Victoria Loftus
|
Sport: Artistic Gymnastics Born: April 1992 Club: Gillingham Jumpers Key achievements:
Sporting ambitions:
|
|
After switching to Gillingham Jumpers, Victoria Loftus has gone from strength to strength. She has added national trampoline medals and a GB selection to her growing list of achievements, and has continued to excel in artistic gymnastics too.
Victoria Loftus achieved her sporting ambition at the 2007 Special Olympics in Shanghai by winning a gold medal in the vault. Her performance was also enhanced with three bronze medals for her beam, bars and her overall performance in the Special Olympics Level 1 category.
The Special Olympics was the highlight of a tough year of injury, illness and training for the Medway-born gymnast.
Victoria is 15 years old and was born 12 weeks prematurely, weighing just 1lb 4oz (568g) and measuring just 10 inches (25cm) long. She spent the first four and a half months of her life in the special care baby unit of the former All Saints Hospital, Chatham, much of that time on an artificial breathing machine.
At the time she was one of the smallest babies in the world to survive. Despite this very rocky start to life, Victoria has grown into a pretty, lively teenager who has a love of gymnastics.
Victoria’s first competition was in October 2002 in Poole, Dorset. She won a gold medal for her beam routine and a silver medal for her vault and has continued to win medals at all levels since.
Victoria’s achievements are all the more impressive because her learning difficulties and hearing impairment affect her listening and communication skills. She has to concentrate and practice very hard to learn new moves and to remember the routines.
Her career rose to a new level in June 2006 when she was selected to represent Great Britain in the Special Olympic World Games in Shanghai, China, in October 2007. After recovering from an ankle injury sustained early in 2007, Victoria got back to full training and attending GB gymnastic training camps ahead of the biggest competition of her life.
All the hard work was rewarded with her excellent, gold medal-winning performance in China.
For information on the Special Olympics visit www.sogb.org.uk.