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Olympic
Solidarity Program and
The Canadian Sport Centre Calgary:
The story of Jaco Mostert
The
Olympic Solidarity Program is run by the International
Olympic Committee and provides the funding to
allow an athlete to train in a country like Canada
where the necessary support is readily available.
The
Canadian Sport Centre Calgary, the Canadian Olympic
Committee and University of Calgary Gymnastics
Centre are pleased to partner together to support
gymnast Jaco Mostert in his goal to make the Namibian
Olympic Gymnastics Team for 2004.
As part of the IOC Olympic Solidarity Program,
he is training in Calgary with the High Performance
Gymnastics Group overseen by coach Tony Smith.
Namibia is a lesser developed nation that does
not have the resources (human nor financial) to
give Jaco the support he needs to qualify for
the 2004 Olympic Games. The IOC has developed
a program to help athletes like Jaco.
Athlete
Perspective: As told by Jaco Mostert
A
Little History
My
gymnastics life started when I was about 5. My
parents entered me into a recreational group.
As I grew older I had a feel of many other sports,
but as changed sports I still stuck to gymnastics.
I probably didn’t know it then, but I am
a person who likes trying new things and enjoy
going against the odds to prove myself and to
make a point to others. This outlook on life is
very similar to gymnastics I believe, and this
is what kept me in the sport.
I had some good times and some
bad. My family and friends were always there to
share the good times and to help me through the
tougher times. I had some bad luck a couple years
in a row where I failed to make the national team
due to injuries before or at national competitions.
Training with me were 4 other
guys. One was the same age and the other 3 were
a year or two younger than me. We trained together
for about 6 years before the first one left to
follow a coach to South Africa. Shortly after
this the four of us left for our first big international
competition: the 1998 Youth games in Moscow. It
was a great experience for all of us. In 1999
I managed to get a bronze medal on pommel horse
in the All African Games. At that time it was
my biggest international achievement. By this
time 2 more of the gymnasts had left the sport,
leaving just me and one more gymnast.
In 2001 I left Namibia to go to
university in South Africa and also to train there,
as the facilities were better there than in Namibia.
The following 2 years were a very difficult time
for me. It became hard to get into the gym everyday
and my other teammate retired, leaving me as the
only one left on the team. During this time I
applied for the IOC scholarship, but there weren’t
any expectations to get it. I continued to train,
and sometimes it got so bad that I considered
quitting the sport. That all changed when one
day I got a call, bearing the news that I got
the scholarship.
The
Trip to Canada
I
was very excited. I had a chance to go live a
dream, but it meant leaving a lot behind. I was
half-way through my course at the university and
still had a couple of exams to write before I
could leave. My parents and I decided that I should
finish my current year at the university and then
put my studies on hold to take the scholarship.
A lot of organization had to be
done and we only had about 2 months to do it.
I didn’t even know where I was going until
a month before I left. Things were happening really
fast and the time was approaching to my departure
date.
The day came when I had to leave,
so I said goodbye to my friends and family and
got on the flight to my new home: Calgary, Canada.
I didn’t know what to expect. I had never
been to the West before. The only thing I knew
was that it was going to be cold.
28 hours after I left Windhoek
I arrived in Calgary. I went through customs,
collected my bags and walked into the arrivals
lounge. I knew nothing of my new coach, other
than his name and that he would pick me up from
the airport. So I was looking around to see if
anyone there might be waiting for me, when a familiar
face came to greet me.
Grant
Golding was on the Canadian national team and
was also training for World Championships. I had
briefly met him in Manchester at the Commonwealth
games. He led me over to meet my new coach, Tony
Smith. We took my bags and loaded them into the
car, and left for Grant’s house where I
would be staying until I could find a place of
my own. I felt a lot better after I had met some
of the people I will be seeing everyday for the
next 7 months.
First
Impressions
The
first couple of weeks were pretty tough. I had
taken a few weeks off before I left for Canada
and wasn’t used to the intense training.
I met a couple new people and gymnasts that I
would see almost every day within the first few
weeks.
During this time I also got to
know my coach a little better. He is really friendly
and easy-going. This made it much easier to communicate
with him, which really helped me to get through
the first month or so. This doesn’t mean
that we could just do what we liked. He can be
strict and get angry when he needs to. A really
good coach, definitely the best I’ve ever
had.
Another Important person for me
in Calgary was Marge Roper at the Canadian Sport
Centre Calgary, who handled all my administration.
She did her best to make things run smoothly for
me so that I could put all my focus into gymnastics.
Between Marge and Tony I now had a pair of “Canadian
parents”. Without them it would have been
a lot harder to fully utilize the scholarship.
After the fatigue and muscle aches
of the first few weeks were gone I was pretty
much settled. I had moved into the basement of
the place where Grant was staying and training
was going great. I was learning some new skills
and trying to clean up those that I already had.
My first training camp was in
March. At this camp I got to meet the rest of
the Canadian national team. I would end up training
side by side with these guys as they also prepare
for World Championships, and attempt to finish
in the first 12 spots as a team, thereby qualifying
for the 2004 Olympic Games.
