee as well and that in itself was great fun!"

Triple Twist: How do you think Canada's 5th place team finish will change gymnastics in Canada?

Maddie: "I'm not sure how much it will change Canadian gymnastics, but it is definitely a motivator for all the younger gymnasts who might be going for Rio 2016. I think that people will be looking for more out of Canada now since we have been working very hard to move up in the gymnastics world, which will put a bit more pressure on Canadian gymnastics but I think that we can handle it and step up enough to embrace it."

Triple Twist: You recently broke both your wrists, how is recovering from that going?

Maddie: "My wrists have been doing really well, I've been doing physio weekly and they are constantly improving. The comeback is a little bit slow even though its been 3 months since I got my casts off, time goes by much faster than you think and muscles build slowly. I've been working hard though!"

Triple Twist: You're graduating this year, do you have any plans on competing in the NCAA?

Maddie: "I am hoping to compete in NCAA next year, and I do have a couple plans but I want to make sure that they all work out before I say anything!"

Triple Twist: Will you represent Canada in any upcoming international competitions?

Maddie: "I will be representing Canada at Gymnix in March, but probably not to full potential. I will be doing 2-3 events. Other than Gymnix I believe I have 2 other competitions in the future, one being National Championships, and the other being a provincial competition."

Triple Twist: Looking forward, do you have any goals for gymnastics? Do you think you’ll train for 2016?

Maddie: "My goals for gymnastics are to enjoy what I am doing. I would really love to compete NCAA and do that for a couple years. I'm taking Rio in time, it's not my definite goal right now but maybe when it gets closer I might change my mind. I want to keep my options open though!"

Watch Maddie on beam below.



Follow Maddie on Twitter.


Interview done by: Patrice Vandenbos