Name: Amelie Douglas

Sport: Gymnastics

What level have you reached in your sport? Compulsory Level one. British Champion at age groups U11-2016. Great Britain National Squad U12-2017.

What is your ambition in sport? To go as far as I possibly can.

What would a typical day involve (training, school, homework, outside interests) and where do you train? : When I get homework at school, (usually I don’t have any time to go home and do it there) I go to the library and my homework is done. Other than gymnastics, I also do piano lessons in school and I really enjoy those. I do twenty-three hours of training a week and I manage to get lots of other things done. A normal training day would be starting at five PM and doing a warm-up until 6:15, where we go to do our first piece (apparatus). We spend forty-five minutes on each piece and if we have upcoming competitions we do our routines if we don’t we work on new moves.

Do you have a role model or someone who inspires you? My role model is Claudia Fragapane.

Why do you participate in your sport? Or why have you chosen your sport over others? Obviously, I enjoy gymnastics. I chose gymnastics over other sports, as when I was younger, I wasn’t very good at keeping still and loved jumping up and down and eventually I took up toddler groups at a gym. Over the years I grew very good at it and decided to stick with this sport, as it is the sport for me.

What advice would you give to someone who would like to take up your sport? My advice would be if you’re going to take up sport, of course, it’s going to get hard and when that happens, don’t decide that you want to give up and start another sport because that will just be you not succeeding in anything. So when the going gets tough, just stick with it!

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Name: Charlotte Barr

Sport: Modern Pentathlon (which at my age is running, swimming, fencing and shooting)

What level have you reached in your sport? Last year I was part of the GB team that went to the World Biathle Championships.

What is your ambition in sport? To qualify for GB team again this year (which will be hard as I am at the bottom of the age group), and one day to be an Olympic athlete.

What would a typical day involve (training, school, homework, outside interests) and where do you train? I train every day for somewhere between 1 ½ hours and 5 hours depending on the day. This doesn’t include any sport that I do at school.

Some mornings I get up at 5:30 and swim, I then try to do 10 minutes of shooting after breakfast. After which I take the bus to school. I usually go to clubs straight after school either at the university, Bradford-upon-Avon or Monkton. I try to fit my homework in around my clubs.

Do you have a role model or someone who inspires you? I think Tom Daly is great (I used to be a diver before I discovered Pentathlon). He got his first Olympic medal when he was 14, managed to get a medal at the London Olympics whilst doing his A-levels and getting great grades, and he really loves his sport.

I am also inspired by my really close friend Sarah Wilson, who tries very hard every time and never gives up.

Why do you participate in your sport? Or why have you chosen your sport over others? Because I really enjoy it and love spending time with all my friends. I also love the variety – the four sports that I do are very different.

What advice would you give to someone who would like to take up your sport? Join good clubs, because if you are doing it with your friends and nice coaches, it’s fun and doesn’t seem like hard work. Try hard, don’t give up and enjoy it.

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