Leading up to the World Championships
Time was short and I had to improve
a lot to stand a chance at qualifying for the
2004 Olympic Games. In our first test meet I scored
a 46.00 all-around. By the time I would compete
at World Championships I had to get at least 51
or 52 all-around.
I kept in contact with my friends
and family through E-mails and a phone call every
now and then. They were really supportive and
even though I knew many people in Canada, it’s
still good to have someone to talk to that has
been there most of your life.
So the training carried on, and
I was steadily growing towards the 51. My mother
managed to visit me for a week after about 5 months.
We had a good time doing some sight-seeing. Something
I had little time for in between my trainings.
And so the time to World Championships
grew shorter and I often found myself thinking
about what would happen after the competition.
If I make it, I get to stay and train in Canada
and prepare for the Olympic Games. If I failed
I would probably have to go back home. Although
seeing my friends and family sounds great, I just
couldn’t see myself training in my old gym
with my old coach anymore. Training here is better
than I ever imagined. It would be hard going back
and maintaining motivation to train.
So
the last training camp before World Championships
finally came. It was the final selection for the
Canadian team and we would leave right after it
for World Championships, so the camp was pretty
intense. The camp consisted of 6 test meets. I
was happy that by the end of the 6th meet I had
never had a score less 50.00 and had achieved
my highest score yet: 50.85. At the end of the
camp I’m sure the Canadians were just as
happy as me that the time had finally come to
go to World Championships.
World
Championships
We
arrived in Anaheim Sunday, August 10th, one week
before my competition. This gave me enough time
to get used to the equipment.
This was my first ever World Championships.
It was really a great feeling to be around the
best in the world. The way everything was set
up was very good too, which made for a very enjoyable
experience.
On the day of podium training
I made a couple of errors I don’t normally
make. This started to worry me when I kept making
these mistakes in the next day’s training.
This was also the day the Canadians had to compete.
I was watching the competition and was really
excited for them. They had a good competition
and ended up third after their subdivision. The
next day I had to show what I could do.
Competition
day had finally come, exactly 7 months after I
had arrived in Calgary. This was the day I spent
all those hours training for. I was more nervous
for this competition than I had ever been before.
I was trying to calm myself down, and so was Tony.
I went up and hit all six routines without making
the mistakes I had made the previous day. I was
so happy when it was finally over. My all-around
score was 50.100, less than one point away from
qualifying for the Olympics.
The
Canadian team ended up 9th which exceeded their
expectations and allowed them to send a full team
to the Olympic Games. My only chance for the 2004
Olympics now lies in Wild cards distributed by
the FIG and the IOC. Maybe I can join my new Canadian
friends at the Olympic Games in 2004.
Note
from Tony Smith, National Training Centre Coach
To
whom it may concern at the International Olympic
Committee,
I simply wanted to thank you
for the opportunity to work with Jaco Mostert.
He is a fine upstanding young man with an excellent
set of values and morals. He has become a great
role model for the boys in our gym and is always
there to help with the younger athletes. The opportunity
the IOC has given Jaco to pursue his gymnastics
dreams have been a great gift, both he and I are
very grateful. His time here, however brief, has
been very rewarding for both of us.
Sincerely,
Tony Smith
Head Men’s Coach
University of Calgary
IOC Solidarity Scholarship Supplementary
Report
World Gymnastics Championships
and Preparation for Jaco Mostert of Namibia
Jaco Mostert arrived in late January
to train with us at the Calgary Training Center
for Men’s Gymnastics in Canada.
Jaco trained twice a day 5 days
per week and once on Sundays.
He participated in all the Canadian
Team camps to prepare for World Championships.
He did 12 test competitions in
5 weeks leading up to Worlds.
He became very stable in his performances.
We did not have enough time to
learn the bonus elements and stabilize routines,
so we cleaned up his bodyline and execution to
maximize his scores.
The goal for Jaco was to attempt
to qualify for the 2004 Olympic Games.
There is only one qualification
event for Artistic Gymnastics, the 2003 World
Championships in Anaheim, Ca. USA, August 16 to
24.
The qualification process is very
difficult for an athlete without a Team.
The
top 12 teams of 6 athletes qualify for the Olympics.
The Teams placing 13 to 18 qualify 2 gymnasts
each
The next 10 All Around positions excluding the
first 18 Teams qualify
The 10th. Gymnast scored 53.511
3 “wild cards” are handed out by FIG.
IOC hands one “wild card” out.
There
were 52 full Teams and 323 athletes competing
at these World Championships
Jaco performed all his routines
without error and placed 125th. All Around and
scored 50.10 pts.
This was his highest ever A.A.
score, and more than 5.00 pts. Better than his
last major International result (44.65 pts. at
the 2002 Commonwealth Games).
Jaco was the highest ranked African
gymnast south of Algeria.
Egypt, Algeria, and South Africa
all had the benefit of a full Team.
The top African athlete was from Tunisia, he scored
51.749 and placed 84th.
In
just 7 months Jaco had not only improved his final
score, but also his degree of difficulty on all
events.
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