A Richard S. Fowler Junior High student returned victorious earlier this month from Canada’s national gymnastics championships in Montreal, where she earned accolades as Alberta’s best female gymnast in the competition.
Fourteen-year-old Sturgeon County resident Rebecca Lee competed on six-person Team Alberta against gymnasts from across the country in four events: vault, floor, beams and bar.
Competing at the highest gymnastics level in the 12-15 age group, Lee placed in a host of categories.
She was in the top nine for every event. She was sixth best for “all around,” where a gymnast does a routine on several different pieces of equipment. She was fourth in the country for her combined two-day score on all events. She was the top gymnast in Western Canada for her combined two-day score. She was the top-ranked female gymnast in Alberta — at any level in her age category.
And Team Alberta’s Level 10, ages 12-15 team won gold at nationals. It was the only Alberta team to get a medal.
“I’m a very competitive person,” Lee said.
Lee trains five hours a day, (for a total of 25 hours a week) almost every day — swinging between uneven bars, springing into the air and landing hands-first on vaulting tables, gliding along balance beams and switching from dance moves to backflips on the floor.
Lee’s favourite event is the floor, in which gymnasts use a specially prepared exercise surface and the accompaniment of music to unleash their acrobatics and dance skills.
“It's really cool to just show your personality,” she said.
While some gymnasts prefer upbeat music at a fast tempo, Lee goes for softer, more graceful compositions when she glides along the floor, transitioning between backflips, dance moves and other feats of strength, balance and coordination.
It all makes her father, Mark Lee, very nervous. So much so that he is tempted to cover his eyes.
“Gymnastics is really an extreme sport,” he said.
Rebecca Lee has the injuries to prove it.
Last year she hyperextended her knees doing an exercise on the vault table. The injury meant that she couldn’t perform at her peak for last year’s nationals.
And in 2022 she fractured her back and had to sit on the sidelines
“Watching the other athletes succeed while I had to stay home … it was hard,” she said.
This year, she injured her ankles on a dismount right before nationals, but it didn’t stop her from competing. “I was just happy I could represent Team Alberta,” she said.
Lee trains out of Wild Rose Gymnastics, the home gym of three members of this year’s Team Alberta Level 10 (ages 12-15) team.
There aren’t many young people who can compete at Lee’s level, said trainer Kristi Cloman.
“She's definitely a special, gifted child for sure,” Cloman said.
Lee started training at Wild Rose five years ago. Trainers at a St. Albert gym recommended that she go there when they saw that Lee’s aptitude for the sport could take her to high-level competitions.
Only 25 children competed for spots on Team Alberta this year, said trainer Zoltan Nagy.
“Not many gymnasts are able to perform the skills and learn the skills that are required to be in that level,” Nagy said.
"It’s all about having “grit,” Cloman said.
“You have to sacrifice not going to the birthday parties … in order to train, because we train 51 weeks out of the year,” she said. “It's definitely a job, but Rebecca is really passionate about it, and therefore she's been able to reach this highest level.”
“Grit” is what Lee said, for her, defines the sport of gymnastics.
It’s what carried her to the final moments of the national championships, when Alberta’s team and B.C.’s team were closely matched.
It was up to Lee to make enough points on her floor routine to pull Team Alberta’s score higher than their rivals on the B.C. team — and she succeeded
But Lee said the pressure wasn’t too high.
“I didn't really think about it,” she said. “I just want to perform and help the team out. And I also wanted the medal.”
