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Chingford teen on course for 2012
As Waltham Forest continues to prepare for the London 2012 Games, Chingford student Scott Gregory, 16, is perhaps more eager than most for the Games to come to town.
Scott moved closer towards representing his country on home turf recently when he was selected to Team Great Britain for next year’s Australian Youth Olympic Festival.
“The word was buzzing around about who had been selected,” begins Scott, “but you don’t listen to what people are saying until the letter comes through the post!”
Scott, who began attending gymnastics lessons at the age of five, was also training on the trampoline by ten. “I was doing both sports for a year – training 24 hours a week – but finding it really hard to cope with all my school work, too,” he said.
“Eventually my trampolining coach said I should pick one or the other. That was when I was in Year 7. Now preparing for my GCSEs five years later, I’m trampolining for Team GB."
Not only is Scott currently preparing for his GCSEs, but any hopes he had for a relaxing Christmas have also been put on hold following his call up to Team GB.
“We fly out for Sydney on 7 January,” he said. “I was looking forward to a nice chilled out Christmas, but now I’m going to be training every single day until we go.
“It’s a case of eating, sleeping, revising and training, non stop!” So, with all this pressure on him, what will be keeping Scott going as he competes for Gold thousands of miles away? “Being the best has always been my priority – I just picture the gold medal and do my best. “Knowing that if I achieve that, I could be representing my home country, in my home town in just a few years, is the biggest incentive for me.”
(Original article at http://www.walthamforest.gov.uk/wfm40.pdf)
© wfm 2008