On her way to the gold medal, Dick won the beam with a 15.50, finished second on the bars with a 15.50, second on the floor with a 14.95 and was third on the vault with a 14.05.
In a season where Sherwood Park’s Diana Dick had already established herself as a gymnast to keep an eye on, she apparently saved her best for last.
The nine-year-old, second-year competitive gymnast at Edmonton’s Capital City Gymnastics Club gave a pretty good indicator how the rest of the season was about to go at the local season-opening Capital City Gymnastics event where she recorded the top all-around score in all categories for women for the whole competition, finishing first in all of her events: the vault, uneven bars, beam and floor, as well as, naturally, the all-around medal.
She would go on to a similar performance at a competition at the Exelta Cup in Red Deer and also finished as the top competitor from Alberta in the Pre-Novice Elite category at the National Stream Cup in Mississauga, Ont., finishing fourth in the floor and uneven bars and eighth all-around against the best gymnasts in her age range in the nation.
Dick got a taste of international experience as well in a trip to compete in the Pink Invitational breast cancer fundraising tournament in Philadelphia. Despite competing under different American guidelines and against girls as old as 11, Dick finished first in the uneven bars and second in both the vault and balance beam to once again capture a gold medal in the all-around.
The Sherwood standout added yet another first all-around at the trials to Westerns in late March.
She wasn’t finished yet.
At the recent Western Canadian Championships in Langley, B.C., the highest national-level event her age allows, Dick once again shocked the Pre-Novice Elite field.
She won yet another all-around title, coming in with a best-ever combined score of 60.0.
“We honestly did not expect this,” said Dick’s coach, Krystal MacPherson.
“I thought that she would do well, but she really became the competitor that I knew she could be at that competition.
“She just didn’t make any mistakes. She really rose to the occasion. What a way to finish off what had already been an incredible year.”
MacPherson believes there could be some very good things in store for the future of her Sherwood student.
“She is an amazing kid,” she said.
“I have coached a lot of kids over the years and she is the most talented one I have ever coached in my life. She is super talented. I have been coaching her ever since she came from a little program call Super Girls when she was four years old. Ever since then you could tell she had this spark about her and such a natural ability for the sport. It is insane how talented she is at such a young age.”
Unfortunately MacPherson won’t personally be along for the ride in the future as her fiance has been relocated to California for work and she is, of course, going along.
“It was a perfect way for me to finish with her,” the coach said. “Next year the hope is that she will go national Novice and she might even go for high-performance Novice, the highest level she can go. I expect her to do extremely well in the years to come. She is a real talent. I really wish her the best of luck.”
Press
There has been a lot written about our athletes over the years. This area will continue to grow as we will be adding both current and historical press coverage.
