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Flag bearer Caitlin Rooskrantz breaking new ground for SA gymnastics
Rooskrantz has played a key role in elevating the status of South African gymnastics.
Caitlin Rooskrantz in action during last year’s Artistic Gymnastics World Championships in Antwerp. Picture: Matthias Hangst/Getty Images
Gymnastics has done well to raise its status in the South African sporting landscape in recent years, and though she hasn’t done it alone, one individual has emerged as the face of the sport.
And if you hadn’t heard her name before this week, you might well know it by now, after Caitlin Rooskrantz was announced as one of the nation’s two flag bearers (along with sprinter Akani Simbine) for the opening ceremony of the Olympic Games in Paris later this month.
Rooskrantz, 22, has broken new ground over the last few years, playing a key role in elevating the profile of local gymnastics.
Coached by Ilse Roets-Pelser at the Johannesburg Gymnastics Centre, Rooskrantz made her Olympic debut in Tokyo three years ago (at the age of 19) where she and Naveen Daries became the first women of colour to represent SA in gymnastics at the quadrennial Games.
While she didn’t make a final in any discipline at the Games, she has since emerged as a world-class artistic gymnast by climbing the global ranks.
Groundbreaking achievements
In Birmingham in 2022, she earned South Africa’s first gymnastics medal in 12 years at the Commonwealth Games by securing bronze in the uneven bars.
The same year she also won all-round gold at the African Championships in Cairo, and last season she won team gold (along with Daries, Caleigh Anders, Shante Koti and Garcelle Napier) at the continental championships in Pretoria. It was the first time since 2006 that the national squad won the team competition.
Despite her individual achievements, Rooskrantz credited the rise of the sport to a group effort across the country.
“When I first started out (at international level) we were not really anywhere, to be honest, but since then my teammates and I have really climbed the world rankings,” Rooskrantz this week.
“If you compare the different circumstances and situations, we’re up against people like Simone Biles and the American team who have probably quadruple the amount of resources and support that we do.
“With us, gymnastics is a very small sporting code in the country… so our biggest goal has just been to better our ranking every year and try to climb the world rankings, and that’s exactly what we’ve done.”
Bright future
By breaking new ground, Rooskrantz hoped she had helped pave the way for future gymnasts to achieve even more than she and others in her generation had done.
“I think picking up a medal at the Commonwealth Games (in 2022) was really a testament to all the hard work that not only myself, but also Gymnastics South Africa, has done in rallying behind the sport,” she said.
“I believe I’ve broken a couple of glass ceilings, and the future is so bright for South African gymnastics, so I really hope they will continue to take it further.”
Rooskrantz is not yet done, however, and the University of Johannesburg marketing student will be the lone SA representative in gymnastics at the Paris Olympics, where she hopes to improve on her 61st position overall at the Tokyo Games.
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She was also as delighted as she was surprised when it was announced she would be given the opportunity to lead the national team at the opening ceremony, alongside Simbine.
“It’s something I would never have dreamed about (being the country’s flag bearer) and it really caught me off guard,” Rooskrantz said.
“I didn’t see it coming, but I’m super excited to represent Gymnastics South Africa, as well as South Africa as a whole, and lead us into these Olympic Games.”
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